Birthday Bells

September 17th 1847 was a significant date for knitters – but I doubt that many are aware of it. On that day, G Chambers and company patented their ‘Bell Knitting Gauge’ – this design was subsequently copied by other manufacturers – and I have two vintage bell gauges – a Chambers, and a Walkers

Knitting needle gauges were based on the gauges used in wire drawing – the technique that was used to form metal wires of varying thinness. Wire drawing was also used to mass-produce steel knitting needles (also called “knitting pins”) Professionals in the wire trade needed to accurately measure the diameter of wires and developed a tool called a “wire gauge.” These are circles with little cut-outs around the outer edges made to measure the size of different wires. To this day the “British Standard Wire Gauge” and the “American Standard Wire Gauge” are used by trade professionals to determine whether a wire is a “19-gauge,” 18-gauge,” etc.

Wire gauges were the models for the first knitting needle gauges. The makers of knitting needle gauges copied the size and shape of the cut-outs used to measure the needles. As with many aspects of the 19th century, needle gauges were not always uniform in their sizing, so the same needle might measure two different sizes on two different gauges. Sometimes the knitting pattern specifies “Use No. 16 needle as measured on Walker’s Bell Gauge.” If you look carefully at mine, you will see that that the Chambers goes from 1-28, but the Walkers from 1-24 – and they do seem to measure the same.

My newer gauge came from my Mother in law’s knitting bag. It is a plastic ‘Aero’ model [I have quite a few pairs of Aero needles] And there you will spot holes between 12 and 13, and 9 and 10 which are not labelled. Turning the gauge over, you’ll discover the back is labelled “Metric Sizes” and those holes represent 2½ and 3½mm respectively.

This one is particularly useful for finding equivalents when I have to find a ‘metric’ size pair of needles but only seem to have ‘english’ sizes in the knitting bag. Many of the newer needles had the size painted on, and it has worn off – the older ones have numbers embossed into the end caps.

These little gadgets are so simple, and so useful – I have them on a thin ribbon strung onto the zip-pull of my bag of knitting needles [like mobile phone ‘charms’] and when I pick up my bag, they really do jingle like little bells! Does anyone else out there use a Bell Gauge?