Could a yarn-knowledgeable person come and help me please?

[TooTicky]

I am confused about weights/thicknesses.
I'm okay with DK and chunky and super chunky but get flummoxed by worsted and sportweight and things and I just wondered if there was a nice helpful website that had a picture of them all laid out and nicely labelled, because I can't work out how they relate to each other.
[hopeful]

Sport = 4-ply
Light worsted = dk
Worsted = Aran

According to a table I have

Oh thank you Tatties, I do love you

Does this help?
I have seen a lovely table with pictures of wool, needle size suggestions, yardage, gauge and everything but I cannot remember where!

Ooh thank you, that does look good

yarndex has a table on it somewhere but, if you put the yarn in, it will come up with other suitable yarns iyswim.

In the back pages of the Simply Knitting magazine there is an illustrated guide to yarn weights showing photos of 1,2&3 ply/ 4 ply/ DK/ Aran/ Chunky/ Super Chunky/ Big. It's only small but might be of use.

It also has a litte table of UK to US conversion;
4 ply = Sport
DK = Light Worsted
Aran = Fisherman/Worsted
Chunky = Bulky
Super Chunky = Extra Bulky

These seem to be in every months issue, along with abbreviations guide to basic stitches etc.

Thank you both

Basically you are coming up against the distinction between US and UK yarns. The US "worsted" is hard to match being about 20st/10cm, it falls between a standard british DK and Aran. If in doubt do check your ball band and pattern for stitch count/needle size.

Oh, I see - I thought it seemed overly complicated.

Agree with blithedance, I always go off the size of needles rather than the type of yarn. eg some aran takes 4.5mm some takes 5mm, if you match the right size needles as stated on the ball band you will be ok.

But american needles are differently sized so you'll be needing a conversion table argh!