Knitting needle

Provided is a knitting needle having a structure suitable for high speed operation at a coupling portion. A compound needle (11) has a scoop (16d) on the distal end side and a scoop (16e) on the tail end side, respectively, at the root of a protrusion (16b) protruding from the distal end side of a needle jack (16). A gap is formed between the end (2d) on the distal end side and the end (2e) on the tail end side of a recess (2b) in a needle body (2). The scoop (16e) on the tail end side is larger than the scoop (16d) on the distal end side. The scoop (16e) on the tail end side is formed on theside closer to the tail end side than the center line (2c) of the recess (2b) even if the scoop (16e) becomes large. Such a large scoop (16e) on the tail end side relaxes stress concentration and canmake the protrusion (16b) not to break easily even if an impact load is applied through driving of the needle jack (16).