Tool 3 of 4 · Yarn Amount

How much yarn, really.

Substitute a different yarn and know how many skeins to buy, or weigh what is left and know whether it will finish the piece.

Substitute a yarn Enough to finish?

Example

Buy 7 skeins

1,100yards the pattern uses (1,006 m)

1,210yards with 10% extra (1,106 m)

7skeins of 180 yd

50yards spare beyond that

Weight: 700 g of yarn in all.

Buy every skein from one dye lot: lots can differ in color.Swatch: a different yarn can change your gauge.

How it is worked out

Lengths are worked in yards (1 yard = 0.9144 meters exactly). The pattern’s total length plus your extra is divided by the length of one of your skeins and rounded up: you cannot buy part of a skein.

For “enough to finish”, the label gives yards per gram, so the grams on your scale become yards, and the yarn one row uses tells you how many rows that will make.

Swapping yarn

Pick a yarn of the same weight category (see sizes) and swatch it: two yarns with the same yards per skein can still knit up at different gauges. Fiber matters too; a wool and a cotton of the same weight drape and stretch differently.