How much yarn do you need?

Running out of yarn three rows before the end, and the dye lot is gone: every knitter's nightmare. Here's how to work out how much to buy, with or without a pattern.

From the pattern

Most patterns list the amount per size, as skeins of a specific yarn and, ideally, in meters or yards. Go by the length, not the skeins: multiply skeins by meters per skein, then divide by the meters per skein of your yarn and round up.

Example: 6 skeins of 150 m = 900 m. Your yarn has 120 m per skein: 900 ÷ 120 = 7.5, so buy 8, or 9 to be safe.

When you change something

• A longer body or sleeves: add roughly in proportion. Ten centimeters more on a 60 cm body is about 15 % more yarn for that piece.
• A different gauge uses more or less yarn for the same area; a thicker yarn usually needs more grams but fewer meters.
• Cables and textured stitches eat yarn: cables can need 20–30 % more than plain stockinette in the same yarn.

Without a pattern: weigh a swatch

This works for anything you design yourself, as long as you know roughly how big it will be.

1. Knit a swatch in your yarn and stitch, wash it and let it dry, then weigh it. Say a 15 × 15 cm swatch (225 cm²) weighs 6 g.
2. Work out the area of the piece in rectangles. A simple sweater: front and back 50 × 60 cm each (6000 cm²), two sleeves of about 35 × 45 cm (3150 cm²), together about 9150 cm².
3. Scale up: 9150 ÷ 225 × 6 g ≈ 244 g.
4. Add 10–15 % for seams, swatches and peace of mind: about 275 g, so six 50 g skeins.

Buy enough, from one dye lot

Skeins from different dye lots can differ visibly, even in the same color. Buy everything at once, from the same lot, and one skein more than you need. Many shops take back unopened skeins.

Let YarnSpace count it

The yarn calculator in YarnSpace works out how many skeins you need from the pattern's amount, converts between yarns with different lengths, and tells you whether the yarn in your stash is enough.

Enough yarn, worked out for you

YarnSpace is the knitting and crochet app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.

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