Yardage chart by project and yarn weight
The quick estimate uses Lion Brand's published yardage chart for average-size projects. The chart gives no sizes, so a larger sweater or a longer scarf needs more. Knitting and crochet use different amounts of yarn too, so read these as a starting point.
| Project | 1 Super fine | 2 Fine | 3 Light | 4 Medium | 5 Bulky | 6 Super bulky | 7 Jumbo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hat | 250–325 yd | 250–325 yd | 200–250 yd | 200–225 yd | 125–200 yd | 125–150 yd | 30–60 yd |
| Scarf | 350–500 yd | 300–450 yd | 275–400 yd | 275–375 yd | 250–350 yd | 200–250 yd | 175–200 yd |
| Socks | 525–825 yd | 450–625 yd | 375–500 yd | 375–500 yd | 250–375 yd | 250–375 yd | 125–200 yd |
| Shawl | 550–850 yd | 450–700 yd | 400–625 yd | 375–550 yd | 350–500 yd | 350–475 yd | 300–400 yd |
| Adult sweater | 3375 yd | 1750–2625 yd | 1500–2250 yd | 1125–1625 yd | 950–1125 yd | 825–1125 yd | 825–1125 yd |
| Baby blanket | 1500–1625 yd | 1250–1500 yd | 1125–1250 yd | 1000–1125 yd | 875–1000 yd | 750–875 yd | 625–750 yd |
| Afghan | 3750–4125 yd | 3500–3750 yd | 3000–3500 yd | 2250–3125 yd | 2000–2250 yd | 1625–2000 yd | 1375–1625 yd |
The weight numbers are the Craft Yarn Council categories printed on many yarn labels. Medium (4) covers worsted and aran; light (3) covers DK. The needle and hook size chart lists every category with its usual needle and hook sizes.
Estimate from your own swatch
For one yarn, one stitch pattern and one gauge, the yarn used grows with the area of fabric. A swatch tells you how much a small piece takes, and the project size scales it up.
- Work a swatch of at least 6 by 6 inches (15 by 15 cm) in the stitch pattern and needle or hook you will use.
- Block it the way you will block the project, then measure its width and length.
- Weigh it on a kitchen scale in grams.
- Read the grams and the length of one skein from the yarn label.
- Enter the finished size of the project in the same unit as the swatch.
For example, a 6 × 6 in swatch weighs 9 g and the blanket will be 30 × 40 in. The blanket is 1,200 ÷ 36, about 33.3 times the swatch, so it needs about 300 g. With a label of 100 g and 200 yards, 300 g is 600 yards, or 3 skeins.
A scale that shows whole grams can be off by half a gram, and that error is multiplied by the same 33.3. A larger swatch keeps the error small.
For a shape that is not a rectangle, add up its pieces. A hat is about its circumference times its height; the crown decreases make it a little smaller. A sweater is the front, back and two sleeves, each measured from the pattern's schematic.
Grams to yards
A yarn label gives the weight and the length of one skein, and that ratio converts any amount of the same yarn. Yards = grams × label yards ÷ label grams. With a label of 100 g and 200 yards, 35 g of leftovers is 70 yards. The calculator turns your swatch weight into length this way.
From yards to skeins
Divide the total by the length of one skein and round up to a whole skein. For 1,000 yards of a yarn with 103 yards per ball, 1,000 ÷ 103 is 9.7, so buy 10 balls.
The calculator shows yards and meters together. One yard is 0.9144 meters, so a 200-yard skein is about 183 meters.
Keep count of the rows
Once the yarn is on hand, the online row counter keeps your row count in the browser. To size a project from your gauge first, use the gauge calculator.