Yarn Basics: No Label, No Problem! How to Determine Weight, Fiber Content, and Yardage of Unlabeled Yarn

Sometimes you will run across yarn in various formats (skeins, hanks, or loose) that will have no identifying information about them. This happens fairly often if you purchase yarn from a garage or estate sale, a thrift store, or are given someone's old stash. Even though these treasures are unmarked, there are ways to gather information that can help you determine what kinds of projects would be appropriate.

First we want to determine the fiber content of the yarn. While you may not know the specific content amounts is the yarn is a blend, you can determine the class of fiber in most cases. To begin with, give the yarn a good feel. Run your hands over the yarn and take in all the qualities of it. After some practice, you will become adept at knowing the feel of different base fibers. Cotton is easiest to detect using feel, as it has a smooth and cool feel. Acrylic and wool can be trickier, since higher quality acrylics are soft and fluffy, which cause them to take on a similar feel to wool blends.

There is a way to tell, however, whether a yarn is acrylic or wool. 

NOTE: PLEASE KEEP OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN. Take a glass jar with a lid on it and write BLEACH / POISON on the side. Put a small amount of bleach in the jar and place a small cutting of the yarn in the bleach. Put it way up high, far from the reach of children, pets, or anyone else. When you check the jar in approximately 12-24 hours, if the yarn has degraded or disappeared, it is wool or wool blend yarn. Wool disintegrates in bleach. If it looks the same after 24 hours, it is acrylic. 

Now we have some idea of what our yarn consists of. Next thing that we need to know is the weight (fingering or bulky?) and how many yards of yarn we have! The table below lists the different weights of yarn, the number of yards per pound, and the number of wraps per inch. Wraps per inch refers to a method of determining weight using a ruler.

WEIGHT	YARDS PER POUND	WRAPS PER INCH
Zephyr	Over 6000 YPP	Over 45+ WPI
Cobweb	Approx. 6000 YPP	Approx. 40+ WPI
Lace	3000-6000 YPP	36-40 WPI
Baby	2400-3000 YPP	30-36 WPI
Fingering	1800-2400 YPP	24-30 WPI
Sport	1300-1800 YPP	18-24 WPI
DK	1000-1400 YPP	12-18 WPI
Worsted	900-1100 YPP	10-12 WPI
Aran	700-1000 YPP	6-10 WPI
Bulky	400-700 YPP	Approx. 8 WPI
Super Bulky (Chunky)	400 or less YPP	Less than 8 WPI

So now we have all the numbers we need to figure out the weight and yardage of our yarn. The first thing to do is determine how many wraps per inch our mystery yarn is. Take a ruler and mark off 2 inches on the ruler. Take the yarn and wrap it (not too loosely or too tightly) around the ruler, making sure that the yarn does not overlap or leave gaping spaces, but is placed one loop snugly against another. Continue to wrap the yarn in this manner for 2 inches, count the number of wraps created, and divide by 2. Voila! That is the number of wraps per inch of the yarn you have. Once you know the wraps per inch, you can get a good idea of the weight of the yarn by referencing the chart above.

For example: You take your mystery yarn and do the wraps as per instructions above. Over 2 inches, you have 22 wraps. So you take 22 and divide it by 2 to get 11 wraps per inch. So per the chart above, this mystery yarn is worsted weight.

Next we want to determine the yardage of the mystery yarn that we have. The easiest and most accurate way to do this is to weigh an amount of yarn (I use 10 yards) and use the weight to determine the yards per pound. You want to measure this accurately so use a kitchen or postage scale if possible, or even a grocery store produce scale. You can use a bathroom scale, but it is likely to be inaccurate because it is not sensitive enough.

So take ten yards of yarn and weigh that. Then divide that weight by 10 to get the weight per yard. Then weigh the ball or hank of yarn and divide by the weight per yard. That will give you the approximate yardage. As you can see above, worsted weight yarn is generally between 900 and 1100 yards per pound.

While these steps may not get you the exact information that would be on a label, it can nevertheless be very useful in determining the type and size of project appropriate for those mystery yarn balls!

Yarn Basics: Labels and How to Read Them

This is an example of a yarn label. A yarn label contains a lot of essential information about that particular yarn. In this example, you can see the name of the company that produces the yarn, the name of the yarn, and the weight of the yarn in the top section of the label.

This yarn is a worsted weight yarn called Cascade 220 Superwash. It is produced by Happy Knits, Inc. Their website is also listed.

Next you see the fiber content. This particular yarn is 100% superwash wool. Below the fiber, you see the quantity of wool in grams (100 g) and ounces (3.5 oz) as well as the length in both meters (200 m) and yards (220 yds).

Beneath the yarn fiber/length information, you find the gauge. In this example, gauge for both US size 7 and US size 6 knitting needles is given. Please see my article on gauge and how it works here!

Next is information on where the yarn is produced and who distributes it. Below this information you find the care instructions, which are extremely important. For example, if you wash a handwash wool in a washing machine, you may find a piece of felt waiting for you instead of your original creation. So please, check the washing instructions carefully!

Next you see the color and lot numbers. These are also essential to understand, especially when making something that uses more than one skein of yarn. If you are making something which uses multiple skeins, such as a sweater, it is important to make sure that you are using the same color and dye lot, or else there can be slight discrepancies in the color. So make sure to purchase enough yarn in the same lot to complete your project!

This is an overview of a yarn label and how to understand what is on it. Understanding your yarn will make each project more enjoyable!

Knitting Basics: To Gauge Or Not To Gauge

Gauge is a word that you will see in most knitting projects to describe the desired tension or stitches per inch. This is crucial in certain patterns that require exact sizing, such as clothing, but less important in patterns that are more flexible in sizing, such as scarves, blankets, dishcloths, etc. Each knitter has a different tension when knitting. This means that if you have several people working with the same needle and yarn, you will have several different sizes of finished project due to tension. Some knit more tightly, and some knit more loosely. This is why it is crucial to check your gauge on projects that are meant to fit a particular person or object. If your knitting is tighter than the pattern writer's knitting, your garment may be too small, or vise versa.

So how do you measure gauge? Patterns that are gauge-dependent will provide a “gauge” for you to follow. Here is an example: 24 stitches and 39 rows = 4 inches in stockinette stitch using #3 needles. Let's take a closer look at what this means. This gauge example says that if you cast on 24 stitches and knit for 39 rows using size 3 needles in stockinette stitch (Knit Row 1, Purl Row 2, repeat), you should get a 4 inch swatch. A swatch is the small piece of fabric, in this instance 4 inches, that you knit to determine if you have the correct tension. If your swatch is larger than 4 inches, your gauge/tension is looser than the designer's, and you need to use a smaller needle to obtain the correct gauge. If your swatch is smaller than 4 inches, your gauge/tension is tighter than the designer's, and you need to use a larger needle to obtain the correct gauge.

So before you start a project that is designed to fit, take the time to check your gauge with a swatch. It is worth the extra time to ensure the garment will fit properly!