Are you sure you have enough yarn for your new project? As an avid crocheter, you might have leftover yarns in your huge stash of old yarns.
Before buying a new yarn, first measure how many yards in a skein of yarn you still have. Of course, you would love to use them but oftentimes you’re afraid they will not be enough so you resort to buying new ones!
As a result, the leftover yarns pile up on your stash and the cycle continues. Yikes! To help you figure out if your yarn from your stash will be enough for your new project, we wrote an article on how to determine how many yards in a skein of yarn.
A Skein of Yarn
To further understand how to gauge if you have enough yarn, let’s start with the basics. What is a skein of yarn, anyway?
When choosing yarn, you’ll usually see it in different forms: a ball, a hank, and a skein. A ball of yarn is circular in shape, while a hank is a large ring of yarn twisted on itself for easy packaging.
We’ll be focusing on the skein, which is somewhat similar to a ball but in oblong shape. Traditionally, an unused skein is 560 yards long although it may vary depending on the weight and thickness of the yarn.
But you can always confirm how long a yarn is by checking the label that contains the length of the yarn, what it’s made of, and the hook size to use.
How Many Yards in a Skein of Yarn?
Now that we know what a skein is, we arrive at the main question in this article. How do you know how many yards are in a skein of yarn after using some of it?
Wrap Method
If you have enough time and patience to unwind your yarn, you can try the Wrap Method. As simple as it sounds, you just have to wrap your yarn around your chair’s leg or you can use any hard object – cardboard for example.
First, you have to measure the circumference around the chair’s leg or the hard object you’ll use in inches. After you have measured it, wrap the yarn around the chair’s leg or the object. Make sure you’ll count the number of wraps you’re doing.
Now for the Math part, multiply the circumference of the object or the chair to the number of wraps you did. Divide the product by 36 – since there 36 inches in one yard – and you’ll get the length of your yarn in yards.
We must note though that this method can be inaccurate since there can be a change in tension when you wrap the yarn, especially in stretchy yarns. It can also take too much time and effort to unwind and wrap your yarn.
Using Kitchen Scale
Since the previous method can be a little tedious and inaccurate too, you can also try using a kitchen scale. In this method, you don’t have to go through the unwinding and wrapping process.
You just need to have a kitchen scale and the label of your used yarn. Easy!
To start the process, you need to get the weight of your used yarn. If needed, use a bowl or a box and put the yarn inside. After putting the bowl or the box on the scale, zero the kitchen scale so it will only get the weight of your yarn.
Check your scale’s manual to know how to zero the kitchen scale.
Next, you need to get the label of the yarn and get the original weight and length of the skein. However, if you lost the label, you can always go online and look for the same yarn. You’ll surely find the information you need.
Now that you have everything you need, it’s time to calculate for the length of your unused yarn!
Fill in the values based on this equation and you’ll get the length of your yarn: (Original yard measurement * new weight of the yarn) / skeins original weight.
For example, we have a yarn that weighs 7 oz and 364 yards long. After using it in a project, we now have an unused yarn weighing 3 oz. By following the equation, we will have: (364 yds x 3 oz) / 7 oz = 156 yds.
Although this method still uses some math computation, it’s a lot easier to just get the weight and the yardage compared to wrapping the yarn to some hard object. It’s also more accurate since you’re using the weight and not just the number of wraps you did.
Now that You Know How To Measure How Many Yards are in a Skein of Yarn it’s Time to Start Work on a New Project!
Since you now know how many yards in a skein of yarn you still have, are you ready to take on another crochet project? Get the length of the other yarns you want to use!
Keep them in mind while you’re looking for a new pattern to make. This way, you’ll know which ones you’ll be able to finish without buying new yarn.
Need help looking for a pattern? We have a few ones that don’t need as much yarn. If you have a little girl, you can try making some crochet scrunchies.
If you want something for your kitchen or your bathroom, we have a few crochet scrubbies patterns you can make too. There are lots of other patterns you can check here.
When you’re done with your projects, share it with us by posting your finished works on our Facebook Page. There’s a whole community ready to cheer you on!
We hope you learned how to measure how many yards in a skein of yarn! After this, you’ll surely be able to know which patterns you can make using your stash of unused yarns.
