1. Yards per skein, not skeins
The price on a yarn page is for one skein, and skeins are not the same size: a 100 g skein holds 90 yards of bulky or 450 of fingering, and 50 g balls hold half of either. Compare yarns on the cost of the project — the pattern's total yardage ÷ the skein's yards, rounded up, × the price — never on the price of a skein. Every yarn page here lists the yardage and skein weight in the spec card, and the calculator under it does the division with your pattern's number.
2. Dye lots
Two skeins of the same colorway from different dye lots can differ by a shade that shows as a line across a sweater. Ask how a shop handles it before you buy more than one skein. Here, every skein of a colorway in an order is pulled from one lot, and if stock cannot cover the order from one lot we write before shipping; the dye lot guide explains the rest, including what to do if you have to mix.
3. The photos
A mill's stock image is a color card shot under studio lights by someone selling the yarn. We photograph every colorway ourselves, under the same lighting, and do not push the color around afterwards, which gets you close; screens and dye lots mean it is never exact, and the colors and photos section of the shipping page says what to expect. To see two colors together before buying either, the Color Board puts colorways from any lines side by side on a light, grey or dark ground.
4. Fiber, weight and care
The spec card on each yarn page carries the fiber content, the weight class, the gauge and needle size the mill suggests, and the care instructions. Read the care line against the life the piece will lead — a hand-wash yarn for a baby cardigan is the most common mismatch — and the gauge against the pattern. The how to choose yarn guide is the order to check these in.
5. Stock against your project
A yarn page shows how many skeins of a colorway are on the shelf. If a sweater needs seven and there are six, do not buy six and hope; the seventh will come from a different lot or not at all. Buy the whole project at once, add a skein, and return the spare unused if you do not need it.
6. Returns and shipping
Know the return terms before you order: here, unused yarn in its original condition comes back within 30 days of delivery for a refund, and the shipping & returns page has the rates, the delivery times and the small print. Orders over $95 ship free within the US. We ship from Idaho, usually the same business day.
What a higher price should buy
Being cheap is no strike against a yarn; several of the best on our shelves cost very little. When a yarn costs more, the difference should be something you can see or feel: a rarer fiber (cashmere, baby alpaca, silk), a mill that spins it better, a dye house that gets the color right and keeps lots consistent. A yarn that is expensive only because of the label on the band is not one we stock, and how we choose what we stock is the longer version of that promise. The payoff of a well-made yarn is not in the knitting but in the fifth year of wearing the sweater.
What we cannot tell you from a page
How the yarn feels in your hands. If a line is new to you and the project is large, buy one skein first, knit and wash a swatch, and order the rest against the same lot once you know you like it; we hold the lot when you ask. It costs a week and saves a sweater.