Yarn held together calculator
Pick the strands you want to hold together, two fingering, a worsted with a lace, a mohair with a DK, and see what weight the pair knits like, the needle to start on, and the yarn we have in stock for each strand.
How the sum works
A stitch is as wide as the yarn is thick, and thickness grows with the square root of how much fiber is in the strand. So two strands of one yarn do not halve the gauge: they knit at about 0.7 of it, roughly two steps up the weight scale. Two fingering strands at 28 stitches per 4" come out near 20, a light worsted. The table in the holding yarns together guide is the same sum, written out pair by pair.
Why mohair is its own choice
A kid mohair and silk lace is held for its halo. It adds warmth and haze and very little thickness, so a DK with a mohair strand knits like a worsted, not like an aran. A plain lace strand adds more. The mohair guide covers which halo yarn does what.
How much to buy
Each strand runs the whole length of the project, so a 1,200 yard sweater held double takes 1,200 yards of each yarn. Type the pattern's yardage and the skein counts beside the calculator are worked out for each yarn from the yards in its own skein. A yarn held with itself takes twice the count shown.
Swatch the pair
The answer is a starting needle, not a gauge. Knit a swatch with both strands, wash it, and measure it with the gauge calculator before casting on.
The guides behind the numbers
More tools
- Yardage estimator — How many yards a sweater, blanket, hat, scarf, cowl, mittens, socks, shawl or baby cardigan takes at each yarn weight, and how many skeins that is.
- Gauge calculator — Your stitches and rows per inch from a swatch, how many needle sizes to move to hit a pattern's gauge, and the cast-on for any width at your gauge.
- Needle and hook size converter — US, millimeter and old UK knitting needle sizes, crochet hook letters and steel hook numbers, with a lookup that takes a size written any way.
- Yarn substitute finder — Describe the yarn a pattern calls for from its ball band and see the closest yarns we have in stock, with what to watch and the skeins to buy.
- One-skein project finder — Pick a hat, cowl, mitts, socks or shawl and see the yarns in stock where a single skein makes it.