Yardage estimator
Pick the project, the size and the yarn weight, and read off the yards. Type the yards in one skein from the yarn's page and it becomes skeins.
Where the numbers come from
The ranges are the tables in our yardage guides — for a sweater, a blanket, a hat, scarf, cowl or mittens, a shawl, socks and baby knits — for a plain fabric at the weight's usual gauge. The low end is a snug, simple version; the high end has room for a longer body or a little texture. Cables and dense stitch patterns add 10–20% on top; open lace takes less.
Why the top of the range, plus one
The skein count rounds up the high end and adds a spare, because running short costs a dye lot and a spare skein comes back within 30 days. If you know your gauge is loose or your pattern's yardage exactly, the enough-yarn guide has the sum from your own swatch, which beats any table.
Yards per skein
It is on every yarn page here, in the spec card — 210 for Malabrigo Rios, 109 for Álafoss Lopi, 440 for Dream in Color Jilly — and each page has its own calculator pre-filled with it. A 100 g skein holds anywhere from 90 to 450 yards depending on the weight, which is why skeins are never the unit to plan in.
The guides behind the numbers
- GuideHow much yarn for a sweater?How many yards and skeins an adult sweater takes in fingering, DK, worsted and chunky yarn, by size — with the arithmetic for turning a pattern's yardage into a number of skeins.
- GuideHow to choose sock yarnWhat makes a yarn wear well in a sock — fibre, nylon content, twist, superwash — how much a pair takes, and the sock yarns we stock, from self-striping to hand-painted.
- GuideWill I have enough yarn? Weighing your way out of yarn chickenHow to tell from a kitchen scale whether the yarn you have will finish the project — weigh the knitting, weigh what is left, do the sum — how many yards are in 100 g of each weight, how much extra to buy, and what to do when the answer is no.
More tools
- 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.