--- title: "Yarn Yardage Estimator: How Much Yarn? | Moss Atelier" description: "How much yarn for a hat, socks, a sweater, shawl or blanket? Estimate metres, yards and balls by yarn weight or from your own swatch." url: https://mossatelier.cfd/yarn-yardage-estimator/ --- Yardage estimator # How much yarn do I need? Pick a project and size, then estimate the yarn from its weight category or, more accurately, from a swatch you have weighed. Results in metres, yards, balls and grams. ## Yarn to buy 719–1,039 m metres of yarn 786–1,137 yd yards of yarn 11 balls of 100 m / 50 g (8 at the low end) - By weight that is about 360–520 g. - Fabric area: about 0.83 m² (8.9 sq ft). - At 4 Medium (16–20 sts per 4 in, CYC), a 10 cm square of stocking stitch takes about 7.9–10.4 m of yarn. - The range adds 10–20% for seams, edgings, your swatch and weaving in ends. Ribbing, garter, cables and colourwork use more than stocking stitch: weigh a swatch for those. - Buy every ball from the same dye lot (the lot number on the band): colours can shift between lots, and the shop may not have your lot later. Ordering yarn from a shop you have not bought from before? [WebTraceCheck's free DNS and domain lookup](https://webtracecheck.com/dns-lookup) shows the records behind the shop's web address, a quick check before you pay. ## How the estimate works Choose what you are making and a size. Each size fills in typical finished measurements; change any of them to match your pattern's schematic, which is the most accurate starting point. **Yarn weight** takes the Craft Yarn Council stitch gauge range for that weight, or your own gauge, and works out the yarn in a square of stocking stitch. Textile research on plain knitting (Munden, 1959) found that relaxed knitted loops keep a nearly constant shape, so the yarn in each square centimetre is about 5 to 5.3 times the number of stitches per centimetre, in centimetres. The calculator multiplies that by the project's area and adds 10–20% for seams, edgings, the swatch and weaving in ends. **My swatch** is more accurate and works for any stitch, crochet included. Make a swatch at least 15 cm square in the project's stitch, wash and dry it, measure it, then weigh it on a kitchen scale or unravel it and measure the yarn. The calculator scales it up to the project's area. **Ball band** is the length and weight of one ball or skein, so the answer can be given in balls and grams. ### Worked example A woman's medium sweater (104 cm chest, 58 cm long, 43 cm sleeves) has about 0.83 m² of fabric. In worsted-weight yarn that comes to roughly 720–1,040 m, or 8 to 11 balls of 100 m. Round up, and buy every ball from one dye lot. ## Sources - Craft Yarn Council, [Standard Yarn Weight System](https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/yarn-weight-system): the stocking stitch gauge range for each weight. - Craft Yarn Council body measurements: the [woman size chart](https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/woman-size), [man size chart](https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/man-size), [child and youth size charts](https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/child-youth-sizes), [baby size chart](https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/baby-size-chart), [head circumference chart](https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/head-circumference-chart) and [foot size chart](https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/foot-size-charts), used for the size presets (with the ease and lengths stated under the fields). - Munden, D. L. (1959). The geometry and dimensional properties of plain-knit fabrics. *Journal of the Textile Institute Transactions* 50, T448–T471: loop-shape constants of about 5.0 (dry relaxed) and 5.3 (wet relaxed) for courses per loop length in plain-knit wool. ## Questions about yarn amounts **Why is the answer a range and not one number?** Knitters with the same yarn get different gauges, and every pattern has its own edgings and shaping. The low end uses the loosest gauge for the yarn weight plus 10%, the high end the tightest gauge plus 20%. Your own swatch narrows the range a lot. **Why buy all the yarn from one dye lot?** Each batch of dyed yarn gets a lot number on the band, and colours can differ slightly between batches. The difference often shows as a line where you join a new ball. Buy everything from one lot, and if you are near the top of the range, buy the extra ball now rather than hunting for your lot later. **Does this work for crochet?** Use the My swatch method. The yarn weight method is based on knitted stocking stitch, and crochet stitches pack yarn differently from knitting and from each other. Weighing a crochet swatch measures your own stitches, so it holds for any stitch. **Can I swap yarns by weight in grams?** Not reliably. Two 50 g balls of the same thickness can hold very different lengths: cotton and linen are heavier than wool for the same length, and airy brushed yarns are lighter. Compare metres or yards, as the substitution helper above does. **How accurate is the swatch method?** About as accurate as your measuring. Kitchen scales usually read to the nearest gram, so a 5 g swatch can be off by 10%. A bigger swatch, or several weighed together, gives a firmer number. Measure the swatch after washing, in the same state as the finished piece.