The Craft Yarn Council's weight chart was a good guide when I started knitting. It showed me the variety of yarns outside of the worsted stocked in my local craft store. I became a better knitter when I learned and accepted that I needed to make gauge swatches.
thank you so much for this information/explanation drives me crazy as does the lack of metric needle sizes ...this is 2021 and the market is international ...especially when the standard weight system for yarn is grams which is metric ...why not service the international market and broaden the horizon
Barbara, I concur. There needs to be an overhaul of this weight system and swatching needs to be a thing. That swatch square can be the pocket you attach to your sweater! EZ was so smart :)
Yarn elitism is a real thing and it's very wrong. I think it's great that you have educated yourself and others that yarn can come in many sizes. If you work in the industry you need to know both systems.
I don't think it's elite to say that there's a missing thread (forgive the pun) in a system that makes it hard for a knitter to choose yarn based on a pattern or vice-versa. I think Barbara is pointing out a real problem. As an indie-dyer, I concur wholeheartedly and run into the same issue.
Hi there, Thank you so much for going out of your way to describe things. I love how much you talk. I am completely blind so I really appreciate how much you explain. I was definitely confused by these yarn weights when I first started knitting and so I really appreciate you clearing this up for me. Your videos are the ones that I listen to when I don’t understand something. Thank you for all that you do.
You are very welcome. I started knitting about 2 years ago so I'm still just a beginner, but I love it very much, and you make it fun and so much easier to understand. Thank you again so much.
All of this is how I ended up with such a massive yarn stash. Didn't understanding what I was buying. Thank you for your yarn education videos. I crochet and find your videos quite useful.
It's so nice to hear you are human and also have pet peeves. :) Especially when they are ones I agree with. I remember when the scale first came out, and there were only 1-4. So, I guess there's more spread at the top because you can keep going up, whereas the bottom you've only got 0, unless you start negative numbers, and that doesn't seem useful. It's because of that darn scale, and some of the questionable practices of mass yarn producers (as others have commented), that for the LONGEST time, I was convinced Aran weight was a supposed to be the weight of a 3. Practically broke my brain when I started realizing that Aran was "bigger" than worsted.
I remember baby weight yarn! It was almost always fingering weight. I still have some Lionbrand baby weight yarn downstairs that I'll probably never use.
Oh thank goodness it's not only me! I've struggled with those numbers since they came out! I've been going by the gauge to help me figure out what I need for yarn, thank you for the chart!
Pity us poor people in Australia, where weight is traditionally described by plies, so that for example DK is 8 ply, which may or may not actually have 8 plies. Luckily this is so super confusing that mostly yarn uses sport, DK etc terminology, but many online yarn stores still use the ply system to categorise their yarns. Does my head in.
Thank you, I have an immense amount of unbranded yarn that was part of very good stash buys I have been to inthe last several years. Right now I just put them against banded skeins to figure this out and I hope this makes it easier.
Thanks for the sts per inch per yarn type now that is helpful. Then we have company's who label for profit not yarn weight. Working with a fingering that was sold as a DK-3. And I have some labeled 1's that are 678yds to 100g. 😁 I'm with you that comparing by yardage is important.
Thank you so much for saying this, Barbara. As a spinner and indie-dyer, my pet peeve is the new wraps per inch line. They took it from Ravelry, and Ravelry has always had it wrong. There are too few wraps per inch in the lighter weight yarns by enough to really make a huge difference.
I'm a new-ish knitter (started during quarantine!) and I guess I use the 0-7 numbers as a rough guide. But I've learned the hard way that not all 4s are compatible 😀 I agree, it's kind of like clothing sizing - but lots of companies do vanity sizing!! I personally find wraps-per-inch to be a more effective guide.
Great clarification! I have to say I love the yarn weight names and looking at the yardage of a skein as I think it makes a lot of sense. Learning that system made me look at yarn in a whole different way than before and made it much easier for me to substitute yarn. The yarn stores where I live generally categorise yarn by their gauge, so the gauge the producer of the yarn recommends you to knit it up as. That felt very limiting to me as it felt like it had to be exact to work, and also you can knit up a fabric to be stiffer or more drapey than what they recommend.
Oh it’s not just you Barbara! I’ve always wondered why the number yarn weight system just never “clicked” with me. You found the words lol, cause I could never figure out why. You’re right, those numbers don’t describe one thing, one yarn weight.
This was real helpful. I wish I had this when I first started crocheting it would have saved me a lot of confusion. It is also why I prefer a pattern in inches/centimeters rather than so many rows especially in wearables. Then yarn weight (and personal stitch tension) ultimately does not matter other than how much money you want to spend. I know this stuff now but I agree and really only use the ball band numbers as a jumping off point. My pet peeve is when companies label yarn into the wrong category altogether, e.i. a 4 'weight' is advertised as a 5 or 6 'weight' or worse some level of sport weight. This is why I don't order yarn online unless I've had it in the past or have no other choice.
Thankmyou do much for this useful,information… I thunk what happens is that as knitters and crocheters become more experienced, we tend to learn the “hand” of the yarnscwe use. We know when a #4 really isn’t a 4, but a heavy #3…… I knit and crochet simple thungd…hotdog, blsnketd, shawls, etc, and I have learned thru experience “What is “ What” , as far as my own use goes. Yiu are so right… The whole subject can be very confusing..especially for new, or inexperienced crafters. I’ve been buying yarn for many years, and I have found thst…for me, at least, it’s so important to see…and feel the yarn… You can tell so much about any yarn by simply picking it up.. I thunk I rely less on the label thsn on my own judgement…but thst comes with experience.
As far as I know(and have seen) we don’t have numbers on the yarns in Sweden so I always get confused when English/American knitters/patterns are talking about a number 4 yarn for example. 😆 Thank you for the very informative video!
Same. In the UK I honestly have no idea what numbers would go where. Tbh I don't think they even match up with the standard yarn weight descriptions in the UK.
Hello Barbara, I understand what you're saying, my sister has the similar difficulty with the chart. but I think more importantly are the characteristics of that fiber. Such as density, softness, drape. I use the cotton threads for crocheting doilies but use the same weight (1) in a lace shawl, but a different fiber. So I understand why they are grouped together. they are the same weight yet drape differently. I wouldn't use the lace weight yarn for a doily or the cotton thread for a shawl. I also wanted to note that from my research aran weight can be a light worsted or a heavy worsted depending on what part of the world you're in. So fiber content has as much to do with it as fiber weight. Swatching and experience make all the difference. That's just my opinion. thanks for your opinion, I appreciate it and find itvery helpful. Keep up the helpful info. Craft on!
A lot of confusion has been created in the name of clarification. Weight meaning gr/oz or circumference? Stitches Per Inch vs Wraps Per Inch, which some charts also show? Why do yardages overlap so much? A lofty wool roving style single can have more yardage than the same weight of a tightly spun 8ply cotton, even though it looks thicker than the cotton, which will have a lower weight classification # on the label, and therefor should have more yardage. If they can tell me that 20 stitches by 26 rows will knit a 4 inch square, why can't they tell me how many square feet one skein will knit? I'd say the best solution is to fly Barbara out here to SF to help me shop.
People knit differently. So that same yarn is going to make very different fabric even if the yarn itself is being consistent, which is not always the case.
This is very helpful thank you. To add to the confusion (and probably the subject of a separate video) is that different countries use different systems. For example in the UK, you won't find the term 'worsted' at all. It's either DK or Aran. Worsted seems to be a US term. Lighter than DK seems to be called 4-ply or fingering, not 'sport', or at least it's rare in my experience. If following a US designer's pattern in the UK, we have to use the closest equivalent available on the UK market, or buy a US brand yarn.
Yes, totally confusing. Both Sport & Worsted are US creations ... we can't ever leave well enough alone LOL. I am sure that their origin is based on some company wanting to design patterns that forced Americans to buy American products and not imports.
Worsted is used to indicate how the wool is spun from raw fiber. And confusingly worsted is used in a different way to indicate a weight of yarn. If we refer to how yarn is spun when being made into yarn, worsted style yarn has more loft because there has been less effort to align the yarn fibers before spinning and during spinning. Yarn can be the same weight to yardage ratio, be wool, and make very different swatches, have very different stitches per inch. The worsted style yarn will bloom and fill in color work beautifully. Yarn that is not worsted style will look skimpy or be difficult to use in color work. In the USA, acrylic yarn was labeled Worsted weight to indicate what it was intended to imitate, which was a style if wool yarn. 4 ply acrylic yarn had been spin to seem to have a little natural crimp as a wool would have. Acrylic fibers in their chemical nature are not springy as wool is by natural composition. Worsted to a spinner does not mean a certain weight and does not mean 4 ply. Worsted weight does mean a weight between DK and Aran in the USA, because it has been marketed that way for a while. I think acrylic worsted weight Shoer Saver RedHeart yarn in one of the variegated colors is a great thing to learn on. Ooooh, how horrible , Some will say.
Another good/useful segment! Thank you. I have a gauge question. Working up a swatch....Pattern calls for 20 sts and 26 rows equal 4"...using size 7 needles and 100% cotton yarn. When I knitted my swatch, I got 4.5 on the 20 sts...and less than 4" on the 26 rows. I thought my tension was pretty even throughout. What do you think happened here? I've got to admit, getting gauge has always been an issue for me. It's almost like I am caught between two needles sizes...Thanks so much.
I find it confusing when I design a pattern and upload it on Lovecrafts and they want you to add the UK, NZ, and Australian yarn weight as well. Apparently, they go by plies, but not plies/strands.
Barbara, I bought a hank of yarn because it has beautiful colors and shiny wool but it has great variation in thinkness and I don't know how to work with it. How do I choose the needle size to work with a hank of yarn that varies in thickness from a bulky weight to a fingering weight throughout the hank? Do I pick a needle that goes with the middle of the weight range and hope it all works out in the end while knowing that there will be holes in the finished piece? Do I carry it along with a yarn that has a consistent thickness and consider the "crazy wool yarn" to be ornamental and not structural? Or was this a big mistake?
I'm not Barbara, but I find it works well to go a little bigger in needle size for thick and thin. It's less frustrating, and it shows off the unique nature of the yarn better.
Thank you. It can so very confusing indeed. It doesn’t help that the yarn companies will label some yarn DK even though yardage (yd/100g) or thickness (wpi) is that of sports. I had yarn in my stash that should be a CYC 6 or 7 but labeled as CYC 5 because 6 or 7 wasn’t part of the standard. Swatch swatch swatch. You also need to know the yarn fiber content of the designed piece if you are making substitutions.
The yarn companies take other things into consideration as well. Sometimes yarns bloom so much they end up in a different category. Just to make things more complicated.
All the patterns I've been looking at lately seem to call for "4-ply", which I know is a British term and I know refers to yarn weight and NOT how many plies the yarn actually has, but I can never remember what weight it's equivalent to and it's so confusing!
1. I don't remember super bulky and jumbo when the weights first came out. Which could be why it's top heavy. 2. Maybe they could add a's and b's; like 4A worsted and 4B Aran.
I totally get your pet peeve, this makes no sense to me either. It’s like complicating what’s already complicated. I’d like a 3 hour class on this subject too, most channels I watch suggest USA brands of yarn that are not easily available in Europe, thus the need to substitute…. It’s a headache!
Short Comment: I think you're judging a system developed for the beginner/minimally experienced knitter by the needs of an advanced knitter. Longer Version: I'm wondering if some of the confusion and frustration you are experiencing with your customers is coming from the tendency we have to want to download ALL THE KNOWLEDGE about this cool thing we love so much. I agree with your observations about the inherent lack of perfect accuracy in the number system. I think the cheat sheet you've made is awesome and super helpful for pretty much every knitter. Your comparison to clothing sizes would be more accurate if the council had only done small, medium, large. But they didn't... The have seven categories and the sized grouped in each one are really close enough if you are making hats, scarves, mitts, cowls, etc. Tho, it would probably be helpful of the council would do a better job saying what kind of knitter this system is designed for, or at the very least, it would be great if stores put up a cheap copies of your wonderful comparison chart for customer to take home. differentshould mewithin the same set of measurements every time! Most of all, thanks for another great video. Keep up the great work!
What gets my goat is the size 0 and 1 weights because I can tell by feel if a size 4 is really a thin 4, med 4, thick 4 and translate in my head other yarns to replace that one. Caron simply soft is listed as 4 but it is on the thin side of 4 if not a thick 3. But the smaller ones are so hard to tell by feel or look how thin they actually are. Experience does help but smaller you get the bigger the most minute difference can be. It drives me bonkers.!!!!
I'm European, so I've grown up with looking at the recommended kneedles to use for a yarn, and the lenght. I like that for buying, as I can choose to knit a lighter or denser fabric, adjusted for my knitting style. But I do like the numbers as an orientation. If I watch a US podcast, and they show yarn, I don't know, the number give me a better idea of what they're showing... would I use it when buying, probably not 🙂🤔
What confuses me in yarn weights and patterns is the fiber content. Because alpaca, merino wool and cotton for example don’t weigh the exact same. Therefore you will have more or less yardage per 100 gram skein depending on the fiber. So even if it says I need a dk weight yarn, it’s still guess work to me. And don’t get me started on gauge. Because you can knit something with the same yarn and same needles and get a totally different gauge and i get that. That’s not a huge problem. For me the problem begins when I do a gauge swatch and I hit gauge but I don’t like the fabric it makes. And then I need to decide if I want to change needle size and get a fabric I like more but won’t get gauge with or if I am knitting the right gauge but end up with a fabric I don’t like. These things will keep me up at night when I am thinking of casting on a new project.
Swatch. A yarn you do not like might make a beautiful fabric with a bigger or smaller Guage needle. Did you ever knit a lace in worsted weight? It can be a beautiful fabric. Actually what works better is knit your swatch and know your Guage. Now, do not try to change your knitting to match the guage of the pattern. Instead figure out how many stitches or rows you need to get this many inches. Trying to knit to a different guage than your natural style, is at best difficult and at worst it fails.
The Craft Yarn Council's weight chart was a good guide when I started knitting. It showed me the variety of yarns outside of the worsted stocked in my local craft store. I became a better knitter when I learned and accepted that I needed to make gauge swatches.
thank you so much for this information/explanation drives me crazy as does the lack of metric needle sizes ...this is 2021 and the market is international ...especially when the standard weight system for yarn is grams which is metric ...why not service the international market and broaden the horizon
Barbara, I concur. There needs to be an overhaul of this weight system and swatching needs to be a thing. That swatch square can be the pocket you attach to your sweater! EZ was so smart :)
She was indeed!
Yarn elitism is a real thing and it's very wrong. I think it's great that you have educated yourself and others that yarn can come in many sizes. If you work in the industry you need to know both systems.
I don't think it's elite to say that there's a missing thread (forgive the pun) in a system that makes it hard for a knitter to choose yarn based on a pattern or vice-versa. I think Barbara is pointing out a real problem. As an indie-dyer, I concur wholeheartedly and run into the same issue.
Hi there, Thank you so much for going out of your way to describe things. I love how much you talk. I am completely blind so I really appreciate how much you explain. I was definitely confused by these yarn weights when I first started knitting and so I really appreciate you clearing this up for me. Your videos are the ones that I listen to when I don’t understand something. Thank you for all that you do.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with me. It makes me so happy that my efforts in this area might be helpful.
You are very welcome. I started knitting about 2 years ago so I'm still just a beginner, but I love it very much, and you make it fun and so much easier to understand. Thank you again so much.
All of this is how I ended up with such a massive yarn stash. Didn't understanding what I was buying. Thank you for your yarn education videos. I crochet and find your videos quite useful.
You are so welcome!
Your chart is great! I love your honest and direct, but diplomatic and nice, approach. You are a lovely person, Barbara.
Thank you!
The gray top looks great on you, & looks soooo comfy.
It's so nice to hear you are human and also have pet peeves. :) Especially when they are ones I agree with. I remember when the scale first came out, and there were only 1-4. So, I guess there's more spread at the top because you can keep going up, whereas the bottom you've only got 0, unless you start negative numbers, and that doesn't seem useful. It's because of that darn scale, and some of the questionable practices of mass yarn producers (as others have commented), that for the LONGEST time, I was convinced Aran weight was a supposed to be the weight of a 3. Practically broke my brain when I started realizing that Aran was "bigger" than worsted.
I remember baby weight yarn! It was almost always fingering weight. I still have some Lionbrand baby weight yarn downstairs that I'll probably never use.
Oh thank goodness it's not only me! I've struggled with those numbers since they came out! I've been going by the gauge to help me figure out what I need for yarn, thank you for the chart!
Glad I could help!
Pity us poor people in Australia, where weight is traditionally described by plies, so that for example DK is 8 ply, which may or may not actually have 8 plies. Luckily this is so super confusing that mostly yarn uses sport, DK etc terminology, but many online yarn stores still use the ply system to categorise their yarns. Does my head in.
Thank you, I have an immense amount of unbranded yarn that was part of very good stash buys I have been to inthe last several years. Right now I just put them against banded skeins to figure this out and I hope this makes it easier.
Wraps per inch is useful.
Thanks for the sts per inch per yarn type now that is helpful. Then we have company's who label for profit not yarn weight. Working with a fingering that was sold as a DK-3. And I have some labeled 1's that are 678yds to 100g. 😁 I'm with you that comparing by yardage is important.
Thank you so much for saying this, Barbara. As a spinner and indie-dyer, my pet peeve is the new wraps per inch line. They took it from Ravelry, and Ravelry has always had it wrong. There are too few wraps per inch in the lighter weight yarns by enough to really make a huge difference.
Do you possibly have a link to a chart that gets it right? I'd love to have an accurate assessment.
Again Barbara, thank you for sharing your helpful counsel!
Any time!
I'm a new-ish knitter (started during quarantine!) and I guess I use the 0-7 numbers as a rough guide. But I've learned the hard way that not all 4s are compatible 😀 I agree, it's kind of like clothing sizing - but lots of companies do vanity sizing!! I personally find wraps-per-inch to be a more effective guide.
Great clarification! I have to say I love the yarn weight names and looking at the yardage of a skein as I think it makes a lot of sense. Learning that system made me look at yarn in a whole different way than before and made it much easier for me to substitute yarn. The yarn stores where I live generally categorise yarn by their gauge, so the gauge the producer of the yarn recommends you to knit it up as. That felt very limiting to me as it felt like it had to be exact to work, and also you can knit up a fabric to be stiffer or more drapey than what they recommend.
Thank you Barbara. Great information. You never know how much you don't know. 😉
Never stop learning!
👍👍🧶❤️🙂.. loving this educational vids! Thank you for taking time to educate us on all yarnie stuff!!
Thank you for watching!
Oh it’s not just you Barbara! I’ve always wondered why the number yarn weight system just never “clicked” with me. You found the words lol, cause I could never figure out why. You’re right, those numbers don’t describe one thing, one yarn weight.
I'm glad I'm not alone LOL.
This was real helpful. I wish I had this when I first started crocheting it would have saved me a lot of confusion. It is also why I prefer a pattern in inches/centimeters rather than so many rows especially in wearables. Then yarn weight (and personal stitch tension) ultimately does not matter other than how much money you want to spend. I know this stuff now but I agree and really only use the ball band numbers as a jumping off point. My pet peeve is when companies label yarn into the wrong category altogether, e.i. a 4 'weight' is advertised as a 5 or 6 'weight' or worse some level of sport weight. This is why I don't order yarn online unless I've had it in the past or have no other choice.
Thankmyou do much for this useful,information…
I thunk what happens is that as knitters and crocheters become more experienced, we tend to learn the “hand” of the yarnscwe use. We know when a #4 really isn’t a 4, but a heavy #3……
I knit and crochet simple thungd…hotdog, blsnketd, shawls, etc, and I have learned thru experience “What is “ What” , as far as my own use goes.
Yiu are so right… The whole subject can be very confusing..especially for new, or inexperienced crafters. I’ve been buying yarn for many years, and I have found thst…for me, at least, it’s so important to see…and feel the yarn… You can tell so much about any yarn by simply picking it up.. I thunk I rely less on the label thsn on my own judgement…but thst comes with experience.
Interesting. I was lumping light worsted in with worsted and Aran in #4. Having a chart that includes general stitches per inch will be very useful.
Good to know I'm not the only one who wonders about those numbers ;o) Thank you!
My pleasure.
This chart is very helpful! Thank You!
As far as I know(and have seen) we don’t have numbers on the yarns in Sweden so I always get confused when English/American knitters/patterns are talking about a number 4 yarn for example. 😆 Thank you for the very informative video!
Same. In the UK I honestly have no idea what numbers would go where. Tbh I don't think they even match up with the standard yarn weight descriptions in the UK.
Great information and downloaded the pdf!
Totally agree, it is so frustrating! I use yards per gram or grist when substituting yarns and had much better success.
Hello Barbara,
I understand what you're saying, my sister has the similar difficulty with the chart. but I think more importantly are the characteristics of that fiber. Such as density, softness, drape. I use the cotton threads for crocheting doilies but use the same weight (1) in a lace shawl, but a different fiber. So I understand why they are grouped together. they are the same weight yet drape differently. I wouldn't use the lace weight yarn for a doily or the cotton thread for a shawl. I also wanted to note that from my research aran weight can be a light worsted or a heavy worsted depending on what part of the world you're in. So fiber content has as much to do with it as fiber weight. Swatching and experience make all the difference. That's just my opinion. thanks for your opinion, I appreciate it and find itvery helpful. Keep up the helpful info. Craft on!
And is the yarn wooly or worsted texture or smoother? What fiber?
A lot of confusion has been created in the name of clarification. Weight meaning gr/oz or circumference? Stitches Per Inch vs Wraps Per Inch, which some charts also show? Why do yardages overlap so much? A lofty wool roving style single can have more yardage than the same weight of a tightly spun 8ply cotton, even though it looks thicker than the cotton, which will have a lower weight classification # on the label, and therefor should have more yardage. If they can tell me that 20 stitches by 26 rows will knit a 4 inch square, why can't they tell me how many square feet one skein will knit? I'd say the best solution is to fly Barbara out here to SF to help me shop.
People knit differently. So that same yarn is going to make very different fabric even if the yarn itself is being consistent, which is not always the case.
This is very helpful thank you. To add to the confusion (and probably the subject of a separate video) is that different countries use different systems. For example in the UK, you won't find the term 'worsted' at all. It's either DK or Aran. Worsted seems to be a US term. Lighter than DK seems to be called 4-ply or fingering, not 'sport', or at least it's rare in my experience. If following a US designer's pattern in the UK, we have to use the closest equivalent available on the UK market, or buy a US brand yarn.
Yes, totally confusing. Both Sport & Worsted are US creations ... we can't ever leave well enough alone LOL. I am sure that their origin is based on some company wanting to design patterns that forced Americans to buy American products and not imports.
Worsted is used to indicate how the wool is spun from raw fiber. And confusingly worsted is used in a different way to indicate a weight of yarn. If we refer to how yarn is spun when being made into yarn, worsted style yarn has more loft because there has been less effort to align the yarn fibers before spinning and during spinning. Yarn can be the same weight to yardage ratio, be wool, and make very different swatches, have very different stitches per inch. The worsted style yarn will bloom and fill in color work beautifully. Yarn that is not worsted style will look skimpy or be difficult to use in color work.
In the USA, acrylic yarn was labeled Worsted weight to indicate what it was intended to imitate, which was a style if wool yarn. 4 ply acrylic yarn had been spin to seem to have a little natural crimp as a wool would have. Acrylic fibers in their chemical nature are not springy as wool is by natural composition. Worsted to a spinner does not mean a certain weight and does not mean 4 ply. Worsted weight does mean a weight between DK and Aran in the USA, because it has been marketed that way for a while. I think acrylic worsted weight Shoer Saver RedHeart yarn in one of the variegated colors is a great thing to learn on. Ooooh, how horrible , Some will say.
Another good/useful segment! Thank you.
I have a gauge question. Working up a swatch....Pattern calls for 20 sts and 26 rows equal 4"...using size 7 needles and 100% cotton yarn. When I knitted my swatch, I got 4.5 on the 20 sts...and less than 4" on the 26 rows. I thought my tension was pretty even throughout. What do you think happened here? I've got to admit, getting gauge has always been an issue for me. It's almost like I am caught between two needles sizes...Thanks so much.
You might be. This video might be helpful: ruclips.net/video/eP_hz5_5czs/видео.html
@@WatchBarbaraKnit Thank you.
I find it confusing when I design a pattern and upload it on Lovecrafts and they want you to add the UK, NZ, and Australian yarn weight as well. Apparently, they go by plies, but not plies/strands.
Barbara, I bought a hank of yarn because it has beautiful colors and shiny wool but it has great variation in thinkness and I don't know how to work with it. How do I choose the needle size to work with a hank of yarn that varies in thickness from a bulky weight to a fingering weight throughout the hank? Do I pick a needle that goes with the middle of the weight range and hope it all works out in the end while knowing that there will be holes in the finished piece? Do I carry it along with a yarn that has a consistent thickness and consider the "crazy wool yarn" to be ornamental and not structural? Or was this a big mistake?
I'm not Barbara, but I find it works well to go a little bigger in needle size for thick and thin. It's less frustrating, and it shows off the unique nature of the yarn better.
Totally agree. Trying to get the fat stuff to work on a smaller needle ends in a super dense fabric.
Thank you. It can so very confusing indeed. It doesn’t help that the yarn companies will label some yarn DK even though yardage (yd/100g) or thickness (wpi) is that of sports. I had yarn in my stash that should be a CYC 6 or 7 but labeled as CYC 5 because 6 or 7 wasn’t part of the standard. Swatch swatch swatch. You also need to know the yarn fiber content of the designed piece if you are making substitutions.
The yarn companies take other things into consideration as well. Sometimes yarns bloom so much they end up in a different category. Just to make things more complicated.
All the patterns I've been looking at lately seem to call for "4-ply", which I know is a British term and I know refers to yarn weight and NOT how many plies the yarn actually has, but I can never remember what weight it's equivalent to and it's so confusing!
I believe British '4-ply' is closest to fingering weight, but I'm still trying to confirm that myself.
@@GoldenAstroCat The Woolpatch has a video explaining British yarn weights. I have to rewatch it.
1. I don't remember super bulky and jumbo when the weights first came out. Which could be why it's top heavy. 2. Maybe they could add a's and b's; like 4A worsted and 4B Aran.
Yes, that's my understanding as well. They just added on to the top. I love the A/B idea.
I totally get your pet peeve, this makes no sense to me either. It’s like complicating what’s already complicated. I’d like a 3 hour class on this subject too, most channels I watch suggest USA brands of yarn that are not easily available in Europe, thus the need to substitute…. It’s a headache!
Substitution is always a mix of art and magic LOL!
Short Comment: I think you're judging a system developed for the beginner/minimally experienced knitter by the needs of an advanced knitter.
Longer Version: I'm wondering if some of the confusion and frustration you are experiencing with your customers is coming from the tendency we have to want to download ALL THE KNOWLEDGE about this cool thing we love so much. I agree with your observations about the inherent lack of perfect accuracy in the number system. I think the cheat sheet you've made is awesome and super helpful for pretty much every knitter.
Your comparison to clothing sizes would be more accurate if the council had only done small, medium, large. But they didn't... The have seven categories and the sized grouped in each one are really close enough if you are making hats, scarves, mitts, cowls, etc. Tho, it would probably be helpful of the council would do a better job saying what kind of knitter this system is designed for, or at the very least, it would be great if stores put up a cheap copies of your wonderful comparison chart for customer to take home.
differentshould
mewithin the same set of measurements every time!
Most of all, thanks for another great video. Keep up the great work!
What gets my goat is the size 0 and 1 weights because I can tell by feel if a size 4 is really a thin 4, med 4, thick 4 and translate in my head other yarns to replace that one. Caron simply soft is listed as 4 but it is on the thin side of 4 if not a thick 3. But the smaller ones are so hard to tell by feel or look how thin they actually are. Experience does help but smaller you get the bigger the most minute difference can be. It drives me bonkers.!!!!
So bonkers!
I'm European, so I've grown up with looking at the recommended kneedles to use for a yarn, and the lenght. I like that for buying, as I can choose to knit a lighter or denser fabric, adjusted for my knitting style.
But I do like the numbers as an orientation. If I watch a US podcast, and they show yarn, I don't know, the number give me a better idea of what they're showing... would I use it when buying, probably not 🙂🤔
Use wraps per inch on a pencil . But yarn with the same wraps per inch will knit up differently. .
Indeed, that is why swatching is so important.
What confuses me in yarn weights and patterns is the fiber content. Because alpaca, merino wool and cotton for example don’t weigh the exact same. Therefore you will have more or less yardage per 100 gram skein depending on the fiber. So even if it says I need a dk weight yarn, it’s still guess work to me. And don’t get me started on gauge. Because you can knit something with the same yarn and same needles and get a totally different gauge and i get that. That’s not a huge problem. For me the problem begins when I do a gauge swatch and I hit gauge but I don’t like the fabric it makes. And then I need to decide if I want to change needle size and get a fabric I like more but won’t get gauge with or if I am knitting the right gauge but end up with a fabric I don’t like. These things will keep me up at night when I am thinking of casting on a new project.
Agreed! All of those are frustrations I have experienced LOL.
I had even received a yarn which I had ordered, expecting 2 weight but when I measure it the actual size work out at 7 w.p.i. I was annoyed 😒
I would have been as well.
Swatch. A yarn you do not like might make a beautiful fabric with a bigger or smaller Guage needle. Did you ever knit a lace in worsted weight? It can be a beautiful fabric.
Actually what works better is knit your swatch and know your Guage. Now, do not try to change your knitting to match the guage of the pattern. Instead figure out how many stitches or rows you need to get this many inches. Trying to knit to a different guage than your natural style, is at best difficult and at worst it fails.
Some people are not big fans of doing math, but I have done a video on this kind of thing.
@@WatchBarbaraKnit yes i agreed . However some can be measured against something with no inches or centimeters.