What is a yarn weight?

When creating a knitted or crocheted masterpiece, your pattern will call for a particular weight of yarn. This is to ensure that the end creation is as the pattern intended. For the same reason, it will also recommend what size knitting needles or crochet hook you should use. When you use the correct equipment and follow the pattern exactly, the item that you end up with should be identical to the image on the pattern.

What yarn weights are available?

Yarn weight has nothing to do with the actual weight of a ball of wool, but rather describes the thickness of the yarn that makes up that ball of wool. The heavier the yarn, the thicker it is. The heaviest is super chunky yarn, while lace weight is the finest yarn you can buy and is ideally suited to very intricate work.

Chunky yarn, such as that sold by https://www.woolcouturecompany.com/collections/the-chunky-yarn, is a very versatile yarn that can be used in a multitude of different projects. Other common weights that you might see are Aran, Double Knit (or DK) and 4 Ply.

How to tell what weight your yarn is

When you buy yarn in the UK, its weight is typically printed on the band or packaging. If you have lost the band or packaging from a yarn and wish to check how heavy it is, you can use the Wraps Per Inch method.

In this method, you wrap your yarn around a knitting needle or crochet hook for a total distance of 1 inch and count how many wraps you have made. Then, using a conversion chart, you will be able to determine what weight category your yarn falls into, and therefore whether it is suitable for the project that you wish to undertake.

Why weight is important

Using too fine a yarn for your project will create an item far smaller than intended, while using too heavy a yarn will result in a much larger finished article than is desired. For this reason, you must always try to use the correct weight of yarn when following a pattern.