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Yarn Tips: Estimating Yarn Skeins Needed for a Project

 I have no focus lately. 😝 But I have be weirdly distracted by a potential NEW yarn cosplay project...Tomioka's Haori. Went to see the Infinity Castle movie at the theater and remembered that I had made a color chart. So busted that out...saw I did the cube pattern wrong and fixed it. Also re-calculated measurements and adjusted things because I had set it to the gauge for loom knitting...and I'm going to crochet this one. 

But that's not the point of this post...just the inspiration. This post is going to be the various ways I tried to estimate how many balls of yarn I'd need for this project. So...here are the facts. This is my own pattern and it is untested! I know the brand and colors I WANT to use but we'll see how much of a budget buster that will be. As well as a yarn stash hog. 

Okay, so there are 4 methods I'll suggest.

  1. Incremental
  2. Pattern Inspiration
  3. Weight + Area Measurement
  4. Weight + Stitch Count

Incremental Purchasing

This is a method that takes basically no math, no swatches, or anything. It's just buying 1 skein or ball of yarn for each color and then when you run out, go get more. 
This is ultimate test mode and likely eventually the most accurate way to count how many yarn skeins you need in each color. It doesn't bloom your stash and you can space out payments. The downside is you'll not really know how much it will be so you can't PLAN your budget. And it may be more expensive if you only buy yarn online. It works best if you can get your yarn locally. And on a rare occasion you might get color variation for not purchasing within a similar dye lot or heck a yarn may get discontinued before you finish the project! (Maybe this is more of a me problem since it can sometimes take YEARS for me to finish something.) 

In the end you'll learn how many balls of yarn were necessary for your project, but you won't be able to predict anything. 

Pattern Inspiration

This is another common method to guesstimate how many balls of yarn your project needs. Find a pattern that is similar to your own and see what it recommends. This method will depend on several factors such as if there is a vaguely similar pattern using similar yarn. In my case, I looked at crochet patterns for long cardigans using super bulky yarn. Even found a couple using the same brand I intend to use. Now these patterns weren't going to tell me how many in each color I might need, but it did give me a total to aim for. You might be able to guess by looking at your color chart how many balls of yarn you could use. 

But again, these are all rough estimates. BUT it can help you plan your budget, giving you the option to save up for the project or plan to buy incrementally like before. 

In this method, I also consider the very generalized charts and calculators you can use that let you look for yarn weight, general size, yarn method and project type. These tend to be fairly generic like a beanie or pull over sweater. 

Looking ant patterns similar to my idea, I'd need between 13 - 18 balls of yarn. 

Weight + Area Measurement

So this method was inspired by this video: 

The next two methods require you the have some of the yarn in the weight you intend to use, a food scale, and a calculator. It involves math. But bear with me, here's the concept. 

When you make a swatch using the technique you intend to use and the yarn weight (or preferably the exact yarn...but an equivalent can help with the estimation.) Make a 4x4" square (10cm x 10cm) swatch. Weigh the swatch on a food scale in grams preferably. The area of this square is 16"² (100 cm² ). Assuming your project can be made from quadrilaterals you can figure out how many swatch squares will fit into the project. And since you also know how much your swatch weighs, you can estimate how much the full project will weigh. 

Most yarn labels indicate how many yards and how much the ball/skein/hank weighs. So...how many balls of yarn are equivalent to the full weight of your project? THAT'S how many balls of yarn you'd need. 

Formula: Project Area ÷ Swatch Area × Swatch Weight ÷  Yarn Skein Weight = # of skeins

Now this is great if you are making your own pattern or the color design is geometric. But it won't necessarily work for tapestry or detailed color work. But it is a bit more accurate, IMO. 

In my project, I determined with my measurements,  I would be using 14 yarn balls. 
The half of the haori that is a solid color, I determined the area and learn that 7.23 balls make up that part. Makes sense since it is HALF the project. 

I could guess the rest of the colors as long as it all adds up to 14. But this method got me thinking of another similar way.

Weight + Stitch Count


For this method, I borrowed from the method above. You still need a swatch and to weight it with a food scale in grams. You'll also need your color chart...preferably one that has listed out all the stitches. I use Stitchfiddle for all my color charts. It has a great feature under the written pattern section. If you use color blocks, it lists the number of stitches in the pattern. 

Instead of area, I'm determining how much the stitches weigh. So, my swatch was 10 stitches across and 8 stitches tall. I know the weight of 80 stitches. Looking at one color, I took the number of total stitches in that color and divided by the swatch stitch count. Then I multiplied that by the swatch weight to get how much all those stitches would weigh. Then divided that by the weight of one skein of my yarn. 

When I tested this against the area measurement method, for the burgundy color...I also got about 7.25 yarn balls. Very similar so I felt confident to try this with all my colors. 

So roughly I would have 7.25 in burgundy, 2.4 in black, 1.9 in yellow, 1.06 in dark green, 1.3 in light green, .5 in orange. 
Now, when purchasing yarn we have to often times round up. So 7 or 8 in burgundy, 3 in black, 2 in yellow, 1 in dark green, 1 in light green and 1 in orange. 
Adding all that up we get 15 - 16 balls of yarn. Which does match the overall expectation from other methods! 

Now not sure this is the most accurate way but it helps me predict and budget for a project and buy a decent chunk of necessary yarn up front. 

Next post will be about Substituting Yarn and Budget tips. 

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