Calculating

When trying to figure out how much yarn to use for a project, we makers rely heavily on the recommended amounts in the patterns. However, not every project we make has a pattern.

Lion Brand's Yarn Chart is a good place to start when estimating how much yarn you need for any project you want to make that doesn't come with a pattern. Often I use these numbers when making one-row repeat throws or simple scarfs and hats.

Woodland Stitchcraft has this short video on how to calculate yarn yardage for any project using weight and skein size that is pretty straightforward.

For patternless projects my method is geared more toward using testing how many rows I can get out of one skein of a particular color from my stash of thrifted yarn. Most makers who thrift yarn rarely have multiples, so we do mostly multicolor projects.

For this granny ripple stitch throw I made I crocheted the first band from a single unused 5 oz. skein of worsted weight white yarn, and got seven rows of stitches. I then crocheted a band from a single unused 5 oz. skein of worsted weight light blue yarn to be sure I'd get seven rows out of that, which I did.

Finally I measured the width of the bands to know how many bands I'd need to make the throw I wanted. That's how I figured out I'd need 5 more skeins of white and 4 more skeins of blues.

Image Credit:Image by Leslie Eckert from Pixabay