Enrichment · Arts & Creativity · Fibre arts

Weigh a swatch,
buy the right
number of skeins.

Crochet a swatch, weigh it and list the pieces. The estimator turns your own tension into grams per square inch, adds up the project and tells you how many skeins to buy from one dye lot.

Estimate the yarnWhat you get

The yarn estimator

The worked example is a made-up baby blanket with a granny-square border. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

Loading the calculator. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Enrichment · Arts & CreativityFree

What you finish with
Grams per square inch, the project’s area, grams and yards needed and skeins to buy, piece by piece. It prints as a shopping note and downloads as a spreadsheet.
Who it is for
Crocheters and knitters planning a project, fibre arts students, and math classes practising area and rates.
Format
Browser calculator for a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints a summary; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Arts & Creativity space in Caveat Enrichment.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Crochet a swatch at least 6 inches square in the project stitch.
  2. Measure it and weigh it on a kitchen scale.
  3. Copy the grams and yards from the ball band.
  4. List the pieces and how many of each.
  5. Buy the skeins from one dye lot.

Estimate the yarn

How the yarn is estimated

Grams per square inch, times the area.

The worked example: a baby blanket with a granny-square borderSwatch0.250 g/sq in9 g ÷ 36 sq inProject1,524 sq incentre, 34 squares, crownYarn419 g× g/sq in × 1.10Skeins5419 ÷ 100 g, round upThe worked example: a baby blanket with a granny-square borderSwatch0.250 g/sq in9 g ÷ 36 sq inProject1,524 sq incentre, 34 squares, crownYarn419 g× g/sq in × 1.10Skeins5419 ÷ 100 g, round up
Weigh a swatch and the rest is area: your own tension is already built into the grams.

Why weigh

Two crocheters with the same yarn and hook can use quite different amounts, because tension and stitch height differ. A swatch made by you, in the project’s stitch, already contains all of that. Weighing it gives grams per square inch, which turns any shape into grams.

Margins

Seams, edging rounds, weaving in tails and a gauge that loosens as you relax all use extra yarn, so a 10 percent margin is a sensible start. Buying every skein from one dye lot matters more than the last few grams; colour can shift noticeably between lots.

Sources

  1. Craft Yarn Council. Standard yarn weight system and yarn estimating guidelines (craftyarncouncil.com).
  2. Craft Yarn Council. Gauge: why it matters and how to measure it (craftyarncouncil.com).
  3. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Area and unit rates in real contexts (nctm.org).
  4. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Handbook 44: the gram and the yard (nist.gov).

The worked example is made up. Your entries stay in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.