I love math.  It was always one of my favorite subjects in school.  I find comfort in numbers-nerdy, I know.  Maybe that is why I love crochet designing.  I thrive on finding the proper stitch repeats to manipulate yarn into creating the vision I have in my head.  Many are afraid of math, don’t be.  Math CAN be your friend.  For example, if you need to calculate the yardage used in a project.  Maybe you are testing a pattern for someone and they want the actual yardage you use, or maybe you have some yarn, not a full skein, and want to know if it’s enough to make that special hat pattern.  Maybe you are math geek like me and are just curious.  Whatever your reason for calculating your yardage, you can do it and it’s easy.

Supplies needed-

• yarn
• the yarn label (this is key)
• kitchen scale (digital is best and one that measures in grams is even better)

1.    Determine how many yards per ounce (or grams).

Yarn labels state yardage and ounces/grams. Say your skein has 3.5 ounces and 220 yards.  Divide total yardage/by total ounces.  In this example, that works out to approximately 63 yards/ounce. (220/3.5=62.857).

2.   Determine how much yardage you used.

You need to weigh your yarn BEFORE you start your project (if you aren’t using new skeins) then weigh your yarn AFTER you finish. Subtract ending weight from starting weight to determine weight of yarn used.  Then multiply by amount of yards per ounce as determined from the label in the first step.  In the above example, if you used 1.5 ounces of yarn then yardage would be 1.5 X 63 = 94.5 yards.   That’s it!

There are 28 grams per ounce so if you measure in grams, you will have a much more accurate calculation.  I have a digital kitchen scale.  I believe I bought at Wal-Mart for about $20.  I know some people use the scales at local post offices.  Just remember to always save the yarn labels of partial skeins.  That way, you can calculate how much yardage you have on hand.  If a pattern states estimated yardage needed to complete the project, you’ll know right away if you have enough or not.

Have fun!