Yarn Yardage Calculator

In short This estimates how much yarn a project needs by scaling up a swatch you have actually knitted: measure the swatch, measure or weigh the yarn it used, and the same yarn-per-area applies to the finished piece. Doing it from your own swatch rather than from a table is the whole point, because yardage depends on your tension, and two knitters working the same yarn to the same stated gauge can still use noticeably different amounts. A published yards-per-ball figure tells you what is in the ball, not what you will use. The estimate here adds fifteen per cent for seams, weaving in ends and ordinary margin, and even then it is an estimate rather than a guarantee. Two things push it low. Cables and colourwork use substantially more yarn than stocking stitch over the same area, because the fabric pulls in and stranded work carries a second yarn across the back — so if your swatch is plain and the garment is not, swatch again in the actual pattern. And ribbing at a hem is denser than the body. The practical advice that matters more than the arithmetic: buy all of it in one dye lot, now. Yarn is dyed in batches, two balls of the same shade from different lots can be visibly different in daylight, and the difference usually shows up only once the garment is knitted and hung up.