If you’re anything like me, you have a lot of partially-used skeins (or balls or cakes) of yarn lying around. So you’ve probably found yourself in a situation where you think you have enough yarn to make a particular pattern, but even though you can weigh the partial skein to find out how many ounces are left, your pattern only lists required yardage.
What’s a girl (or guy) to do?
Luckily, this is a pretty easy thing to figure out once you know the equation. It’s the same equation I used to teach you to how to figure out the yardage of a finished product (read that blog post here), except we’re just changing out some of the information we need to plug in.
All you need is your partial skein(s), a calculator, a scale that weighs in ounces or grams (a food scale or a postage scale will work), and the information on the label of the skein you used (or if you’re like me and threw it away long ago, you can look up the yarn’s stats on the company’s web site). Using the diagram below, follow the directions to quickly find your answer. (If you aren’t a fellow math nerd, don’t let the diagram scare you away. Just follow the directions. It’s easy, I promise.)
So, let’s walk through this with an example. I’ll use a partial skein I have right here with me. It’s Lion Brand’s LB Collection Superwash Merino (a #3 light yarn). I’ve just finished designing a new pattern with it (coming soon), and I have quite a bit left, so I’d like to know if there is enough for me to make a pair of Comfy Squares Boot Cuffs, which calls for 160 yards of #3 light yarn.
Step 1: Fill in the info for the pink and blue boxes. According to my food scale, the partial skein weighs 1.6 oz, so I’ll plug that into the pink box on the bottom left. I also have the skein’s label right in front of me, which tells me that one full skein has 306 total yards (pink box on the top right), and it weighs 3.5oz (blue box). (If I didn’t have the label, again, I would look up the yarn on the company’s web site.)
Here’s what I have so far:
Step 2: Multiply the numbers in the pink boxes together. 1.6 x 306 = 489.6
Step 3: Take the total from step 2, and divide it by the number in the blue box. 489.6 / 3.5 = 139.9
Step 4: My total yardage for the partial skein is about 140 yards! Unfortunately, that’s not enough for the boot cuff pattern. So instead, I’ll probably wrap a blank sheet of paper around the skein and write the yardage right on that piece of paper so I’ll know for next time.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy (as my 5 year old would say)!