Knitting Tool
Yardage & Length Calculator
From the total weight a pattern asks for to the yards and skeins that means for your yarn.
How to use the calculator
- 1 Total weight
Enter the total weight of yarn the pattern specifies, in ounces or grams.
- 2 Skein specifications
Enter the weight and length of one skein, from the ball band.
- 3 Get total length
See the total length and the number of skeins, rounded up to whole skeins.
Result: Yarn Length
Yarn Length Calculator
Calculate the total yarn length and exact number of skeins you need for your knitting project. Never run out of yarn in the middle of a sweater again.
A Norwegian version of this page is available on Strikketips.no
Why use a yardage calculator?
A pattern often gives the yarn amount as a weight, or as a number of skeins of the yarn it was written for. But it is the length of the yarn that decides whether you'll have enough, and two yarns of the same weight category can hold very different lengths per ounce. The yardage calculator turns the pattern's weight into yards, and those yards into skeins of your yarn.
Imagine you need 14 oz400 g of yarn with a yarn length of 164 yards150 m per 1.75 oz50 g. If you substitute a yarn with only 131 yards120 meters per 1.75 oz50 g and buy the same total weight, you get a fifth less yarn (120 ÷ 150 = 0.8), and you will run out.
How to calculate yarn requirements manually
The calculator does one division and one multiplication:
Formula for calculating total length
Total length = (total weight ÷ weight per skein) × length per skein, with weight in the same unit throughout (ounces or grams).
Example calculation
Suppose your pattern specifies 14 oz400 g of yarn, and your chosen yarn has 191 yards175 meters per 1.75 oz50 g skein. :
- Number of skeins: 14 oz ÷ 1.75 oz400 g ÷ 50 g = 8 skeins
- Total length: 8 skeins × 191 yards = 1,528 yards175 m = 1,400 m
When the division doesn't come out even, the calculator rounds the skein count up — you can't buy part of a skein.
We add about 10% on top for swatching, gauge differences, seams and length adjustments. The calculator doesn't add it for you.
When to use a yardage calculator
- Yarn substitutions: knitting a pattern in a different yarn from the one it was written for.
- Holding yarn double: each strand needs the full length, so work out the skeins for each yarn separately.
- Stash busting: weigh leftover yarn and enter it as the total weight to see how many yards you have.
- Your own designs: weigh a finished piece to find out how many yards it took.
Yardage in our yarn catalog (per 1.75 oz50 g)
Yardage varies with fiber and spinning method, and no standard sets yards per ounce for a weight category — the Craft Yarn Council publishes gauge, not yardage. So the figures below are not a norm. They are the span among the yarns in our own catalog, normalized to 1.75 oz50 g. Treat them as a rough bearing, never as a substitute for the yardage printed on the ball band.
- Lace: 459 yards420 meters– 470 yards430 meters (2 yarns)
- Fingering: 219 yards200 meters– 220 yards201 meters (3 yarns)
- Sport: 164 yards150 meters– 171 yards156 meters (2 yarns)
- DK: 137 yards125 meters– 180 yards165 meters (4 yarns)
- Worsted: 84 yards77 meters– 140 yards128 meters (8 yarns)
- Bulky: 52 yards48 meters– 55 yards50 meters (2 yarns)
- Super Bulky: 30 yards27 meters– 37 yards34 meters (3 yarns)
Why is yardage/length more important than weight when buying yarn?
Two yarns of the same thickness can hold very different lengths. In our own catalog, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter and Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride are both worsted weight and both mostly wool, but Shelter gives 140 yards per 1.75 oz128 m per 50 g against Lamb's Pride's 8477 — two thirds more yarn for the same weight, because Shelter is woolen-spun and traps air. If you buy by weight alone you can end up well short. Yardage is the number that decides.
What is the standard weight of a yarn skein?
There isn't one. Of the 24 yarns in our catalog, 10 come in 3.5 oz100 g skeins and 5 in 1.8 oz50 g; the rest range from 0.9 oz25 g to 10.6 oz300 g. Check the ball band, and enter the weight it gives.