Yarn Weight and Length: Converting Yards to Grams

A while back I had the chance to rummage through my Memere’s stash. Not the best selection of yarn (after all she was living on a pension) but regardless, it was yarn and it was free. And who doesn’t love free yarn! All of the yarn I chose (except for 2 skeins of Bernat Baby Softee) are no longer available today. The label only told me the gauge, needle size and grams. No yards or metres. I knew approximately how much was in the skein. For that size skein and for sports weight it’s approximately 200-300 yards give or take 20 yards. The more I thought of my approximation, the more I realized I need small projects because I would be up a certain creek without paddles if I ran out of this yarn. So I stashed it away telling myself that I’ll find the perfect project for this yarn.

Then few weeks ago I had an Etsy customer ask me how many grams of yarn were needed for one of my patterns. All that went through my mind was, grams??? No no you want yards and I gave you that info! But it turns out that the U.K. way to determine yarn needed is through grams. (I’m also guessing that that’s the old way of doing it since my Memere’s yarn only had grams given). So I scoured the internet for some easy conversions. Easy to find it was not! Hidden deep in old conversations on one of my knitting forums, I found this:

Lace: 8.8 yds (9m) / gram

Fingering: 4.4 yds (4m) / gram

Sport: 2.75 yds (2.5m) / gram

DK: 2.5 yds (2.25m) / gram

Worsted: 2.2 yds (2m) / gram

Heavy Worsted: 1.65 yds (1.5m) / gram

Bulky: 1.1 yds (1m) / gram

Super Bulky: 0.8 yds (0.75m) / gram

Now with some easy math (math is not my strong suit, so if I can do it so can you!) I can finally  figure out how much yarn I have.  So here’s how I calculated it (for worsted):

2.2 yds = 1 gram

multiple the yards/gram by the amount of grams you have in your ball of yarn.

2.2 x 113 = 248.6

And tada! in this ball of yarn I have approximately 248.6 yds of yarn. I’m approximating because I doubt it’s 100% accurate.

Bernat Smarty Pants - Only weight given
Bernat Smarty Pants – Only weight given

Happy Knitting,

Ashley

Ashley Fernandes

I love knitting! Everything from the yarn, to the needles, to the finished product make me happy. I am here to share my passion with all of you.
Happy Knitting

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7 Comments

  1. Becky says:

    Thank you so much for sharing this info … It is indeed hard to find!

  2. Jenjen says:

    I am soooooooo confused still . Sorry to be a pain .But I have managed to convert 500 yards of dk yarn to 458 metres of 8ply cotton approx .Now , I need to convert the metres to grams .And I just can’t get my head around it at all .
    Would this be correct ? I gram 8pl / dk = 2.25 grams , so multiply that by the amount of yarn needed which is 458 grams … 2.25 x 458 = 1030.5 grams ?

    1. I think (and I hope I’m understanding correctly) that you’re trying to convert 458 metres to grams.
      If this is the case and you need to determine the total grams needed then you would divide 458 metres by 2.25m (amount of metres in 1 gram). Therefore you would have or need 203 grams of 8 ply cotton. (458/2.25=203).

      Now if what you have is 458 grams of 8 ply cotton and you need to determine the amount in metres you would multiply 458 grams by 2.25 metres. So you would have or need 1030.5 metres of yarn. (458×2.25=1030.5).

      I hope this helps and let me know if I understood this question all wrong.

  3. claire says:

    bookmarking this post because i have been trying to find this information for forever! i can finally start working with all that recycled/thrift wool that’s been sitting around waiting for me to figure out how much i actually have.
    thanks for this!

  4. I live in Australia and I have 7 balls of wool which are 25gms each. I need to convert to skeins! Would I have enough with 175grms of wool to be equal to 2 skeins as required in the pattern?

  5. Katie says:

    Bookmarked! This is supremely helpful!

  6. Rachel says:

    I don’t mean to burst any bubbles, but the length per gram will also depend on the fibre of the yarn. For example, cotton is a heavier material than wool, so 1 inch of DK cotton will weigh more than 1 inch of DK wool.

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