Yarn Yardage Calculator — Grams to Yards
Enter the weight and length printed on your yarn label and this converts between grams, yards, metres and skeins. Weigh a partial ball to find out exactly how much is left, or enter the yardage a pattern calls for to see how many skeins to buy. The maths is simply yards per gram, and it is the number every substitution depends on.
From your yarn label:
Optional — to check a partial ball or a project:
How to use it
- Copy the two numbers from the label — the skein weight in grams and its length in yards. If the label gives metres, multiply by 1.094.
- To measure a partial ball, weigh it and enter that in the third field.
- To plan a purchase, enter the pattern’s yardage in the fourth field and buy the rounded-up number of skeins.
A worked example
A 100 g skein of worsted at 220 yards is 2.2 yards per gram. You have a leftover ball weighing 43 g — that is 95 yards, or 0.43 of a skein. The amigurumi you want to make needs 140 yards, so you are 45 yards short: about 21 g, so one more skein, and from the same dye lot.
Typical yards per gram by yarn weight
Use this to sanity-check a yarn before substituting. Names vary between brands; the ratio does not.
| Weight | Yards per gram | Typical 100 g skein |
|---|---|---|
| Lace (0) | 7.0 – 10.0 | 700 – 1000 yd |
| Fingering (1) | 3.6 – 4.6 | 360 – 460 yd |
| Sport (2) | 2.9 – 3.6 | 290 – 360 yd |
| DK (3) | 2.2 – 2.9 | 220 – 290 yd |
| Worsted / Aran (4) | 1.6 – 2.2 | 160 – 220 yd |
| Bulky (5) | 1.0 – 1.6 | 100 – 160 yd |
| Super bulky (6) | 0.5 – 1.0 | 50 – 100 yd |
| Jumbo (7) | under 0.5 | under 50 yd |
Frequently asked questions
- How do I work out the yardage of a partial ball of yarn?
- Weigh it, then multiply by the yards per gram from the label. A 100 g / 220 yard skein is 2.2 yards per gram, so 43 g of it is about 95 yards. Kitchen scales are accurate enough.
- How do I know if I have enough yarn to finish?
- Weigh what is left and compare it with the yardage still to work. If you are within about ten per cent, stop and buy another skein — running out two rounds from the end is worse than one spare ball.
- Does yards per gram tell me the yarn weight?
- It is a good indicator. Roughly: over 4 yards per gram is lace or fingering, 2 to 3 is DK to worsted, 1 to 1.5 is bulky, under 1 is super bulky. It is more reliable than the name on the label, which is not standardised between brands.
- Why does my yarn weigh more than the label says?
- Natural fibres take up moisture from the air, and labels round down. A 100 g skein weighing 104 g is normal. Use the label’s ratio rather than assuming the label weight is exact.
- What is a dye lot and why does it matter?
- It is the batch a yarn was dyed in, printed on the label. Two skeins of the same colour from different lots can differ enough to show as a line in the finished piece. Buy all the yarn for a project at once.
Related free tools
Crochet gauge calculator — adjust stitch counts when your gauge differs · Craft pricing calculator — yarn cost per finished piece · All free craft tools
Our crochet patterns state yardage per size, not “3 skeins” — because your yarn is not the yarn we used.