Calculating Fibre Quantities for Spinning

7 October, 2013

This is one of my biggest questions when I first started spinning: How much fibre do I need in order to spin enough yardage to knit a scarf/shawl/sweater/socks/etc?

Estimating how much handspun yarn you need for a project can be tricky. For knitting patterns, yardage requirements are usually indicated in the pattern. You can consult Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Guide To Yarn Requirements for generic projects, but sometimes there are small variables that make a big difference in the quantity. What are some of these variables?

Yarn Density

Say you are trying to substitute handspun for a pattern that specifies Cascade 220. How closely will you try to replicate that yarn? Cascade 220 is a super-popular workhorse worsted-weight knitting yarn in 100% merino wool. It’s also made up of 4 plies. Let’s use a rough calculation based on the generic amount of yardage required to knit a sweater—1,000 yards of worsted weight yarn. You would need to spin upwards of 4,000 yards, spread over 16 bobbins, in order to make enough 4-ply worsted weight yarn to mimic Cascade 220.

What if you opt to make a 2-ply worsted-weight yarn to substitute instead. The handspun yarn with fewer plies might be less compacted and dense than the Cascade 220, which usually means that less fibre is packed into the yarn… which means you get more yardage from the same weight of fibre. So, 220 yards of Cascade 220 might be 100g, but you might be able to get 240-250 yards out of 100g of spinning fibre. OR, perhaps you naturally spin a very compact and dense worsted single, which means you might only get 190-200 yards out of 100g of spinning fibre.

Actually, there’s a common trait that beginning spinners produce denser yarn than commercial equivalents. I can’t calculate what this difference might be, because ultimately it depends on the characteristics of your handspun vs the characteristics of the yarn you are trying to substitute. Ultimately, the best solution is sampling and swatching.

Consistency

Let’s say, you don’t want to bother with a gazillion bobbins, so you decide to substitute Cascade 220 for your own chain-plied yarn. Great! Chain-plied yarn is 3-ply as opposed to 4-ply, but it’s closer to 4-ply than 2-ply… so perhaps by using this “rounder” yarn, your finished knitted garment will be closer to what the knitwear designer had intended. But keep in mind that chain-plying tends to magnify the differences in the thickness of your singles. Have a few yards where you spun the singles a little thicker? When chain-plied, those spots will become significantly thicker in the 3-ply yarn than other thinner spots of your yarn. This will affect the overall look of your garment (might look more lumpy-bumpy) and it can affect your final yardage, with the thicker spots using up more fibre but contributing less yardage.

Fibre Content

One important thing to also consider is the type of fibre you are using. Different sheep breeds have fibres consisting of different fineness and weight, and so the same weight of fibre spun at the same specifications, will produce different yardages. This is the basis of the “Bradford Count”, an old system of calculating the fineness of a fibre. In this measurement system, you describe the fineness of wool by the number of 560-yard skeins of singles could be spun from a pound of combed top. The finer the diameter of the wool fibre, the more skeins could be spun. That’s where you get the names “Merino 80s” vs “Merino 64s” for the spinning fibre that you might buy. “Merino 80s” would theoretically be able to produce 80 skeins of 560-yards each, whereas “Merino 64s” would only be able to produce 64 skeins.

The important thing here? If you’re trying to substitute say a fine Merino wool yarn by using a coarser sheep wool like Romney, you’ll likely need more fibre to produce the same yardage. Check out this chart to see the relative differences between different sheep breeds »

Solution: Sampling and Swatching

I know it sounds like a pain to sample and swatch. It sounds like this dreaded obstacle between you and the exquisite expanse of relaxing spinning before you. But sampling will really help you determine if your handspun will be exactly what you want it to be in the end. Here are the steps I consider:

  • Decide what kind of yarn you need to make: worsted vs woolen
  • Decide on a drafting method for spinning that yarn (stick with it!)
  • Decide how you will ply your yarns: 2-ply, 3-ply, traditional, or chain-plied
  • Figure out how many wraps per inch your singles need to be in order to produce the plied yarn you are aiming for
  • Spin a sample of your fibre at your specifications
  • Spin a freshly plied yarn to attach to your wheel or notebook as a target
  • Wash your sample yarn and measure the wraps per inch
  • Knit your sample yarn, determine the best gauge, and wash your knitted swatch
  • Decide if you want to make changes to your yarn
  • “Rinse and repeat” as needed to get the yarn you like
  • Once you find the yarn you like, weigh your skein and measure your yardage with a yardage counter or niddy noddy
  • Calculate your “yards per pound” and determine how much fibre you need to start with, in order to end up with the required yardage (add a bit more fibre, for safety’s sake)

Calculating How Much Fibre You Need

Once you have your handspun’s “yard per pound” number, then you can reference your pattern or a generic yardage requirement chart to calculate how much fibre you need. For example, if your handspun is 900 yards per pound and you want to knit a sweater that takes 1,200 yards, you’ll need approximately 1.33 lbs of fibre. I’d add 15 to 20% just in case so you’re looking at about 1.6 lbs of fibre or 26 ounces.

Yarn Weight yards per pound wraps per inch sts per inch
Cobweb > 6000 > 40
Lace Weight 3000 – 6000 36 – 40
Baby 2400 – 3000 30 – 36
Fingering 1800 – 2400 24 – 30 6.75 – 8
Sport 1300 – 1800 18 – 24 5.75 – 6.5
DK 1000 – 1400 12 – 18 5.25 – 6
Worsted 900 – 1100 10 – 12 4.5 – 5
Aran 700 – 1000 6 – 10 4 – 4.5
Bulky 400 – 700 < 8 3 – 3.75
Chunky < 400 1.5 – 2.75

* Rough guidelines only. The above numbers are compiled from a number of sources, including Spin-Off Magazine, Craft Yarn Council and from experience.

I know it seems like a lot of work to sample, swatch and figure out how much fibre you need, but it saves you from the opposite issue of running out and then having to order more fibre (sometimes impossible if you’re using hand-dyed fibre), or having to truncate or alter your knitting project. Or you can do what I tend to do… over-estimate on the extreme side and end up with tons of extra fibre which will need to be sorted, stored and organized!

Off-topic Spinzilla Update

Spinzilla just started last night for #teamsweetgeorgia, and I took my first hour spinning a tiny 10 g sample skein to see if I would be happy with the yarn (before diving in and attempting to spin 2 lbs of fibre). I managed to spin about 48 yards of singles from 10 g of Organic Polwarth+Silk dyed in Deep Cove and Willow. I broke off chunks and held both colours together while I spun from the fold. It took about 20 minutes, so I guess my spinning rate is MUCH slower than those competitors in the SOAR event. It’s looking like about 144 yards of singles per hour if I spin with this long-draw method. That is, about 3 1/3 hrs to spin 4 oz. I can’t imagine how slow I would be if I switched back to my short forward draw.

In any case, the yarn sample I made measured 1089 yards per pound and 10 wpi, fitting beautifully in the “worsted” weight category. I’ll knit a little swatch and see what I think too. But right now, I feel like the two colours mixed together look a bit like swamp water, so I’ve switched to spinning some BFL+Silk in Berry Tart for a future weaving project. Can I just say that I woke up at 6 am this morning from being distressed about what fibres to spin this week?

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  1. Avatar Vincent Luschas JR says:

    Am I the only man who spins, dyes, weaves, knits these days? Have you ever had a men’s only spinning, dyeing, weaving retreat? I accidentally discovered I had a talent for weaving in the mid-1970s. Scotty and his wife trekked through Nigeria one summer, came home, invited me and my partner over, we toked, and he described a loom he saw common everwhere they went. He described a lap loom but I got the dimensions all wrong. I decided to build one. So I went to Fingerly Lumber and purchased a bunch of 8′ 2 x 4s. I got a couple of 8″ landscape timbers that I rounded in what was supposed to be branches for the beams. I used a disk sander with a box full of course sand paper discs and away I went. I’m still amazed when I think back to all that sawdust. But I fashioned two true round beams. I remembered how to lash them. I used clothes line. Then I called Scotty and invited him over to surprise him… Oh, well, he literally sank to the floor laughing when He walked into the room and was struck by the sight of this monsterously huge “loom?” That was the question. Could it weave? Damn. Now quite toasted, we drove over to Millie’s yarn shop in Kerrytown and bought cones of shiny rich pearl cotton yarn. And we warped the loom, fashioned a sword from a 1 x 2 I had laying around, strung the heddles with a 30″ length of rattan. And I became a weaver. I resigned from my teaching position. Never went back. I made my living weaving for the next 10 years. Earned enough to purchase the residential/commercial building I lived and worked in, for a time with Max Davis, still a professor, glass and pottery, at the Center for Creative Studies. I never attended art school, but for years random art professors would wander up to my apartment when visiting Max and would teach me all kinds of stuff. After 10 years I sold the building, moved to Manhattan, earned 2 graduate degrees at Columbia University, and became a clinical social worker. Retired now, I’ve returned to spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting. I live across the street from Stamps School of Art and Design at the University of Michigan. I hear from staff that a young man moved in “with a machine just like yours” he said pointing to the loom. Haven’t met him yet. I’m curious. It will be cool to hear his story. So, beat the bushes for some men into this scene. I’ve met very few. I’ve spoken to both of the Collingwoods. Peter and I started weaving about the same time. In lots of ways its good that his son has moved on into a world that I hope will be more his own. I’m building a WordPress website that I’ll link to Ravelry and Etsy hopefully before the first snow. Busy knitting swatches of recently spun and dyed yarn. So, hey, yeah, here’s a shout out to you guys out there into fiber and what we humans do with the stuff.

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