What does yarn length mean?

The yarn length quite simply tells you how many metres of yarn you get per gram. A thin yarn will therefore have a longer yarn length than a thick yarn, simply because you get several metres of yarn per gram with a thinner yarn type. You can read the yarn length on the yarn skein label, where it may be written as e.g. 50g = 120 metres. This means that you get 120 metres of yarn per 50 gram

Why you need to know the yarn length

You need to know about the yarn length when buying yarn for your knitting or crochet projects. Your pattern will state what specific yarn length the yarn consumption has been calculated from. It will therefore be easier to use yarn with the length that your knitting or crochet pattern indicates. The yarn length will often be specified in relation to 50 grams, so you can easily find yarn skeins that suit your yarn project.

Can I use yarn with a different length?

The most important thing is that you match the knitting tension, and then you can more or less use any type of yarn you want when you follow a pattern. You need the yarn length to calculate your yarn consumption when you want to use a thicker or thinner yarn than what the pattern indicates. You do this by calculating how many metres of yarn the pattern prescribes, and you can then calculate how many skeins of your desired it corresponds to.

Example of how to calculate yarn consumption

You are knitting with a pattern that recommends 400 grams of yarn with a yarn length of 160 metres per 50 grams. This corresponds to 8 yarn skeins of 50 grams. Instead, you wish to use a yarn with a yarn length of 140 metres per 50 grams.

First, you calculate the number of metres in the recommended type of yarn:

(400 grams / 50 grams) x 160 metres = 1,280 metres of yarn for the pattern

Now you can calculate the yarn consumption of your desired yarn with a yarn length of 140 metres per 50 grams:

1,280 metres / 140 metres = 9.14 yarn skein of 50 grams

In this case, it will be best to round up the number. So you buy 10 skeins of your desired yarn. It is always best to have a little extra yarn just to be on the safe side.