Determining Yarn Weights

Yarn comes in different thicknesses or yarn weights. In this video, Mister Domestic shares tips for determining the weight of a yarn. He explores how to determine the wraps per inch for a yarn. With this information, the weight of the yarn will be known.

YARN WEIGHTS

There are eight standard yarn weights. They are:

• – Lace
• – Super Fine
• – Fine
• – Light
• – Medium
• – Bulky
• – Super Bulky
• – Jumbo

WRAPS PER INCH (WPI)

The wraps per inch of a yarn is determined by wrapping the yarn around a crochet hook and then measuring how many times it wrapped around that hook in a one-inch segment. Mister Domestic demonstrates this with a few different yarns from his yarn stash. He is using a US Size N/10mm hook. However, any size hook can be used – you can even use this technique with a knitting needle or pencil. Because you are wrapping the yarn around to measure an inch along the hook, the hook size actually doesn’t matter. The wraps per inch is calculated based on an inch along the length of the hook, so the width of the hook is irrelevant.

Wraps per inch and gauge are important tools for determining yarn weight and can help you figure out what type of yarn you have, even if the yarn label is missing.

Get the Wraps Per Inch Cheat Sheet PDF here.