How to Combine Strands to Reach Any Yarn Weight

Have you ever wondered how many strands of lace weight yarn you need to hold for a worsted weight project? Or what you could make with the lace+fingering+sport weight scrap pile you have hiding in your stash?

In this blog post, we talk about how to math your way to the answers of these questions:

From Lace to Chunky

Basics:

A rough guide from which to calculate:

Lace + Lace = Fingering

Fingering + Lace = Sport

Fingering + Fingering = DK

DK + DK = Chunky

Worsted + Worsted = Super Chunky

These are based on yarn weight charts. 

Details:

However, in reality, it all depends on the specific yarn you are working with. If you have the yarn label handy, check the meterage/yardage to grams. Let's take some of our bases as examples:

Lace weight (Veranita) holds 300m per 25g, or 1200m per 100g. Held double like based on the rough guide, it would measure 600m per 100g; this is not enough to match a fingering weight yarn. However, held triple it holds 400m per 100g. Now it has reached our fingering weight base Dashing Fingering. 

Fingering weight (Dashing Fingering) holds 400m per 100g. Held double, it will measure 200m per 100g - slightly less than our DK bases (225m/100g). 

The formula here is:

Yarn meters per 100g divided by the times they are held together. 

Formula: How to combine mixed yarn weights

You can often tell by eye if the yarns you are holding will 'add up' to what you are attempting to match - if not in hand, then in swatch. If you'd rather let the numbers get their say in first, here's some calculations to do before testing:

Let's imagine you are trying to match our Dashing DK, 225m per 100g.

You have Veranita (300m per 25g), Dashing Fingering (400m per 100g), Melted Baby Suri (175m per 50g) and Baby Teddy (325m per 50g). 

The formula:

Yarn A = heavier weight (Dashing Fingering) Yarn B = lighter weight (Veranita)

How many g of Yarn B is Yarn A meterage.  1200m = 100g  400m = 33g

How many g of Yarn B is Yarn A meterage.  1200m = 100g  400m = 33g

Yarn A + Yarn B = ? 100g + 33g = 133g

How many m would be in a 100g of Yarn A + B skein? 133g = 400m 100g = 300m

These calculations show that Veranita + Dashing Fingering create a sport weight yarn.

The other possibilities: 

Veranita + Veranita + Dashing Fingering = 240m per 100g (DK weight)

Melted Baby Suri + Veranita = 208m per 100g (worsted weight)

Baby Teddy + Dashing Fingering = 250m per 100g (sport weight)

Baby Teddy + Dashing Fingering + Veranita = 218m per 100g (DK weight)

Putting it to the Test

We knit a swatch to showcase this in action. Each yarn combination got 2 rows, with 2 rows of DK weight yarn inbetween. As you can see from the image, most of the combinations come very close to the DK weight we were trying to match. 

Making a swatch like this can help you determine which yarn combinations give too much or too little for a uniform look. 

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We hope this guide helps you make the most of those yarns hiding in your stash, wishing to be part of something. In the next Yarn Math blog post, we will show how to put this skill to use when finding yarns to hold for a specific pattern.