How to tell what weight a yarn is?

[Carla1019]

There is the number way. Then there is the "cobweb, lace, light fingering, fingering, sport, DK, worsted, Aran, Bulky, and Super Bulky."

But when the yarn does not have any thing on it to tell you what weight it is, How do you tell. I have a ball of Berroco Foliage,
1.75 oz, 100 yds,
53% wool, and 47% acrylic.
18 rows, 13 stitches 3.25 sts = 1"

Thanks.

[cinnamon_girl]

Carla,
I have a chart of standard yarn weights I printed out from ravelry. It looks like it is a bulky weight. You can get that chart and kkep it as a refernece.

Also from http://www.yarndex.com/
I got the following info including yardage and wiight... bulky

Berroco's "Foliage" is a self-striping beauty, loosely spun of fiber-dyed color striations that create unique color effects. Its 12 color combinations inspire creativity for knitting and crocheting for women, men and children. Choose from colors based on New England's peak foliage harmonies, on sophisticated menswear tweeds, on brilliant optical brights or on sweet baby mixes. Crafted in Italy of 53% new wool and 47% acrylic.

Hope that helps

[shortnsweetly]

If your yarn dosen't have the weight printed on the yarn because you lost the label, spun it yourself or whatever you can use WPI guage.
WPI guage measures the wraps per inch of a given yarn. You can use a pencil ,a ruler or a commercial WPI guage, the result will be the same. To measure wraps per inch, take your tool of choice and roll a few inches of yarn around it. Grasp the yarn end against your tool and roll the tool to wind on the yarn. If you choos to wrap the yarn instead, dont wrap too tightly because you'll distort the measurment by stretching the yarn. Each strand of yarn should just touch its neighbor on the tool. The number of strands in one inch is your WPI measurement.

yea, so after all the jumble of words, heres a little chart

yarn weight - WPI - needle size
Lace - 18+ - 00-2
Fingering - 16 - 2-4
Sport - 14 - 4-6
Worsted - 12 - 7-9
Bulky - 10 - 10-11
Very bulky - 8 or fewer - 13-15

I hope this all made sense and will help you. Happy knitting!

[Carla1019]

Thank you both for your help. I understand now. I had clip out a page in knitsmiple mag. After what you guy wrote and the page I have, NOw I get it.. Thanks again for your help and web pages.

[suzeeq]

There is the number way. Then there is the "cobweb, lace, light fingering, fingering, sport, DK, worsted, Aran, Bulky, and Super Bulky."

But when the yarn does not have any thing on it to tell you what weight it is, How do you tell. I have a ball of Berroco Foliage,
1.75 oz, 100 yds,
53% wool, and 47% acrylic.
18 rows, 13 stitches 3.25 sts = 1"

Thanks.

You left out a bit from the description, including the needle size.

GAUGE: 3.25 sts = 1"/ 13 sts & 18 rows = 4" (10 cm)

NEEDLE SIZE: 11 (US) / 8 mm

With needles that size it has to be a 5 or 6, bulky or super bulky.

[redwitch]

Any of those ways can be used to tell what weight a wool is. The most practical and common is st/10cm, that is what I always use as it's specfied in the pattern and on the wool, but you might also be interested in looking into wpi/ wraps per inch, and the ply system.