Yarn By Weight

What are yarn weights? The word weight is kind of misleading when describing yarn. Someone might assume that refers to how much a yarn weighs as in ounces or pounds. But, this is not what it means. When someone is talking about yarn weights, they are talking about how thick or thin a yarn is. A yarn weight of 0 is very thin. A yarn weight of 7 is very very thick. The yarn weight scale is from 0 to 7, 0 being the thinnest yarn to 7 being the thickest yarn.Yarn Weights were invented by the Craft Yarn Council of America as a way to help standardized yarn by thickness. Their goal was to bring uniformity to yarn, needle and hook labeling and to patterns making it easier for manufacturers, publishers, designers and consumers to select the correct materials for a project and complete it successfully. These yarn standards can be downloaded from www.YarnStandards.com. The Standard Yarn Weight System has been adopted by most manufacturers, publishers and designers in the United States. The Craft Yarn Council of America is now reaching out globally to try to get the standards and guidelines implemented worldwide. Here we try to sort the yarn we carry by knitting yarn weights, to make it easier for you to choose the correct yarn for your project. We do advise you to still check your gauges by knitting a test swatch if you are substituting yarn.