Yarn 101 - A Beginner's Guide

One is always overwhelmed when it comes to choosing the yarn to selecting the colors for your project, and I can understand that feeling as I too have been there...yes - trust me, and specially for a person like me who is expansive, wild and creative - but not knowing if a particular yarn is right for your project or not is a big question mark!

I hear you ;) 

So here is my version of basic yarn 101 lessons that will help you take yarn decisions!  

What is yarn?
a continuous often plied strand composed of either natural or man-made fibers or filaments and used in weaving and knitting to form cloth.
b : a similar strand of another material (such as metal, glass, or plastic)

Definition in merriam-webster dictionary

Now, now every wool is a yarn but not every yarn is a wool! Surprised, I too was, lets understand why?

 There are two different fibers

• Natural, as the name suggests, derived from natural sources such as animal, plant and vegetable. Animal fibers include wool, mohair, angora, silk, cashmere, llama, alpaca and qiviut (musk ox) and are made of mostly protein. Plant based fibers are Bamboo, Hemp and Viscose. Cotton, linen and ramie are vegetable fibers.

• Synthetic is man-made fibers that are not found in nature. Polyester, Polyamide and Blended yarns are different types to name a few.

Wool is normally the yarn derived sheep coat. They are more breathable, sustainable and can easily passed on from one generation to another as they are long lasting. They are biodegradable as they do not have micro-plastics but one needs to understand how it is sourced though..

Synthetic yarns are affordable and accessible and are easy to find at your near Yarn or Art & Craft store. They are not sensitive to the skin and do not require extra care while washing. They are not long lasting but again it depends if it was very well made.

If you are a beginner you can always start with budget yarns then move to luxury yarns including hand dyed, mohair or silk yarns, that way if you mess up or usually end up frogging that won’t be the end of world!

Identifying yarn weights:

Yarns come in different weights – usually defined by the number of plies the cord is made up of.  The Craft Yarn Council (CYC) created a standardized yarn weight system - and hence they come in 8 weights starting from 0 (lace weight) to 7 (super bulky weight).

Don’t worry, your project will always specify the yarn weight required and quantity that would be needed to finish it.

Below are the various yarn weights, where you will see the pictorial yarn symbol with weights and names referred by in the first row.

The category will help you what kind of projects can be made with that weight yarn. For example, weight 2 yarn, also know as Fine/Sport/Baby is usually used for baby clothes, wraps and shawls or summer knits. Usually in UK/Europe you will see that they associate numbers (like 2 or 4) with yarn weights but in North America they associate names with yarn weights (like DK, worsted)

Coming to the Knit or Crochet gauge!

Basically, to determine the tension of your gauge is to determine how loose or tight your stiches are, how you hold your yarn so that your stitches match to that of the pattern designers and your project meets the required size. One can miss the gauge check if its not mentioned in the project as some are freestyle like a blanket but one needs to meet the gauge if you are making a top/sweater so that it can fit properly.

Normally a pattern calls for a swatch test, where the designer mentions the yarn weight and hook or needles size and the number of stitches that needs to be casted on or chain enough to measure until its  Y inches/cm in length and then work X rows. We the check stitches per four inches squared or ten centimeters squared to accurately measure tension/gauge.

Now now, if you think you are still lost or all this is too overwhelming, don’t worry we are always there to help you..below are few tips to keep in mind to pick up a yarn for beginners

1. Choose a simple or beginner friendly project/pattern as it mentions the exact yarn (brand, weight) used to get the achieved look by the designer usually that’s not the case
2. Try to avoid challenging/textured yarns as it can ruin your project as
3. Avoid rowan/fluff yarn, keep it simple and go for a twisted yarn.
4. Go towards the heavier weight – 4 or 5 as you need to concentrate on fine motar skills required to master with your hooks/needles

Yess! you are now ready to pick up a yarn and start your stitch journey – one row at a time! 😊