Knitting Rules! (9 page)

With experience, you're probably going to be able to tell if a yarn is chunky or worsted weight by giving it a little squeeze and, eventually, with a glance. If you don't have this experience, or if you're dealing with hand-spun, where it can be a little trickier, you could probably use a few hints.

The most reliable way to tell what you have is to swatch some of it, but I prefer using “wraps per inch” or WPI. This method is faster and leaves more knitting time. Find a ruler (sorry … I don't know where it is) and your yarn and plant yourself in a comfy chair. Wrap the yarn around the ruler — not too tight or you stretch the yarn;
not too loose or you can't measure properly. Just wrap, laying the yarn next to itself on the ruler so that you fill all the spaces between the strands, but don't squash them together. Find the marking for one inch on the ruler and count how many wraps of the yarn fit in that space. If you are an inconsistent wrapper or a really precise knitter, measure the wraps over a couple of inches and divide to get an average and consistent number.

Once you've figured out what your yarn is made of and what weight it is, the only thing left to wonder is “How much is in the ball?” (Well, there are also these questions: “Is it enough to make a sweater?” and “When will the world have peace?” but you know what I mean.)

Following are five ways to guesstimate how much you have of a particular yarn.

Method 1

Get a McMorran balance
. This little gizmo is a kind of scale set to balance at a certain weight. You hang a piece of yarn on it, snip away at it until the arm balances, then measure the piece of yarn you have and multiply by 100. This tells you how many yards there are per pound. Then you weigh the skein and bob's yer uncle, you know how much yarn you have. (
Disadvantage:
You need to get a McMorran balance, and because it's mainly a spinner/weaver gadget, you may not be able to get one from your local yarn store.)

Method 2

Get a yarn meter
. Clamp the meter onto a table in between the ball of yarn and your ball winder. Slide the yarn through the slot in the top of the thing, attach it to the ball winder, and start pulling the yarn through the meter by winding it on the ball winder. The yarn passes through little rollers in the middle that count off yards or meters, and displays how much has passed through. (
Disadvantage:
Requires a ball winder, and because most have a digital display, they stop working if you happen to spill coffee on them.)

Method 3

Cut 10 yards of yarn from the ball
and take the piece and that ball over to the post office. Get someone there
to weigh the 10 yards. (If your post office is sort of cranky about your knitting problems, you could buy a scale that measures down to half a gram.) Now you know how much 10 yards weighs, and you can weigh the ball and do the math to figure out the rest. (
Disadvantage:
This method is not as accurate as the meter or balance, and it relies on your ability to do math. If you have trouble with that kind of thing, you may want another option.)

Method 4

Wind the yarn around a skein winder
like a niddy noddy, or use the back of a chair if you don't have one. Then measure the distance around the chair, count the number of times it went around, and then do the math. This is a good option for the knitter who has time but no tools. (
Disadvantange
: It's as tedious as explaining the phone rules to a 16-year-old girl, and just as time-consuming.)

Method 5

Measure it against a yardstick
. This is probably the most accurate, least technical method, but unless you have a really short skein of yarn, it's only slightly more fun than shaving your head with a rusty razor.

I've never met a yarn I didn't like. Well, let me take that back. I've never met a yarn I didn't like for
something
. All yarns have a purpose (even if you can't imagine it). I admit, if you are a traditional lace knitter, then the purpose of bulky neon yellow acrylic might be lost on you, but I assure you, there's some other knitter standing in another yarn shop somewhere else in the world holding
your treasured lace weight in her hand and thinking, “What on earth would you do with this thread?” There are knitters who never knit with wool and knitters who use only cotton. There are knitters who've told me that silk smells funny (I refuse to entertain that) and knitters who find mohair too fuzzy. There are also self-professed “fiber snobs” who use only natural fibers and frown on acrylic, but they are canceled out by the acrylic fans who are laughing their rear ends off when the snobs get a moth infestation. Then there are the knitters who know this:

All yarn is here for a reason. No one fiber (or sort of knitter) is
morally
superior to another.

If you can't stand on the moral high ground for choosing the right fiber (or at least, I hope you won't), then how do you pick? Advantages and disadvantages. Think of your potential yarn as a date and write yourself a little “pro-and-con” chart, just like you did when you were a teenager and had to make a decision.

Before you go making a blanket statement about a fiber, like “Wool is itchy” or “Acrylic is crap,” keep in mind that fibers may have changed since the last time you met them. Acrylic is no longer (not necessarily, anyway) the sort of plastic extruded stuff you remember from the 1970s. Some of it is downright elegant, soft, and — in the case of new microfiber technology — intriguing and unique. On the other side of the fence, wool isn't necessarily (though you can sure find it if you look for it) the scratchy stuff your winter long johns were made out of, either. Go to the yarn shop and take an open mind with you.

Wool is the vanilla of the fiber world
. It's the workhorse of knitting and we know why. Wool is warm when it's wet, emits heat as it dries (damn, that's cool), and is a renewable resource. It's also naturally flame-retardant, making it a great choice for blankies and clothes for kids. There's tough wool that wears like iron and wool softer than butter. There's superwash wool that goes in the washer and drier and wool that doesn't go in the washer and drier, making it good for felting. Wool is forgiving and elastic, retains its shape well, and can be persuaded (by blocking) to take on a new shape. Wool is the fiber not of choice, but of choices.

One very good reason to knit with wool is its malleability. Wool stretches and shrinks, and, generally speaking, bends to the will of the knitter very nicely. If you are, like me, an “imprecise” knitter, this characteristic of wool will suit you, as it forgives mistakes and unevenness like no other fiber.

Wool is moth food
and if you have a big stash, you can't put that much moth food in one place and not expect them to flutter to the buffet. Also, wool felts. Although I presented this as an advantage above, that was when I was assuming you wanted it to. When it happens by accident, it's a disadvantage. Wool takes — much like the people who will wear it — a little care when washing.

Cotton is a natural fiber
, cool (cooler than wool) to wear, and a wonderful option for knitters who live in
southern climes. (I understand that my affection for wool probably seems silly to Hawaiian knitters.) It's durable, comes in many wonderful and vibrant colors because it takes dye well, and is almost without exception soft and approachable. Like wool, cotton is available at a range of prices.

Cotton is inelastic
, and things that depend on elasticity, like socks and ribbing, are going to need to be either abandoned or adapted (sometimes by adding elastic) to make them work. Cotton can also be quite heavy, something to consider if you're talking about a size large cabled sweater that you expect to keep its shape. (Ask me how I know.)