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Tutorial

Using Yarn Conversion Charts to Design the Yarn You Want

Yarn Conversions

When we are measuring our handspun yarns, we can compare our wraps per inch to other count and description systems to help us choose the sort of project the yarn is best suited to. Below is a chart comparing these systems to help you determine the grist of your yarn. Remember that each of these systems are based upon a specific set of factors, and can vary from country to country, so the conversions are not exact, but rather suggest a range of grist measurements. Always sample or swatch before starting a project based on these grist descriptions.

Yarn Description	Wraps Per Inch	Yards Per Pound	Bradford Count	Tex
Lace Weight	25 or more	2500 or more	over 16	Under 100
Fingering	20-24	1700-2400	8-12	120-200
Sport or Sock Weight	14-18	1300-1600	6-8	200-260
Worsted and Aran Weight	10-12	900-1200	4-6	300-400
Chunky	7-9	600-800	2-4	500-900
Bulky	5 or less	Under 500	.5-2	1000 or more

Using Yarn Conversions

Yarn conversions can give us guidelines for using our finished yarns, but they do not tell us how to make the yarn we need for a specific project. There are complex mathematical formulas available for calculating the precise grist of a yarn. For most handspinners, it is far simpler to examine the relationships between our tpi and our projected grist and use that as our starting point. There are several simple relationships that will guide us through creating a yarn that will suit our project, and they are listed in the chart below.

Wraps per inch is equal to twist per inch X # of plies.

Wraps per inch is equal to knitted gauge, expressed in stitches per inch, X 3.

Wraps per inch is equal to the sett of a balanced tabby weave X 2.

Twist angle is approximately equal to the number of wraps per inch.

We can now use these relationships to start sampling our yarn. Let's work through an example. If we have a knitting pattern that calls for a yarn that is 1200 yards per pound, we can use our yarn conversion chart to find the equivalent wraps per inch. So, now we know that we are aiming for about 10-12 wraps per inch. If we know that 12 wraps per inch is twice the number of twists per inch in our finished yarn, we can now start our sampling by making a 6 tpi yarn. If the pattern does not give a yarn weight, we can see that that same pattern calls for a knitted gauge of 4 stitches per inch (or 16 stitches over 4"/10 cm). We know that our wraps per inch is equal to 3 times the gauge in an inch, or 12 wpi. Then we can do the same calculation to get our tpi, which will still be 6. Now we have a starting point. But how do we get 6 twists per inch in our finished yarn?

Calculating Twists Per Inch Coming Soon!

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