I want to organise the odd yarn balls in my stash but not all have labels, how can I check what yarn weight they are?
There are a couple of ways you can narrow down the yarn weight of a mystery ball or skein.
If you have a needle guage with holes for the different needle sizes, take a small length of your yarn and fold it in half. Then see which is the smallest hole you can slide your doubled yarn through – this is the needle size for your yarn. So if it goes through 3.5mm it is probably 4-ply, 4mm DK and 4.5mm or 5mm aran.
Another method is “wraps per inch” (wpi). Wrap your yarn round a needle (it doesn’t matter what size) so that each wrap touches the last but doesn’t overlap. Once you’ve wrapped a few inches, place a ruler next to the wrapped needle and count how many wraps in the space of an inch. Measure in more than one place and take an average. 4-ply will give 19-22 wpi, DK is 12-15 wpi and Aran 9-12wpi.
Both these methods are just a guide. It is also best to swatch once you have narrowed down your yarn size to check it does give the tension and fabric you would expect.
ukhandknitting.wordpress.com 