Tag Archives: crochet

Crochet Yarn Estimating

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I have been thinking about starting a new crochet project and it struck me that there were no measurements or calculators online that could give you an estimate of the amount of yarn you would need based on the measurements of the projects result, with fixed terms such as the weight of the yarn, the hook used, and which fundamental stitch was used to create the final result. The goal is to answer this question,

“If I wish to make a square of fabric that is 34 inches by 34 inches, made of half-double crochet using a 5mm hook and worsted weight yarn, how much yarn would I need to complete the project?”

So I decided to find out the answer manually. I worked several styles, including:

  • Foundation Chain
  • FSC
  • FHDC
  • FDC
  • SC
  • HDC
  • DC
  • SC Strip
  • HDC Strip
  • DC Strip

Where the strips were just a single row of that kind of stitch, and the non-strip measures were measuring the yarn after creating a complete work in the square based on the index, which for all of this was five inches. So, a SC Strip is 5 inches long, one row of SC, and SC is 5 inches wide by 5 inches high.

Here are the numbers that I measured, these are inches of yarn consumed for each category (YCR – Yarn Consumption Rate):

Stitch Five Inches LengthAverage YCR per Inch
Foundation Chain 25.54.8
FSC8016
FHDC8717.22
FDC8215.5
SC 785.531.42 (per sq inch)
HDC 80232.08 (per sq inch)
DC 79031.6 (per sq inch)
SC Strip5310.6
HDC Strip78.515.7
DC Strip10220.4

What surprised me was that Double Crochet uses less yarn, a little bit, than Half-Double Crochet does, and then just how close the three fundamental stitches are to each other when you hold width and height at a fixed value.

So my answer is, for a 34” by 34” square of fabric, Half Double Crochet with a Foundation Half Double Crochet will require:

FHDC = 34” x 17.22 = 585.48 inches of yarn

HDC = 34” x 34” = 1156 square inches x 32.08 = 37,084.48 inches of yarn

Full Project = 585.48 + 37,084.48 = 37,669.96 inches of yarn, with 36 inches per yard results in 1,046.38 yards of yarn.

So with this information, I know what my project would potentially cost me, outside of the project time itself, so if I select a superwash merino yarn, for example on yarn.com, their Valley Yarns Valley Superwash is $6.49 a ball, and a ball has 97 yards of yarn in it. That requires 10.78 balls, well, really 11 balls. That’s $71.39, with their 20% off deal, their out the door is $64.10.

The really nice part of knowing the rough yarn consumption rate for these stitches is that you don’t have to overbuy your yarn and then end up with extra of anything. There will almost always be partials but there is a big difference between having a third of a ball left versus having 3 1/3 balls left.

If you find these values to be useful, I would only ask that you leave a comment here letting me know that they helped.

Hidden Killer

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While working on Scott’s Thermal Cap, the brim, the band around the head, involved 32 discrete stitches per row. The pattern I was using demurred on chaining up the side and instead relied on the natural height of the SCTS to provide the height required as rows were added. Because the chain was omitted, every stitch requires attention, because usually when a chain appears on the side, it “uses up” whatever stitch was next in line, and so you customarily have to skip “where you should go” for the “next spot”. Without the chain on the side, progress is slower, the weave is thicker, and counting becomes rather picky. You want to make sure you have 32 in each row, lest you have decreases where there shouldn’t be any, and your hat comes out looking obviously wrong.

There are a lot of tools for maintaining counts in Crochet. Little plastic barrel counters, clickers, and a few apps for the iPhone. There was one of these apps, that among all the other features also had a verbal input mechanism. The app was updated and the verbal input mechanism was deprecated for Voice Control in iOS.

I have another app, called MultiTimer, in it are counters with audio feedback when you tap them. I had been using this app to count stitches in my work, but its a little annoying to have my hands on the work and then reach over to tap the phone. So I did a little poking around:

  1. Settings
  2. Accessibility
  3. Voice Control (turn it on, it downloads extra iOS components)
  4. ON: Show Confirmation, Show Hints, Overlay: Item Numbers. OFF the rest.
  5. Back to Settings, then to Control Center
  6. Customize Controls
  7. Add Accessibility Shortcuts
  8. Out to Home Screen

So, when I am working on a project, I plug the phone in (since Voice Control is a battery pig), start MultiTimer, switch to my Crochet panel where I have set up all my counters. Then I swipe up from the bottom, tap Accessibility Shortcuts icon, tap on Voice Control, then swipe down to hide the Control Center panel. Overlaid on top of all the screen items are little shaded numbers, so I focus in on the counter that I care about, “Stitch Count” and then I can say “Single Tap” to advance the counter, or “Tap 6” to clear the counter, or “Tap 4” to decrease the counter. That enables me to keep my hands on my work, and my eyes, and just say clearly what I want and the phone makes a little click sound when it does what I want. That way I can concentrate on the work, and then look at the display for the count. When my work session is done, I swipe up from the bottom, tap the Accessibility Shortcut icon, turn off Voice Control, and exit the MultiTimer app. Done and done. This way I can keep my mind focused on the work, I don’t lose count due to interruptions or cats, and it makes my phone do one singular task really well. After I started using this feature, I took back a little bit of the gripes I had previously issued against iOS, just a few. 🙂