How much yarn do I need?

Metric conversions: yards/meters, pounds/kilos

Weavers steeped in the English system of measure often know how many yards/pounds of thread they need but not how many meters/kilos they must buy!

1. To convert from Meters per Kilo to Yards per Pound, use the following formulas:

Meters per Kilo ÷ 2.2 = Meters per Pound

Meters per Pound × 1.094 = Yards per Pound

For example: If we see that a yarn has 4,000 Meters per Kilo, we would divide 4,000 by 2.2, which = 1818.2 Meters per Pound. If we multiply this result by 1.094, we find that we get 1989 Yards per Pound.

2. To convert from Pounds to Kilos:

Pounds ÷ 2.2 = Kilos

For example: If we figured we need 10 pounds of yarn for our project, dividing this by 2.2 gets us to 4.55 Kilos. Looks like you need 5 Kilos.

Yardage calculator

Not sure how much yarn you'll need? See Lesson #3: Calculating how much yarn you'll need in our Virtual Classroom.

A few calculator tools you might find useful:

• Weaving Calculator Imperial (Weavolution)
• Warp and Weft Calculator (Schacht)
• Weaving Project Calculator (Janet Dawson)
• Weaving Calculator (Gist Yarn)