Using number of stitches to estimate yardage?

[Ashton Kirkham]

Hey guys, I'm in the midst of designing an afghan, and my main goal was to complete my picture; size was irrelevant. So I've drawn out (most of) my graph, but have realized that I'm not sure how much yardage I'll need for my finished product, which is a bit of a problem for purchasing yarn^^; 

 

I plan to work the piece in sc.

My graph is drawn so one square equals one sc, and measures 222sc x 242sc.

The yarns I'm looking at are Herrschers Chunky, Red Hearts Soft or Red Heart With Love.

Is there any way to estimate how much yardage I'll need from my stitch count? I've tried several methods, but I think my math is pretty funky, since I get vastly different answers each time^^;

 

Any help would be appreciated; after counting graph squares all day I think I'm just confusing myself at this point=P

 

[RoseRed]

With that stitch count I would avoid chunky yarn.  It'll be HUGE!

 

I work with weight instead of yardage.  It's just easier for me that way.  With math you can figure out how much weight equals how much yardage.

[craftygirl63]

I don't know if this will help or not but I know that I use 22 skeins 2-1/2 oz cotton for my toddler blankets and they are 256 x 152 rows in dc so I would guess that you would need somewhere around that same amount of yarn or maybe even a little more...There is a chart here that can maybe help you to estimate it a little closer but there is no exact science that I know of to give you the answer...this chart is for knitting but working with sc it should be pretty close to what you need... http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/estimating-how-much-yarn-to-buy.html hope this helps you out... Hope you can find an answer...

[Ashton Kirkham]

RoseRed: Thanks for the tip about chunky yarn, it helps narrow down my choices on what to buy I've worked with weight rather than yardage as well when need be, I just generally default to yardage because I find it easier to visualize - to each their own : )

 

craftygirl63: Thanks for the estimate and chart love^^ They didn't have afghans listed specifically there, but it did lead me to a chart by lionbrand which did: http://cache.lionbrand.com/faq/96.html

 

So far that chart is the best estimate I've found, so I've been browsing for yarn with 3500yards in mind - does that seem reasonable?

[magiccrochetfan]

you could make a  swatch and weigh it to see how much yarn it took.  then you will be able to see how much yarn is needed to cover the bigger area of the whole afghan.  Also you will have a better idea how big the finished item will be.  

[Granny Square]

Or, along the lines of what MagicCrochetFan said, but unravel the swatch (after counting the stitches so you know how many stitches it made, to calculate what you'll need for the end product) and wrap it around a yardstick longways to measure the yardage if you don't have a scale. 

 

The tricky part will be to figure out the yardage by COLOR.

[Ashton Kirkham]

magiccrochetfan and Granny Square: Pure genius, thank you! I recently invested in a good scale, so I was able to weigh the swatch and make the conversion that way. Now, to make sure I did this right, here was my process:

- 3.75mm hook

- worsted weight yarn* (I plan to use Red Heart With Love, but I don't have any, so I used Red Heart Comfort. I know this will cause some discepancy, but it's better than nothing)

- 4.5" x 4.5" square, 20sc, 20 rows

- Weight: 0.3oz

- Red Heart with Love: 7oz = 370 yds --> 1oz = 52.8 yds

- Red Heat Comfort: 16oz = 930 yds --> 1oz= 58 yds

- Blanket is 222sc x 242sc = 11.1 x 12.1 of my swatches --> 134.31 total

- 134.31 x 0.3 = 40.293

- 40.293 x 52.8 = 2127.4704 yds

- 40.293 x 58 = 2336.994 yds

So I'm looking at around 2200-2400 yards (I'd probably get 2400-2500 to be safe); does that sound about right?

 

Granny Square: Yes, figuring out just how much of each colour I'll need will be the tricky part. I think the most foolproof way would be to count up the squares on my graph and use similar calculations like I did above... though it would be extremely tedious^^;

[RoseRed]

A trick you can do is to measure what's left over at the end to get the yardage and weight for the colors that you've used.

 

True - this won't help you when it comes to purchasing the yarn before you begin but if you plan on writing it up - it's a good time saver at the end.

 

Also, if you do plan on writing it up add between 10 and 20% to the total to account for other people's gauges.

[Ashton Kirkham]

RoseRed: Another good tip, and one I should definitely start doing all the time, even just for myself And I will be writing up at least a rough draft of this pattern; the physical graph is just too cumbersome to keep around - it takes up a good chunk of my living room floor!

 

Edit: Alright, measurements made and yarn ordered - fingers crossed it works out! Thanks so much for your help everyone, I would have been lost on my own