Buy yarn by weight or yardage?

[Wendy79]

I'm ordering some yarn from Knitpicks for a baby afghan. The pattern lists yarn requirements by ounces, by gram, and by yard. Both the yarn I'm ordering and the yarn required are "worsted weight", but there's a SUBSTANTIAL difference between the two when I check yardage and weight! For one color, yardage tells me to order 9 skeins, while weight tells me to order 5. Help!

 

Common sense says order the larger number, but that gets significantly more expensive, and it's not as easy to return yarn bought through mail order.

 

Last time I used this yarn (Shine Worsted) for a pattern from the same book, I ended up with only one skein extra (so, perfect, as far as I'm concerned; they're small skeins). But silly me, I can't remember whether I ordered based on yarn weight or yardage.

 

Any thoughts?

[snugsmontreal]

i personally would shoot somewhere in the middle, because if you go just off yardage i think you will have too much but if you go off weight, and as you stated there are more yards in these balls than the suggested, you may nnot have enough to make the size requirements. on a side note you may want to be sure to check your gauge carefully because you may have to add sts and rows to get the same size with a thinner yarn

[Crochet_Gram]

Wouldn't it make sense to figure out the total number of stitches made (stitches per row X rows) and the toatal yardage needed and then do swatch of 20 pattern stitches for 10 rows and see how much yarn you used. then you would know how many yards for how many stitches.

 

Or is that just waaaaaay too much work.

[losingmymind2]

The yardage is the best way if you don't have any of the yarn available now to work up a gauge square.

[Selune]

I've always read to go by yardage. Going by weight won't work at all, since fluffy yarns in WW are significantly lighter than say a RHSS WW. Also, dyes add weight to yarn as well, so a Black WW can weigh more than a Pink WW for the same yardage.

[~Kel~]

I tried going by weight and had to go back for more yarn two times then I finally learned I go by yardage now

[Granny Square]

You will be sorry if you don't go by yardage. Some brands of WW have are heavier than others, but each would take the same LENGTH of yarn to make one stitch.

[Karen C.]

I agree, yardage

[2020kitten]

I would order by yardage - I know it's more expensive, but I'd rather "eat" the cost, than try to scramble for matching yarn if I came up short. And, you'll be ahead for your next project if you're much off - if you're a little off, you can always make a smaller something to go with the afghan, a little cap or booties, etc.

[Real Deal]

You know where your difference might be also, is that we have worsted weight and light worsted weight. The light worsted weight is definitely thinner, but is still called worsted weight. If you can recall which one of these the Shine Worsted would be, that might help.

Real Deal