Telling weights of yarn apart

How-to Questions
1

hello

i’m a newbie and i was wondering is their a good website or reference that is helpful for telling weights of yarn apart. eg dk vs worsted. tried searching the web with no luck :frowning: maybe i’m writing in the wrong thing.

i have a sock pattern that is asking for dk yarn or light worsted? i thought worsted is worsted. there’s a light? huh. are yarns that say sock yarn automatically dk? so confused…

2

Hi There! First of all, welcome to knitting!

I use this website as a general reference a lot…http://www.yarnstandards.com/weight.html.

DK yarn and Light Worsted is the same thing it just depends on what the manufacturer wants to call it. And, no, yarn that says “sock yarn” is not necessarily DK weight.

3

Sock yarns are thinner than DK, but you can make socks out of heavier yarns too.

4

Actually, any yarn labeled “sock yarn” is supposed to be fingering weight, or a 1 or 2 according to the yarn standard charts. Any company who calls DK and thicker a “sock yarn” would not have happy customers. However, you can of course knit socks out of anything-- so patterns will call for anything from a 0 to 6 yarn weight. But that’s different from calling the yarn “sock yarn”.

5

You can knit socks with a worsted or bulky yarn, but they’re more like slippers to wear around the house than socks you’d wear in shoes. Lion has a ‘sock’ pattern for bulky yarn.

6

thanks everyone so much for clearing this all up for me :smiley:

7

Also look at the guage given in the pattern. It will say something like 5 stitches per inch, or whatever. You want to make sure your yarn matches that guage. Socks, even slipper socks, you want knit fairly tightly, so even if the yarn ball band says 4 stitches per inch, if you use a smaller needle then recommended you could get the sock pattern guage.

8

IMHO one of the best methods of telling the weight of yarn is the Wraps-per-Inch method. This should give you a consistent weight over a variety of manufactures.