Reading a Ball Band and Determining Yarn Weight

Ball band simply refers to the little piece of paper wrapped around the yarn when you buy it. Sometimes it’s a tag tied to a string instead, but they all have the same information: yardage, meters, grams, material. Usually there’s the brand, colorway name, dyelot, and weight as well.

There’s some debate as to what’s the most important pieces to know, but I consider yardage and grams to be the most important to know – and sometimes, the hardest to interpret. Many knitters rely on yardage and weight, but this can be misleading. For example, I recently came across a ball band that listed 335yds/100g as a DK weight (Malabrigo Arroyo) and a second ball listed 250yds/115grams as a DK weight (Leading Men Dramaturg). Both are marked DK weight on their respective label, but as you can guess from the wildly different yardage, they work up VERY differently. Dramaturg is very close to being a worsted weight – I measured it at 12 wpi – while the Arroyo is closer to sport weight – I measured it at 15 wpi. (This is also where a gauge swatch comes in handy for seeing what the worked up yarn looks like!)

As a rule of thumb, fingering weight tends to be 400yds/100grams and worsted comes in at 200yds/100grams. Anything in between is sport to DK, depending on the mood of the manufacturer. If it’s closer to 400yds, then it’s sport but if it’s closer to 200, then it’s DK. The exact line is a little blurry, as seen in my example above.

Material is also important to consider. Sock yarn and fingering yarn are often interchanged, but they aren’t actually interchangable. Fingering yarn is typically considered sock yarn when it contains nylon. But fingering weight yarns don’t all contain nylon and therefore aren’t always suitable for socks. If you knit socks without nylon, you will have some very droopy and non-durable socks. Natural wool isn’t very washable but repels moisture and can change size when washed. Superwash wool is more washing friendly (I still wouldn’t put it in the washing machine) and tends to feel smoother against skin. Acrylics can vary from soft to scratchy but is typically less expensive and is machine washable.

Dye lots are critical if you’re using more than one skein in a project. Two different dyelots may appear to be the same when comparing skein to skein by eye, but you will see the difference when it’s knit up. Hand dyes are often unique even when provided with a dye lot. There are methods you can use to alternate hand dye skeins to prevent them from looking too distinct within the finished project.