Frequently Asked Questions

How much is a pound of yarn?
Well, a pound of yarn is a lot. If you're working with a worsted or DK weight yarn for example, a pound of yarn will be about 1,000 yards. If you're using a very bulky weight yarn it could be only about 400 yards, whereas if you're a sock knitter, a pound will probably yield about 2,000 yards because it is so much lighter. While a pound may be in the range you're going for if you're embarking on a sweater or a shawl, a pound is usually far more than you'll need for any small or medium-sized project.

To put it in perspective, you're probably used to seeing yarn in either small round balls, or more oblong skeins. These smaller balls are usually 50 grams--which is about a tenth of a pound--and the skeins are usually 100 grams, or a fifth of a pound.

As a baseline, if you're just shopping for yarn and don't have a specific project in mind, but want to play around with making your own combination and trying out different colors and fibers together, 8 oz. (half a pound) will give you plenty of yarn to work with, probably with some left over.

How thick should I make my yarn?
A great question--and probably the most frequently asked! Really the best answer to this is "as thick as you want it." As you'll read below, there are quite a few mathematical tools that we can use to emulate a yarn that is called for in a pattern you're using.

However, because there is so much variety in the weights of the input yarns (the single strands that are the ingredients that go into making your yarn--on their own, some of them are finer than lace weight; others are bulky weight as is), the best approach is often to hold the strands next to each other, and keep adding more until it looks like the thickness that you're used to or trying to achieve.

From there, we can take a sample and find out its weight with the yarn balance and fine-tune it by adding or subtracting strands as necessary.

How many colors should I combine?
Again, the best way to judge this is often visually. My advice is to literally take the strands you're considering and hold them next to each other, giving them a little twist to give an idea of what they will look like when wrapped closely together as they will be when you work with them.

How many colors "look good" together is definitely a matter of taste. Some people love mixing lots of different colors, even colors that contrast, and seeing the heathered effect this will give in your finished product.

Others prefer to stay in the same color family, and combine strands that are of slightly different shades to give depth to that initial color.

Another approach that can give a really cool effect is to combine two colors that go nicely together, such as red and yellow, and then add a very fine strand of contrast, such as dark purple.

Your color choice might also depend on what you're planning on making. Sometimes loud contrasts of color can look good on accessory pieces like scarves or hats, but subtle contrasts can work better for big projects like sweaters or skirts.

Yarnia's yarn isn't twisted. Will this affect my knitting?
No, this will not affect the way your finished product looks or acts. Technically, the strands of yarn on your custom cone are not "plied" together, meaning they're not wound onto the cone with a twist. This twist, that you're probably used to seeing in most commercial yarns, is what enables the single strands of yarn to stick together and appear to be one single strand.

Although we do not put any additional twist in the yarn as it is wound onto your cone, all of the plies you choose will be wound at an equal tension--what this does is not only ensure that each strand is planted on the cone at the same rate, but that it also comes off the cone at the same rate, as you're knitting or crocheting with it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that although the strands are not plied together, each of the input strands you choose is, in itself, plied. When yarn is spun, a twist is put in it to give it strength. All of the "ingredient" yarns you are choosing from are already single-ply (some are even double-ply to begin with). This, in addition to the tensioning, will leave you with a very strong yarn, with as much or as little elasticity as you want, depending on the type of fibers you choose.

Is this the same as knitting from two different skeins of yarn at once?
If the strands you've chosen are all very slippery--rayon boucle, for example--it may feel as though you're simply knitting with three separate strands, which perhaps you've tried if you've ever worked from a pattern that directs you to knit from two balls of yarn simultaneously.

Most fibers, however, have a bit of natural adhesion so that even though they are not twisted together, they'll tend to cling to each other as you're knitting, and should not feel too different from working with the twisted commercial yarn that you might be used to. The exceptions to this happen when you choose strands that are very disparate in either weight or tensions.

For example, if you choose a super bulky strand of acrylic bouclé and combine it with a very thin strand of wool/nylon: because these two strands are so different in thickness, the amount of room they take up on the cone--despite the equal tensioning--is enough to make a noticeable difference and this may cause "loopiness" in the strand as you knit.

Additionally, some of the input yarns already have a bit of elasticity to them.


Same idea here--although they are tensioned in the winding process, as you pull the finished yarn off the cone while you knit, the elasticity of the yarn will once again become visible and may make your yarn look "kinky."
In either of these situations, the yarn may be more difficult to work with but will not affect the look of your finished product in the end!

Is Yarnia yarn only for machine knitters?
No, in fact most of the customers who come in to Yarnia are hand-knitters or crocheters. Certainly machine knitters and weavers will also feel at home amongst the coned yarns that line the shelves, but primarily the custom yarn winding is catered towards building a yarn that will be appropriate for hand-knitting.

Can I combine yarn I have at home with what you have at the store to make a custom blend out of my stash?
Absolutely. If your yarn is already wound on cones, we charge 1.5 cents per yard (in addition to the cost of whatever you're combining it with) to wind it in with your custom cone. If your yarn is in some other form (i.e. skein, hank, ball, etc.) we charge 3 cents per yard, which includes a winding fee to put it on the primary cone. Depending on the size of your order, we may need a 24-hour turnaround time to get your yarn back to you.

If I'm combining different types of fiber, how will this affect the washability of the garment?
Just like with commercial yarn, you're going to want to treat your finished product as you would the most delicate of the fibers that contribute to it. For example, if you've made a blend that is 50/50 wool/cotton, you'll want to hand-wash it as you would for wool (cold water, little agitation); or if you've made a blend that has some rayon content, you won't want to throw it into a hot dryer, even if it only makes up 25% of your blend.

We do have some really nice washable acrylics as well as a wide range of cottons, but unless you're using these or superwash wool--or unless you have a very gentle front-loading machine--hand-washing is recommended.

I see YPP on all your cones. What does that mean?
"YPP" stands for yards per pound. This number tells you how many yards a certain yard will yield if you have an entire pound of it. This is helpful in determining how many ounces/pounds of your completed yarn you'll need in order to complete a project, but it is also helpful in determining the weight of a given input yarn.

You may be used to hearing terms like "fingering," "sport," or "worsted," to describe the thickness of your yarn. These terms help to determine what size needles you'll want to use, as well as what sort of gauge you can expect. Each of these categories also corresponds to a range of "yards per pound." For example, if you're trying to create a DK weight yarn, you'll want to be in the 1000-1200 YPP range, whereas a worsted weight is closer to 800-1000 YPP.

These ranges are useful for the following reason: If you're starting with a strand of a merino wool that says 2400 YPP on the label, combining three of those (2400 divided by 3) should yield a final yarn that is around 800 YPP, or a good solid worsted weight.

I hate math. Will I still be able to handle this?
Absolutely. If you're math-y and interested in learning about the wonderful world of fiber, the science of yarn counts, or how a weighted average is calculated, we're happy to empower you with that knowledge …or if not, you can also hand over your pattern or idea and say, "Tell me what I need to do!" and we'll help you make your perfect yarn.