Cultured Question of the Week

From a Chinese Proverb: One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

We love questions here at Cultured Purls. Questions are what make us all better learners. With knitting there is always more to learn, therefore always more questions to be asked! On Thursdays we will be answering the most asked questions that we get in the store, over e-mail and hopefully from the blog comments. These questions could be about knitting technique, yarn, the world of knitting, and pattern reading. They will vary between beginning and advanced so stay tuned!

So here's today's question which we get a lot in the store:

"What's the difference between yarn weights?"

Good question! Here is a great link to the Yarn Standards and Guidelines for Knitting and Crochet. These are only guidelines of course, but provide practical use for you in your knitting or crochet life.

Here's an example. Let's say I want to knit from a pattern that calls for a gauge of 18 sts & 24 rows. I'm not sure I want to use the yarn the pattern calls for, so what now? Referring back to the Guidelines I see that 18 sts (sts is knit-glish for stitches) falls into the medium or worsted weight category of yarn. Therefore when I am ready to buy my yarn, I know that it needs to be a medium or worsted weight yarn. Yarn labels have suggested sts per inch on the label (though sometimes in metric) and for this particular project I would be looking for something in the range of 16-20 sts per inch on a US needles size 7-9 according the guidelines. It is a fantastic idea to download and print the guidelines for your personal use. Don't be afraid to bring them into the store for more detailed answers as well as examples. Remember, we were all newer knitters once!

You always (always, there is no getting around this if you want your project to turn out like the picture or example) need to make a swatch for your knitting or crochet project to make sure that it's the right size for your pattern. Try various sizes of needles to get the right sts per inch and rows per inch. We will address more about gauge swatching next week!