What to do when your yarn doesn’t have a label?

Should you throw away the yarn? No!

Here is a SIMPLE TRICK to find out the weight of any yarn.

The technique is called wraps per inch. You don’t need any special tools to figure this out.

You only need the yarn in question and a pencil or knitting needles.

How to Do Wraps Per Inch

To calculate the wraps per inch (WPI), simply wrap the yarn around a pencil or knitting needles. Don’t wrap too tightly, just provide the normal slack you would if you were knitting.

Wrap the yarn for approximately 3-4” along the pencil/needle.

Use a ruler and count the number of wrap per inch.

Then use the wraps per inch chart below to finch out the gauge and weight of your yarn.

For example, let’s say we wrapped our yarn and found we have 8 wraps per inch. What is 8 WPI yarn?

According to our chart, that is a chunky or bulky weight yarn. It knits up at a gauge of 3-3.75 stitch per inch.

Then I’ll pop over to my Yarn Weights Chart to see what needle size I’ll need for a bulky weight yarn. It says I’ll need size US 9-11 needles.

    
        Yarn Weight
        Types of Yarn
        Wraps Per Inch (WPI)
      	Stitch Gauge
    

        #0
      	Lace Weight
        30-40+ WPI
        > 8.5 sts per inch
    

        #1
      	Sock, Fingering
        18-30 WPI
        7-8 sts per inch
    

        #2
      	Sport, Baby Weight
        14-18 WPI
        5.75-6.5 sts per inch
    

        #3
      	DK, Light Worsted Weight
        12-15 WPI
        5.5-6 sts per inch
    

        #4
      	Worsted, Aran Weight
        9-12 WPI
        4-5 sts per inch
    

        #5
      	Chunky, Bulky Weight
        6-9 WPI
        3-3.75 sts per inch
    

        #6
      	Bulky, Roving Weight
        5-6 WPI
        2.5-3 sts per inch
    

        #7
      	Jumbo, Roving Weight
        1-4 WPI
        < 2.5 sts per inch
    