To figure out how much yarn you have left on a cone, use a regular kitchen scale set to grams to figure out your yardage. Weigh the cone of yarn and subtract the weight of the cone. Cones usually weigh around 10-35 grams. Then take the yardage per pound for the yarn in question (it’s on my website under every yarn we sell) and multiply it by 2.2 which is the number of pounds in a kilo.
For example, 8/2 cotton has 3360 yards per pound so multiply 3360 by 2.2 to get 7392 yards per kilo. There are 1000 grams in a kilo, so divide 7392 by 1000 to get 7.39 yards per gram. So, if your kitchen scale weighs the yarn plus cone at 313 grams, subtract 12ish grams (or the weight of your cone – see photo below), which gives you 301 grams. Then multiply the weight of the cone in grams by the yards per gram: 301 gm x 7.39 yards per gram = 2224 yards of 8/2 cotton on your cone.
Here is the math 🙂
- Yards of 8/2 cotton per pound: 3360 yards per pound
- Yards of 8/2 cotton per kilo: 3360 x 2.2 = 7392
- Yards of 8/2 cotton per gram: 7392 divided by 1000 = 7.39 yards per gram
- Weight of cone plus yarn: 313 grams
- Weight of cone: 12 grams
- Weight of yarn on cone: 313 grams – 12 grams = 301 grams
- Therefore, the length of yarn on the cone: 301 grams x 7.39 yards per gram = 2224 yards
Meet the Cone Family
Do you have an Imperial trained mind? Here’s a little item that Sandra (keeper of the Knowledge Base) wrote in a recent JST newsletter about her stash busting adventure.
How do you find out how many yards you have on part cones in your stash? Several colours of cottolin have been ageing in place for years, and I decided it was time to do something with them.
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After playing with different graphics and – thanks to the Cone Family – I was able to calculate how much yarn was left on each cone. In order to do that, I needed to know how much each empty cone or tube weighed, in the above photos. I weighed each colour and deducted the Imperial weight of the cone from the total. After checking the JST Cottolin webpage, and confirming that there were 3,000 yards in one pound of cottolin, the next step was to divide 3,000 by 16 to get the resulting number of yards per ounce – 187.5 yds.
The green was the colour that concerned me most, so ……
Minus the tube which weighed .40 oz
Weight of yarn only 2.70 oz
At that point I could convert my green into yardage – 2.70 oz X 187.5 yds. per oz and 506.25 yards of green available for my project!
After discovering the yardage available to me with all the colours and I adapted my graphic to the results.
My warp was wound (including adding a large cone of “aged” white to the mix) and ready to weave a few tea towels plus a shawl (which will help use up bobbins of silk). And, I still have enough of the cottolin to mix with cotton in the tea towels.
