Two quick calculators for knitters and crocheters: convert your gauge into stitch & row counts, and estimate how much yarn your project needs — in meters, grams, and balls.
Round to whole stitches. For symmetric stitch patterns, round the cast-on to the nearest multiple of your pattern repeat and add edge stitches.
The most reliable way is the swatch method: knit or crochet a 10 × 10 cm swatch in your chosen stitch pattern, bind off, block it, and weigh it. Divide the swatch's weight by its area (100 cm²) to get grams per cm², multiply by your blanket's area in cm², then add 10% for seams, borders, and mistakes. Example: a 10 g swatch means 0.1 g/cm²; a 100 × 130 cm blanket (13,000 cm²) needs about 1,300 g × 1.1 ≈ 1,430 g — roughly 29 standard 50 g balls.
Always recalculate with your gauge, not the pattern's. A difference of even one stitch per 10 cm compounds quickly: over a 100 cm width that's 10 extra or missing stitches — several centimeters off. If your gauge is looser than the pattern's, you'll also use more yarn; if tighter, less. Adjust your needle or hook size and swatch again until your gauge matches, or recalculate the cast-on and row counts above from your own numbers.
We recommend adding at least 10% to your calculated amount — this calculator already includes that buffer in the ball count. Add more (15–20%) if you plan a colorwork pattern, deep fringe, an unscheduled design change, or if the dye lot might be discontinued. It's far better to return an unused ball than to hunt for a matching dye lot mid-project.
Yes, sometimes a lot. Textured stitches (cables, bobbles, popcorn) consume noticeably more yarn than stockinette because the fabric is denser per area. Openwork and lace patterns use less. This is exactly why the swatch method is so accurate: knit your swatch in the actual stitch pattern and its weight already accounts for the pattern's yardage. Crochet generally uses 25–30% more yarn than knitting for the same area.