March 27, 2023: Calculations have been added for cat mats and baby blankets in the blankets section. Bugs from March 26th are fixed. Doctor Who Scarf page added with number of balls calculator. Future will have a Doctor Who Scarf pattern generator.

March 25, 2023: Calculations have been added for crochet sweaters and both knit and crochet scarfs - including a Doctor Who scarf.

March 17, 2023: This site is currently only optimized for mobile devices. It works, but the layout is off on laptops and larger screens. I've chosen to deploy the current development branch because the design is much nicer than the old one.

How Much Yarn?
The Yarn Gift Helper

Are you a non-knitter or non-crocheter who would like to gift yarn to a knitter or crocheter in your life, but have no idea how much to get? With over 240,000 different yarns in the world*, many different thicknesses ("weights"), and yarn brands having different lengths of yarn in each ball/skein, it definately can be confusing. The Yarn Gift Helper is designed to help non-knitters quickly figure out how much yarn to buy for their family members and friends who are knitters - without spending hours learning about yarn. This current edition is just for pullover sweaters/jumpers made with medium thickness yarn.

Instructions

1. Make sure that the yarn you're going to buy is medium weight/thickness.
2. The label will have an yarn ball icon like the one above that says "4" and/or say, worsted weight, medium weight, aran, or rarely "afghan"
3. Type the number of yards per ball or skein of yarn
4. click the calculate button to get the number of balls/skeins you should buy as a gift.