All About Knitting Yarns - Beginner's Guide to the Different Types (2024)

Photo by Cheryl.

Whenyou're a beginner knitter and just practising your skills, there is noneed to worry about the yarn you are using - so try not to be put off bythe overwhelming choice. And when you do start following patterns, youwill nearly always have a yarn recommended to you anyway, so you won’t need to choose your own without guidance.

Once you get used to knitting, you will feel more and more confident aboutpicking out different yarns you want to try, and even substituting yarnsof different weights into a project e.g. a pattern may recommend a medium weight yarn but you want to use a bulky yarn instead, so you would need to alter the pattern and needle size you are using toaccommodate the change. This is a wonderful opportunity for more advanced knitters to show creativity and put their own spin on apattern.

Thetype of yarn you pick is only really important when the finished knitted item must be worn or has some practical use. For instance, durable cotton is excellent for washcloths, whilst wool would be a bad choice, and any scratchy type of yarn would be a poor option for asweater or scarf. Mainly, though, it’s a matter of how the yarn looks(colour, pattern) and how it feels (you’d want a very soft yarn for a baby blanket for instance).

Yarn Weight

Yarn is available in a range of different ‘weights’. The weight of aspecific yarn is not how heavy the ball of yarn is (e.g. 50g) but isinstead a number referring to how fine or bulky the strand of yarn is. The higher the yarn weight number, the thicker (bulkier) the yarn, and the chunkier the knitting.

Abulkier yarn results in a lower knitting gauge (less stitches per inchof knitting), whilst a fine yarn results in a higher gauge (morestitches per inch).

Whenfirst looking at what yarns to buy, the most confusing part for me wasfiguring out what yarn ‘weight’ to knit with. If everything was merely numbered depending on the weight, life would be easier, but alas; there are different names for yarn weights whether you live in theU.K., the U.S. or elsewhere. The worst thing about some of the names is that they don’t seem to correlate to the yarn and don’t give any clueto what yarn weight they represent. Double knitting (DK) yarn? Sportyarn? Confusing!

As with anything though, it is easy when you are used to the names. Here isa chart which sets out all of the different names for the different yarn weights, as well as common uses for each weight:

(Medium weight is the most common weight.)

As mentioned above, it is possible to substitute one yarn weight foranother within a project, as long as you think about how the change willaffect the end result - changing the size of the needles you're using, and/or altering the number of stitches in the pattern, to compensate.

For example, if a pattern says to use worsted weight yarn but you choose touse bulky yarn instead (without altering the pattern or needle size tocompensate), then the end result will be denser. This is because you areusing a bulkier yarn with a needle size originally chosen to be used with a finer yarn. The resulting knitted item would also be larger insize than if you had used the recommended weight of yarn. This may not matter in some projects where size isn’t important, but it will obviously matter if the project is for wearing - because the end resultwon’t fit. You would therefore need to alter the pattern, most likely inaddition to using a larger needle size.

The point I am trying to make with this (not very succinct!) example isthat you are best using the yarn weight that’s recommended to you in the knitting pattern unless you really know what you are doing, because changing yarn weight can change the end result quite drastically.

Ifyou are after a looser knit, an alternative to using a finer yarn weight is to just switch to larger needles; and if you want adenser/tighter knit, you could just switch the needle size to a smallerdiameter instead of increasing the yarn weight.

Beautiful handspun yarn by Star Athena.

This yarn incorporates a variety of materials including merino, recycled sari silk, nylon and mohair.

Popular Yarn Materials

Thereare many materials that yarn can be made out of, although there are afew that are much more commonly used than others. The following list shows you a selection of options:

- Wool: This is the material you probably thought of immediately whenconsidering the yarn to knit with. Wool is the traditional choice, andis popular; especially for knitting sweaters. Wool is warm, cosy,absorbent and breathable, and also lasts a long time if you take goodcare of it. It’s also reasonably stretchy and has a good drape (drape = how it hangs on the body).

Woolis lovely to work with I think, but bear in mind that it can shrink (ifnot washed carefully) and is quite fuzzy; no crisp lines are going tobe achieved with wool like you could get with something like cotton.It’s also relatively expensive to buy.

Themost common wool by far is made from the coats of sheep. There aredifferent types of wool yarn available which have slightly different textures and/or properties depending on the type of sheep it came fromand how it was processed. Examples of different wool yarns includelamb’s wool, merino wool, pure new wool and Icelandic wool.

Yarn can also be made from the hair/fleece of other animals such as goats (Mohair and Cashmere yarn), rabbits (Angora yarn), and alpacas (Alpacayarn). These are very soft yarns, but expensive - especially in their pure form.

- Acrylic: This is a man-made material (compared to wool which is natural), and supplied either as 100% acrylic or as a ‘blend’* where acrylic is combined with another material such as wool.

It’susually the best value choice and good for beginners on a budget. It’s durable and reasonably warm (although not as warm as wool) and is easyto wash. Quality matters when choosing acrylic yarn because some can bequite rough whilst others are soft. There is quite a difference betweenthe best quality and the worst. Therefore, if you can go into a yarn shop and feel the yarn before you buy it that would be the best way tofind a yarn you like.

- Cotton: With regards to knitting garments, cotton can be a good choice for more summery options, as it has a good drape and is light, cool and breathable. Cotton is also absorbent (and therefore a good choice for washcloths), plus it has good durability and is easy to wash.

Cottondoesn’t have much stretch though, so it (obviously) wouldn’t be a goodoption for making anything stretchy, such as a ribbed hat, and it’s alsoharder to hide mistakes and inconsistencies when knitting with cotton (so may present more of a challenge for beginners).

Other yarn materials you may see include linen, bamboo, rayon and silk.

* ‘Blends’are where 2 or more materials are blended together into one yarn. Theresulting yarn then includes the attributes of all of the materials within it. For example, a wool/nylon blend is often used for socksbecause wool is warm but not particularly durable, and nylon addsdurability to the mix.

An acrylic/wool blend is popular due to it being less expensive than wool whilst still retaining advantages of wool, and the acrylic content means that the yarn is easier to wash and a bit more durable.

Oneconfusing thing is that even though two balls of yarn may be the sameweight and material as each other, if the yarns are provided bydifferent brands, they can still differ slightly despite identicalcontent on the label. Some yarns are better quality, some are stronger, some are softer etc. so try and take a close look at the yarn before youbuy it, and if you can’t, try and find reviews on the internet fordifferent brands.

Single ply yarn photo by Effika. The yarn has a lovely gradient effect.

How Are Yarns Made?

Yarnsare made from either natural or synthetic fibres, which are ‘spun’ together into long strands. Natural fibres include wool, linen, cotton and silk, whilst synthetic (man made) fibres include acrylic, polyester and nylon.

Thetechnique of ‘spinning’ twists the material into a long, continuousstrand. If you are crafty-minded you could learn to spin as well as knit – which would enable you to create EXACTLY the colour, texture andpattern of yarn you want all by yourself! I love handspun yarns because they can exhibit so much creativity and are totally unique. Unfortunately I can't buy them often because they are expensive, but they are so nice to look at!

What is Ply?

Whenfibres are spun together, they form single strands of yarn; also called‘singles’. Usually, single strands are not used to knit with, butinstead 2 or more single strands are twisted together to form a ‘plied’yarn. A plied yarn can consist of 2 singles (2-ply yarn), 3 singles (3-ply yarn), 4 singles (4-ply yarn) or even more singles twisted together.

Themore plies there are, the smoother, stronger and more durable the yarnis. With more plies also comes more definition in your knitting work, whilst fewer plies create a softer, more rustic look.

Thenumber of twists also changes the yarn properties; the more twists, thetighter the yarn is ‘plied’, and the stronger the yarn. Click here for more detailed information about plies.

Theonly way to know how a yarn will look when knitted is to knit a sample(just a square shape). It would also be useful to wash this sample to check how the yarn reacts to being washed. Yarn with more pliesgenerally is harder wearing and withstands washing better. Fewer plies means the yarn could become fuzzier or looser when washed. But I’mafraid you have to test it to find out for sure!

Unfortunately,there is a bit of confusion caused by labelling a yarn with the numberof plies it has, when referring to yarn weight. In some countries, theply of a yarn does refer to the weight (as can be seen on the yarnweight table above) whilst in other countries the ply has nothing to dowith yarn weight! A 4-ply is not necessarily bulkier than 3-ply, for instance.

Plyis/was a traditional measure of yarn weight but there is such variationin yarn nowadays that it's best to use a different measure such as the0-6 scale or the yarn description e.g. sport weight, bulky weight etc.to identify the weight of yarn.

Dye Lots

Yarns are occasionally left undyed, but usually they are coloured with natural or artificial dyes.

Mostyarn is dyed in batches, and each batch is referred to as a ‘dye lot’.If you look on the label of a ball of yarn you will probably be able tofind a number on there which refers to the specific dye lot of the yarn. All yarn with this particular number printed on it was dyed at the sametime, in the same batch.

Allyarn labelled as the same colour e.g. ‘royal blue’, and made by thesame brand, is of course dyed with the same dye, however it is verydifficult to get the shade spot on in every batch and there can be aslight variation between batches.

Thisis why it is recommended that you buy enough yarn for a knittingproject all in one go, from the same dye lot. Otherwise, if (for example) you buy 5 balls of royal blue yarn for a project and then find you need another ball to finish, it may be difficult to find yarn fromthe same batch, which matches exactly. This can create a subtle butsometimes quite annoying colour variation in your knitting project.

So always make sure you have enough yarn and it’s all dyed in the same batch.

How Do I Know How Much Yarn to Buy?

Mostpatterns will tell you how much yarn to buy to complete the knitting project, but if you need to work it out yourself, have a look at theseresources to help you out:

http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/secure-html/onlineec/knittingCalculator.asp

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/estimating-how-much-yarn-to-buy.html

Remember it’s better to overestimate than underestimate!

Novelty ribbon yarn photo by **tWo pInK pOSsuMs**.

Different Types of Yarn, Including Colour & Pattern Variations:

Notonly are there plenty of yarn materials and weights to choose from, butthere are also many more aesthetic variations available too.

Novelty yarns and handspun yarns are two categories you may come across:

- ‘Novelty’ yarns: These are created to add a fun element to your projects. These yarns can be furry, velvety or can incorporate unusual textural elements suchas bumps, loops or pieces of ribbon. This makes them harder to knitwith, however they can liven up an otherwise plain piece of knitting.

I’d recommend not using novelty yarns when you do any fancy knitting techniques or knitted textures, because any details you go to the effort of creating will be lost within the ‘busy’ look of the novelty yarns. However, when you are a beginner and are only perhaps using plain garterstitch or similar, a novelty yarn can make your knitting look a lotmore interesting (and can hide mistakes well!)

- Handspun yarns: These yarns are usually expensive but I love them, especially theartistic ones with a variable texture along the strands. The best thingabout this type of yarn is that it is spun and dyed by hand, and istherefore unique and made with a lot of care. Different colours and patterns are nearly always incorporated into this type of yarn.

There is also textile yarn,which is not a common type of yarn, but you may come across it at somepoint. Textile yarn is made from strips of fabric (such as jersey). You could make some jersey yarn yourself quite easily from old t-shirts ifyou wanted to!

Youcan get extra creative with what you use for 'yarn' if you like to experiment; in fact you can use strands of almost anything as a yarnsubstitute if it's flexible enough. This includes many different cords,as well as fine wire or strands of wool roving. You can have lots of funtrying out different ideas!

How could you resist this yarn?!

Variegated handspun yarn photo by Shine.

Then there are even more descriptive terms that you may come across, whichdescribe how colour and pattern are used within the yarn:

- Solid: This is where the yarn is just one colour. This type of yarn is best ifyou want to show off textural details and patterns within your knit, such as cables or bobbles.

- Semi-solid: This is where the yarn is one main colour e.g. green, but there aresections of the yarn that are different shades i.e. lighter and darkergreens. These are subtle colour variations.

Photo of semi-solid blue yarn by Jiva.

‘Variegated’ isthe term used for yarns which have colour variations along the lengthof the yarn and therefore aren’t just one single, solid colour. Thefollowing are examples of variegated yarn types:

- Gradient: This is a term applied to yarn that has long sections of differentcolours, or shades of one colour, which blend into one another where thecolour changes. Self striping is an example of a gradient yarn.

- Ombre: Yarn that slowly changes between light and dark shades of a single hue.

Ombre hat by Saxarocks.

- Tweed: This yarn is mostly one single, solid colour, however there are alsoflecks of another colour throughout. This is usually subtle, and I think these yarns look very sophisticated.

- Heathered: Different coloured fibres are spun together into one yarn to produce a random colour pattern.

- Colourway: This is a multi-coloured yarn where two or more different colours arepresent. The colourway often has a creative name such as ‘CherryBlossom’ or ‘African Sunset’ to describe the colours used.

Yarn photo by Chanala.

This yarn has an 'Industrial Age' colourway.

- Marled: Where the yarn is made from different-coloured singles twisted together i.e. the plies are different colours.

- Self-patterning: Almost always used in sock making, this type of yarn allows you toproduce patterns within your knitting without even changing yarns ordoing any advanced technique at all. I really think they’re so clever,and if you ever start knitting your own socks you should definitely check these yarns out.

One type is the ‘self-striping’yarn which creates stripes in your project without you going to theeffort of swapping yarn colour! The colour of the yarn simply changes every so often. I’ve also seen some amazing self-patterning yarns whichare designed to be used with a particular knitting pattern, and when you follow this set pattern, images emerge within your work. I’ve seen somefun examples of this, including socks with Santa Clause faces all over. These yarns are excellent for keeping you entertained whilst you knit,because you can just watch the patterns slowly emerge as if by magic!

Allof these yarn types allow you to really get artistic with your knitting, and can produce some wildly impressive results (with not much added effort usually!)