Hi everyone, I hope you found this helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions about yarn weight, and grab the conversion table at bit.ly/international-yarn-weights.

Thank you. This is so interesting and informative. We in South Africa seem to have a simpler system - or maybe it's just because we haven't caught up with the rest of the world yet. 😊 Traditionally we haven't ever used the term "yarn". We call everything wool even if it doesn't have a single strand of actual wool in it. We have 3 ply yarn, which is used mainly for baby garments and blankets, etc, 4 ply which is like fingering weight (my personal favourite but not too freely available anymore), DK or double knitting, and chunky. I see that Aran weight is becoming more available now. There also more bulky yarns available but not many. Although we are a wool exporting country unfortunately we don't have as wide a variety of yarns available to us here. It's also not easy to buy yarns from other countries because of the cost. That doesn't stop is from carrying on with our knitting and crocheting, though.

Brillant international Yarn 🧶 weight/name chart!! 👏🏼 👏🏼 Brava! Also, excellent explanation overall n most importantly - recommending a gauge swatch before starting a pattern. Yarn.sub reference also good, especially for Americans n Canadians. Another topic, perhaps for another vid, would be to explain Yarn textile types n how Yarn is processed (twisted, chain, single ply, etc.). Ex: A cotton DK chained Yarn will look, feel, stretch, work up n block very differently than a spun single ply DK acrylic would do. So, added explanation of how Natural fibers behave very differently than man-made, etc. Great job 👍🏼 n nice graphics.

This was very hellpful. Thank you!

Hi! I am Canadian and we use the American system here. Thank goodness...we don't need yet ANOTHER system to use! Great video with lots of useful information, especially for beginners.

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

Oh thank goodness, that's a relief 😅. Thanks for letting me know!

Thank you so much Learning about yarn is such a headache but you made it so easy Can’t thank you enough

So helpful. I’m an Aussie in Canada and you just saved me hours of confusion. Most yarn I see here in the US or UK/Europe weight chart. But wow was that helpful. Thank you thank you!!!

Best explanation ever! Sure wish i had found this alot sooner. Saving this for reruns as im sure im gonna need it❣

Thank you so much. For a beginner knitter, this is really helpful information!!👍🏻👍🏻

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

No problem, its the stuff that I wish I'd known when I was a beginner so I'm glad to hear it's helpful for beginners 😄

Congrats on starting a podcast! So good to see more Aussie Knitters on here! I’m a knitter in Melbourne! ❤️

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jess! I'm in the middle of your first episode now 😉

this topic was excellent Kat. Thankyou for your explanations and visual illustrations

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

No worries, I'm glad it was helpful Cheryl!

Thank u , i live in the USA and purchased 2 baby outfit sets accidently in Aran yarn and have been trying to figure out how to substitute it for a medium 4 weight yarn with a recomended hook size of 5 mm. Thanx to your charts i realize its pretty much the same thing and it shouldnt matter with making these baby closthes. Ty and God bless!

Ha ha I’m in the U.S. and I’m completely confused now for sure. I don’t think I’ll be venturing out of my narrow comfort zone 😊 Thank you for your efforts?

Awww thanks for making this vid. Just got into crocheting and learning from YT, but it's hard when most vids are made outside of AUS and sometimes when they talk about yarn I don't understand and use the wrong ply and my project looks completely different. Thanks for the PDF! Real helpful!

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

Yay, I'm glad it was helpful! I have some videos about specific local yarn too, you might find them handy 😊

Love the name Oliphant!! In my language, Afrikaans in South Africa, it means Elephant! This video is very very helpful, solved lots of my crocheting problems!! I started to knit as a kid already in the 60's , so much changed that I am today totally confused, could be the age too😹Thank you Kat you where very helpful! Clicked Like and Subscribed to your Channel!

@OliphantKat

Жыл бұрын

Oh yes, I had someone comment before saying they assumed I was South African before they started watching because of the name :D Welcome to the channel! If you need help with anything let me know, I know knitting's changed a LOT in just the last decade or so so it can get quite confusing.

This is great! Thank you for putting this together and providing the chart! So helpful. 💛

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

No problem, glad it was helpful!

Thank you!!! So much of the crochet and knitting community online is US related and as a complete beginner in Australia this is super handy!!

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

You are so welcome! I'm glad you found it helpful, I was specifically hoping to find some Aussie beginners to help out 😊. If you have any other topics you'd like to see videos on please let me know!

Thank you so much for your excellent explanation of yarn weights. Thank you for the chart to convert from one system to another! I had no idea that Aran weight yarn was a UK definition that overlaps with worsted wt. in the USA! It's all so confusing, but you've helped me understand things!

@OliphantKat

10 ай бұрын

You are so welcome! I'm glad it was helpful 😊

This video is so useful thank you Kat for this information 😊

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

No problem, glad it was helpful!

Omg this was super helpful! Thank you!

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

No problem, glad it was useful!

Thank you. This was helpful ❤

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

No problem, glad it helped!

Thank you for this useful info. As an Aussie knitter, I still get confused with understanding all the conversions. Only recently I was inquiring about yarn to purchase and thought that it was ‘2ply’ from the description but it was really 4ply in weight. The 2 ply was describing the 2 strands. The table chart was really helpful too. Thanks again.

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

No problem, glad you liked it! Yeah it's becoming a common problem, I've noticed that more American yarn companies are starting to mention what ply their yarns are and it's making a lot of Aussie knitters confused.

Hi thanks for your information. I like your jumper.🧶

@OliphantKat

10 ай бұрын

No problem, I'm glad it was useful! And thanks 🥰 If you're looking for the pattern its here: www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/necessity-jumper

Thank you, Kat! This is good information! I live in Canada so I guess I fall under the US weights.

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

Hey Carol, glad it was helpful! Yes someone else from Canada told me recently that you guys use the US weights - thank goodness there isn't yet another weight system to have to keep track of 😄

In my country Egypt we almost only have Turkish yarn

Thank you for this 🙏

@sarah-du6cs

2 жыл бұрын

Ps: I would happily have exchanged my email address for that chart 😉

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

Hahah omg I know, I made the chart with the idea that it'd be a lead generator and then I ran out of time to set it up before the video came out and I just never came back around to it. Thanks for reminding me! If you still want to sign up to the newsletter I won't complain, it comes with a free beanie pattern 😝

Oct 4, 2022. Hi, this was extremely helpful. I’m Canadian, also an expat Brit so I’ve been very very confused by all this stuff - weight, ply, categories, etc. still a bit confused but your video was great and the chart I screen shot is so helpful. I don’t think Canadians have their own yarn weight/categories but tend to use either US or UK. Not very helpful to you who wants to learn more 🤷‍♀️🤣. I watch a lot of UK podcasts and their constant use of the term DK drives me nuts! We don’t get DK in Canada. Brits call DK a 4 ply yarn but as you and I know 4 ply is a misnomer as ply has nothing to do with it. I therefore believe that DK is a US equivalent of ‘worsted’ or ‘medium’. To my mind, worsted was always thicker than DK??? So, still confused 🤷‍♀️. I don’t knit garments, too much faffing (ie fiddling) around with fit, I knit and crochet mainly blankets and lacy shawls and I tend to go with the ball band ‘3’ or ‘4’ ie medium type yarn. I do hats though and have had good success with ‘4’ yarns. I think ‘4’ is really equivalent to a UK DK. Have I confused you yet🤣. Anyway thank you for taking the time to try to sort us all out and straighten out the mess of all these categories. I found your video thru an IG/blogger called Knit Like Granny. FYI.

@OliphantKat

Жыл бұрын

Hey! Sorry for the late reply on this. So from what I understand (after people told me on the comments in this video), Canada uses the US system. So if you're seeing a "3" or a "4" on Canadian yarn, those are the CYC categories I was talking about. 3=DK, 4=worsted. I *think* that DK in the UK and DK in the States is the same, and 4ply in the UK is what they'd call fingering in the States, but honestly given your background you'd know more than me I assume (I know the least about the UK terminology). Thanks for the heads up about Knit Like Granny!

What about doubling and tripling the thickness of my yarn if I can’t find the right color for example which happens a lot in countries like mine?

Thank you so much for your tutorial, things make more sense to me now. Just wondering if I can get your conversion charts. I don't seem to be able to download them when I click on the link. Cheers

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

Hey Leanne, thanks for letting me know the link was broken! You can download the charts here: www.dropbox.com/sh/k5jcpjghj2wtphc/AAD4AlqTqwGfOCIh9ckhDPm2a?dl=0

I chose YT for the visual aspect. This tutorial (for me) would have had more impact if u displayed swatches for substitutions. Just a thought. Thanks for the info.

@OliphantKat

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the suggestion!

I am in Australia and wanting a substitute for an outdated cotton yarn that is described as 5 ply (12 wpi). What is wpi? And what problems are there if substituting a boucle yarn? Loved your video, your explanations are right on target.

@awilesmith7016

Жыл бұрын

WPI refers to “wraps per inch” This is more commonly used by spinners and is another way of measuring the yarn thickness, because handspun yarn can differ due to the technique used in spinning. If you wrap the yarn gently but firmly around a ruler or a wpi tool and count how many strands fit within 1 inch, this will give you an idea of the yarn weight and help to make other calculations. Each yarn weight Katrina mentioned in this video will have a corresponding wpi range, but some of them overlap depending on the yarn weight, density and construction.

@OliphantKat

Жыл бұрын

What A Wilesmith said 😄. Ravelry has a good chart that's similar to the one I presented but has the WPI conversion on it too: www.ravelry.com/help/yarn/weights

Can I use 2 balls of worsted 4 to make a sweater with 5ply or bulky please.

@OliphantKat

2 жыл бұрын

Hi! Two strands of worsted held together will come out to be something like a super bulky, but I'd recommend swatching to see if you get gauge.

I get my yarn from china and it’s so confusing. Apparently 5 ply yarn from there is similar to dk while 8 ply is a worsted or bulky depending on the brand and it’s so confusing

@OliphantKat

10 ай бұрын

Oh that's so interesting! Sorry, I can't be much help - I don't think I've ever bought any yarn from China. If you're not familiar with "wraps per inch" go look it up, it'll help you figure out what weight your yarn is when you're unsure.