Yarn quantity, I can't work it out! Help please!

[Jux]

Hi lovely people!

I have a pattern which doesn't tell me how many balls of, eg, 100g Chunky Whatever but says

Yarn for achieving best results:
Take 1150 (1200) 1250 gr of 100 % merino wool yarn approx. 200 m (220 yards) in 100 gr.

Even though I think I understand this, I get all twisted up trying to work it out!

Could you help? If I were looking at 50gr balls, of 75m, say, how do I calculate how many balls I should buy?

(I have my eye on 4 different yarns, but if I see how to do it for one, I think I could do it for the others..... famous last words!)

Thank you

[TheWoollybacksWife]

If you were going to do the middle size that takes 1200g then that's 12 x 100g balls. Each 100g ball is 200m long so you need 12 x 200m = 2400m

Your chosen yarn is 75m long so to work out how many balls you need divide 2400 by 75 = 32 balls. I'd see if I could lay aside a couple of extra balls just in case as there is nothing worse than running out of yarn.

The small size will take a ball or so less, the biggest size will take a ball or so more.

That's assuming you work to the correct tension and the yarns have the same wpi.

[Jux]

Thank you Woolly, thank you thank you thank you! That is clear and easy to follow and has cleared my brain fog (would you believe that I studied maths for some years with the OU and actually did quite well.....)

I am going to do all the given sizes for each of the 4 yarns, just to get the hang of it. While I'm doing it, I'll also discover that my favoured yarn will require over a billion tiny balls at a cost of £19.03 each, and the whole thing will become unaffordable and I'll do it in SSDK or something.......

I shall enjoy my morning! You're a

[TheWoollybacksWife]

Glad to help @Jux

You may find this link for the yarn substitution website useful. You can enter the name of the original yarn and it will suggest substitutes that have the same properties.

[bookbook]

I'm glad Woolly sorted it !
Jux - sounds like a big undertaking , hope it goes well. :)

[Jux]

Have just finished calculating ball numbers.....
So the weight of each ball is pretty irrelevant? I thought I was going to have to do quadratic equations!

I was thinking along the lines of: for a ball of 50g/75m=y and when 1200/200=x then something very complicated............

[Jux]

😪😭 I'm going to need about £100-worth of wool.

[bookbook]

Jux - it does sound like a lot of yarn , and that is always expensive

[Jux]

It's a very lacy cardi, so I had thought it would use less wool but it seems to use tons! Anyway, that project's out the window now. I shall find something else......

[bookbook]

I am doing a lightweight shawl in laceweight yarn - it on;y takes 100 gm