Hand-Knitting Yarn

Hand-knitting yarn is what you use to knit a jumper, hat, socks or blanket with needles, and much of it can also be used for crochet. It is often called hand-knitting wool, although most balls are made from acrylic and cotton; alongside wool, you will also find merino, alpaca, polyamide and soft micropolyester. Alize and Yarn Art are the main brands, followed by Malabrigo, Drops, Schachenmayr, Himalaya, Katia and Austermann. Yarns differ not only in material but also in thickness, which you can judge from the relationship between the weight and length of a ball.

Why does one 100 g ball have 100 metres and another over 400?

At the same weight, a fine yarn has far more metres than a thick one. The length per 100 grams therefore gives you a quick guide to yarn thickness and the knitting needles that go with it. For a 50 g ball, simply double the length to compare it with a 100-gram ball.

Fine yarns with around 400 metres per 100 g are suited to socks, gloves and delicate children's clothes where you want a dense yet lightweight fabric. Medium yarns with around 200 metres work well for jumpers and hats. Thick yarns with fewer than 100 metres knit up quickly, which is why they are used for blankets, scarves and cowls. When substituting a yarn in a pattern, choose one with a similar length per 100 g and knit a small tension swatch first.

Do you knit with needles, crochet or use just your fingers?

Most of the hand-knitting yarn on this page is intended for needle knitting, and most yarns also have a recommended needle size listed. Many suit both techniques, so you can knit and crochet from the same ball. You will find them together on the knitting and crochet yarn page.

Loop yarn, such as the Alize Puffy range, lets you knit without any tools at all. The loops are already formed along the strand, and you simply pull them through one another with your fingers, so loop size matters here rather than needle size. It makes a fluffy blanket, cushion or scarf. You can find all the ranges on the loop yarn page.

Why buy all the balls of one colour at the same time?

Yarn is dyed in batches, and each batch can have a slightly different shade even when it carries the same colour number. The label therefore usually shows a dye lot number as well as the colour number. For a jumper or blanket, buy all the balls of one colour together so they come from the same dye lot and there is no visible change between balls in the finished piece. For a larger project, an extra ball is worthwhile if you are unsure about the amount given in the pattern.

Multicoloured yarns change shade within a single ball, creating stripes or colour gradients without switching balls. Find other yarns by material and brand in the Knitting Yarn category.