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Okay, so this is quite a mathy tutorial. I wanted to share this, in a knitting context, because I've found it to be quite useful. There is a calculator at the bottom, so (hopefully) it can do the working out for you. This is something that I’ve researched as I was very unsure that I would have enough yarn to finish a shawl I was working on.  I was able to work out relatively easily how many stitches I needed to complete the shawl and whether I had a enough yarn to work another repeat. I’ve used it quite a few times since then, when yarn quantity was a bit tight; plus, it's very helpful in designing too. Measuring Yarn in Grams/M/Yds Knowing how many stitches is only useful, if you know how much yarn you need to work X number of stitches. There are quite a few ways of working this out. I’ve mentioned one of them before when I working out yarn amounts for intarsia . It’s the same principle here.  In that tutorial, I explained how to...

This year I’m doing Debbie Abrahams’ Mystery Blanket . There’s lots of intarsia. I’m taking some advice from a friend and sorting out my materials for each square when I get the patterns. This means I can just grab a bag and start knitting when I’m in the mood. One thing that’s very useful to know is how much yarn to measure off for your intarsia bobbins. You may be of the persuasion to wind a bit off and hope for the best; if you’d rather be more accurate then hopefully the following will be helpful. It would be useful if you are short on yarn, or like me want to prepare in advance, or if you travel about with your knitting and want to take less yarn with you. First, count the number of stitches in each section you’ll be knitting. Here’s a sample chart - You can just count each square and make a note of it. Or here’s a few tips to make the counting quicker. If the chart is numbered or has boxes of 5 or 10 then it makes life easier. For easy square shapes like the blue square then jus...