Yarn Substitution Calculator by Yardage

Match total yardage, not the number of balls. Multiply the pattern skeins by their yards per skein, then divide by the substitute's yards per skein and round up to whole skeins. The tool does all three steps for you and shows the total yardage as a check.

Different fibers weigh different amounts for the same length, so two 50 gram balls can hold very different yardage. Yardage is what determines whether you have enough length to finish, which is why this calculator works in yards throughout.

Yarn is sold by the whole skein, so any fraction of a skein still means buying a complete one. The tool rounds the divided total up with a ceiling, turning 3.02 skeins into 4, so you never plan to buy a partial ball you cannot actually get.

It stays put. When the total divides into a whole number of substitute skeins, such as 2000 yards into 200 yard skeins giving exactly 10, the tool keeps 10 rather than nudging up to 11. The rounding only kicks in when there is a genuine remainder.

No. It only matches yardage. Pick a substitute in the same weight class and knit a gauge swatch so the fabric and finished size still match the pattern, because the right yardage in the wrong gauge will not fit.

Convert first. One yard is about 0.9144 meters, so divide meters by 0.9144 to get yards, then enter the yardage figures for both yarns. Keep both yarns in the same unit so the ratio stays correct.

Grams alone will not work here, because this tool compares length. Find the yards per skein on each label, or look it up by brand, and enter those. If only grams and a gauge are given, the label almost always prints the length too.

Run it once per color. Enter the skeins and original yardage the pattern lists for each shade, with your substitute's yardage for that shade, and buy the count it returns for each. That keeps every color matched to its own requirement.

No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser, so the yardages you enter never leave your device and nothing is uploaded to a server.