How To Read Yarn Labels | Posh Pooch Designs

You are walking a long in your favorite 

yarn store and see a luscious ball or skein of yarn.

 You pick up the yarn and look at the label.

Um... What?

What does all this mean?

Even to a person who has worked with yarns for years, 

all these symbols can be very confusing.

And "information" you are looking for,

 can be lost in all the 'information".

Yarn companies try to keep to the Standards 

for symbols. And Although it may seem like

 they are trying to be tricky,

 they really are not.

They are actually trying to give you as much 

information as possible on a small piece of paper.

See This Video on my Youtube Channel at This LINK

Ok... let us Get Started.

We will be referencing the Yarn above for today's Blog.

 It is Red Heart Steller - Nova

1. The Yarn Weight -  This Skein  is a Super Bulky 6.

All Yarns are classified into different yarn weights.

This refers to the yarn's strand thickness.

       0. Lace

             1. Super fine –Sock, Fingering

             2. Fine –Baby, Sport Weight

             3. Light  - Light Worsted Weight, DK Weight

             4. Worsted Weight, Afghan

             5. Bulky – Chunky weight, Rug yarns

             6. Super Bulky – Blanket, Roving

                 Although most yarns are put in these categories, 

                 there is still " wiggle" room between thicknesses.

                                                1             2              3 

2. Knitting Symbol – 

   Needle 10 US/ 6 mm

   A Swatch of 10 sts wide by 14 rows = 4 x 4 inch swatch (10 X 10 centimeters)

  3. Crochet Symbol –

    K -10.5 / 6.5 mm

   A Swatch 9 single crochets wide and 12 rows = 4 x 4 inch swatch (10 X 10 centimeters)

So those make sense, What about those 5 square symbols beneath those?

They are Care Instructions - For the yarn and as well as,

 items made from the yarn.

                                1      2       3      4        5

1.  Washing

2. Drying

4. Ironing

5. Bleaching

6. Dry Cleaning

Red Heart Yarn uses the Garment Standards for Laundry Care and so do most other yarn companies.
Here is a link to garment standards of textile symbols : LINK

For this Skein it reads: 

Machine Wash, Cold, Gentle Cycle, Dry Flat

 Next you will find What the yarn is made of.

This yarn is: 99% Acrylic, 1% Metallic

The amount of yarn per Skein is given in 

ounces, grams and yards.

For This Skein it is 8 oz. 224 grams/ 160 yds. 

Lastly,  if your skein has a dye lot, it will be listed 

near the Bar code sticker.  

As you can see This Yarn is Lot 23529

I hope this answered all your questions

 about reading yarn labels.