Yarn “weight” is different from how you usually define weight.
Here’s a YouTube video that explores it: Understanding Yarn Weight.
And HERE is the downloadable spreadsheet with yarn sizing systems.
The Good News is the Bad News
It’s always that way isn’t it? There are advantages and disadvantages to almost everything in life . . . two sides to every coin.
Like winning the lottery. Hurray, you are rich, rich, I tell you! Qiviut and cashmere, here you come. But 72 people (so far) are whining at you for money including your brother’s widow who knows exactly where your Guilt button is and she’s lying on it. (You never did like her from the get-go.)
Like that mystery virus that landed you in the hospital and swallowed 12 weeks of your everyday life. The one that reminded you to appreciate every moment of your everyday life since then . . . (And FINALLY you got your Advanced Directive carefully crafted, witnessed, copied and in the hands of those who might need it some day which is something only a near-death experience could kick you into gear to do because who wants to figure that stuff out or even acknowledge that it needs to be done? But it’s a good thing. To have it done.)
The Learning Knitting coin has two sides as well, but they look the same . . .
The good news about knitting is “There is no ***RIGHT WAY***.”
The bad news is “There is no ***RIGHT WAY***.”
At least once a week someone asks me, “Cheryl, what’s the correct way to . . .
hold the yarn . . .
bind off the ribbing . . .
pick up along the neck edge . . .
cast on . . .
cable without a needle . . .
etc . . .
And my answer is always the same: “There is no ‘correct’ way that works for everyone in every situation but here’s what I would try . . . And if that doesn’t work you might try . . .”
This idea that there is no right way has come up in my own knitting in the past month. I’m learning how to do Twined Knitting. I’m enjoying sifting through the details of learning a new skill . . . but here’s the rub . . . Z-twist vs S-Twist yarns and which way you wrap them.
There are number of experts (and I have consulted all I can find who are in English) who talk about only one way to do it using the least-available yarn in this country. My question is why can’t we use the other kind of yarn and wrap it the other way? Who sez we can’t and why not?
I’m finding that I’m not the only person asking the question. My conclusion? If it works for you, and you’re happy with the process and result, then it’s right. And don’t let anyone tell you different.
I poke around on Ravelry and other forums to learn what people are having trouble with or questions about (also to check what they’re saying about me). Every once in a while I see someone telling someone else the “right” name for a pattern stitch or the “right” way to do something. And always the remark comes from someone who doesn’t have enough experience to know that the knitting world is bigger than they can imagine.
Not knowing the exact, right, step-by-step safe path, or worse, knowing that there isn’t one, can be scary. And that’s why I tell you to be brave. Because it’s just yarn, no one has ever bled out because of a dropped stitch, and I, for one, would be bored brainless after 70+ years of doing it if I didn’t get to discover something new.
Back in my teaching-high-school-English days, an occasional student would ask, “You know something?” (Or more like, “Yunno sump’n?”)
My answer was always the same: “Not a thing. I’m awed only by the enormity of what I don’t know.”
And I still am.