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What Weight Do Two Strands Held Together Make?

Work out the real weight, hook size and gauge for any combination of yarns you hold together.

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yarn weight calculator crochet

Holding strands together means working with two or more separate yarns at the same time, treating them as one. You pull from both balls, catch both strands with the hook, and every stitch contains all of them. You are not twisting or plying them. They simply sit side by side inside the stitch.

This strand calculator helps you work out the real weight, hook size and gauge for any combination of yarns you hold together.

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Held together: what weight do these strands make?

Copy the weight and length from each ball band. The answer updates as you type, so you can work this out in the shop with a ball in your other hand.

Switch every strand at once

Converts what you have already typed. Each strand keeps its own units afterwards, so a 25 g European mohair can sit next to a 3.5 oz American worsted.

US terms. Stitch height changes row gauge far more than it changes stitch gauge.

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Combined yarn

Fill in two strands and the combined weight appears here.

Where the numbers come from. Hook ranges and single crochet gauge are the Craft Yarn Council standard yarn weight system. The metres per 100 g ranges are a community convention, not an official CYC figure: CYC deliberately publishes no yardage ranges, because loft, twist and fibre density move them. Treat every category edge as soft. CYC has announced a Size 8 for the system as well, so expect this table to gain a row.

If your ball band names a smaller hook, it is not wrong. The Craft Yarn Council is an American standard and its hook ranges run loose next to European habit. A Drops or Scheepjes band will often print a hook one to two sizes below the figure here for the same yarn. They are aiming at different fabrics: the smaller hook gives a firmer one that holds its shape, the larger a softer one with more drape. Neither is the correct answer, and your swatch settles it.

Gauge here is a starting hook, not a promise. Fibre, twist, and your own tension move it by a stitch or two either way, and a held-together fabric is less predictable than a single yarn. Swatch, wash the swatch, then measure.

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Maki
My name is Markéta, but everyone calls me Maki. I love crochet, knitting, and trying pretty much every craft I come across. I design crochet and knitting patterns from the Czech Republic.

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