For knitters, and particularly for spinners, there are several different ways to measure your yarn. It can be hard to figure out which measurement you want to use, let alone work out how to calculate it.
(Speaking of calculations, my first tip is that Google is great for doing measurement conversions. Not only is Google the best place to find out "how many grams in a pound" or "how many inches in a yard," it can also do the conversions for you on the fly. For example, Googling "convert 32 grams to ounces" returns "1.12877 ounces" right there as the first result.)
Yards Per Pound (YPP)
YPP is a measurement often used by spinners, dyers, weavers, and other people engaged in working with large amounts of yarn. As a general rule, the more yards per pound, the thinner the yarn is.
Things can get peculiar when you are dealing with different types of fiber or blends, however, because they can have different densities that might throw off the calculations. Imagine a yard-long length of lead pipe versus a yard-long length of balsa wood and you get the picture.
Wraps Per Inch (WPI)
This measurement is used primarily by spinners trying to figure out what gauge/weight yarn they have created. To measure WPI you wrap your yarn around (say) a dowel, nudging the wraps close but not cramming them together, and measure how many can fit across an inch. The thinner the yarn, the more wraps you can fit into an inch, and vice versa.
WPI can be tricky if you are a beginner and your yarn is not very consistent. But it can be a quick and easy way to get a benchmark.
Gauge
Gauge is the least reliable form of measurement. It's more about the specific yarn, and the pattern's requirements. You might knit a laceweight yarn at a loose gauge to get a nice drape, whereas most people knit Shetland-style yarns tightly so that they fuzz and lock together. Gauge for the same yarn can vary widely from one pattern to another, and is really only a loose indicator of yarn size.
Image courtesy Flickr/splityarn
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