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Have you ever looked at a label on your yarn and wondered what all the different little symbols mean? No problem, I will show exactly what every symbol means so you can properly know how to read a yarn label.
What’s the reason?
I know a lot of y’all are probably wondering what’s so important about being able to read a yarn label. Well, if you spend hours of your time working on a special piece, don’t you want to be able to know how to care for and clean it?
You need to know if it can be machine washed or hand washed, tumble dried or lay flat to dry and if you can dry clean it.
Another important reason, you will want to know how to match dye lot numbers. You don’t want to start making a blanket only to later grab another skein you bought and realize that it’s a shade off of the other skein.
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Basics on the Yarn Label
- What weight the yarn is
- How to properly care for that yarn
- Suggested crochet hook & knitting needle size
- The fiber content
- Length of yarn
- Color & dye lot number
***An important little note, every yarn label will differ on how everything is placed on the label, some have this information on the front, others on the back but all labels will have this same basic information.
I also made a short little video explaining all of the details.
Let’s get started
The yarn that is in the pictures will be Lion Brand’s ‘ZZ Twist’ Yarn in the color green apple
This section tells you how much yarn each skein has. It gives it in net weight (3.5 oz) and in yards (246)
Yardage is important for knowing how many skeins of yarn you will need for a specific project. Especially if you are substituting a different brand of yarn than what a pattern calls for and that skein has a different amount of yardage in it.
The top square with the skein of yarn tells you the weight (thickness) of the yarn. This skein is a #4 Medium worsted weight yarn. Numbers can range from 0 being the thinnest to 7 being the thickest.
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The 2 squares below with the knitting needles and crochet hook tells you what size of needle or hook recommended for this specific yarn. It also tells you how big a 4” x 4” gauge swatch should measure if using the recommended size hook or needle.
This section tells you how to laundry the yarn. Because each skein of yarn is different and made with a different fiber content, the symbols can vary a little. I have included this chart below.
This is probably the most confusing part of the label, because who really knew what all those little symbols meant??? But, now you do!
This section, of course, tells you the fiber content if the yarn in 3 different languages.
Below that section, it’s just telling you that it is machine washable and dryable.
This section tells you how many skeins you will need for each of these specific projects. Of course, it completely depends on the style of each project and could vary a little.
This number is the dye lot number. If you are making a certain project that requires multiple skeins of yarn, you will want to make sure that each skein has this same number.
The other 2 numbers, the article number (763) and the color number (174) are for the manufacturers to use to keep track of different products.
Then, of course, you have the name of the color, Green Apple.
And, that is all there is to it! You can know say that you can decipher all those little symbols and numbers on a yarn label.
I hope that if you found this tutorial helpful that you will share it and be sure to follow me on social media! 🥰
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