Comments on: How to Measure Yarn in WPI (Wraps Per Inch)

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:22:36 +0000

Peggy and Bananas,

I took some yarn and different tools to wrap them around, wooden ruler, marker,knitting needle,and a cassette case. Each measurement came out the same. You are measuring the width of the wrap with the yarn laying next to each other, hence wrap, not how many inches of yarn it took to make a 1 inch wrap. The only difference I got was wrapping tightly on the ruler or case and measuring on the edge where the yarn was flattened out more, but even that was a tiny difference.
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By: Peggy

Peggy — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:58 +0000

Thank you for that very interesting test – but one important factor – shouldn’t the marker or ruller/measure tape or whatever is ued for wrapping round, be something uniform or the number of wraps would be different in each case?? Yes, I have heard of this before, but when I asked the same question, no answer was given!! Can you?

By: Claire

Claire — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:25:43 +0000

Hello Jamie! Thanks for explaining everything so clearly. Hmm… Plane fuselage… I sort of want to be the first person to measure wpi using that. LOL.

By: jamie

jamie — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:00:22 +0000

Using any object with a reasonable circumference or diameter will not affect the wpi measurement. After all, you’re measuring the length *along* the curved surface (the inch), not the lengths across the curved surface (diameter) nor around the curved surface (circumference). A different kind of surface (i.e., a flat surface that Bananas and Claire spoke of) would make a difference, but for an inch, it would be minute, as Claire mentioned (though with increases in yarn amount, the small difference might add up, but I’m unsure where this point of significance is – afghan-size maybe?).

Also, by ‘reasonable’, I mean items such as pens, pencils (even novelty jumbo pencils!), hooks, needles, toilet paper rolls, etc. An unreasonable curved surface would be a plane fuselage, for example … way too big to wrap yarn around and doubtless not in any of our purses

By: Sheila Shepardson

Sheila Shepardson — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:44:57 +0000

I would think that using the crochet hook or knitting needles for the wpi would be great for the items people are currently making…the gauge would most likely reflect their tension as they wrap around it….the size needles from a 2 or 10 would certainly be different. Maybe a swatch to see which works best.

By: Debi

Debi — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:20:03 +0000

thank you thank you thank you! I really needed this as my Christmas dress would have come out for a 5 year old rather than a 50 year old…
~~APPLAUSE~~

By: Claire

Claire — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 01:19:20 +0000

Wow! I’m so happy to see that I’ve been able to help a lot of people.

@Maxine: I don’t knit… Not yet anyway. It’s on my list of things to learn.
@Sheila: You can do that, but people don’t all have the same tension while working, so the gauge people get may be different from the one specified on the yarn label. But if this has been working for you so far, stick to it.

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 23:27:39 +0000

So the most important thing I learned was that Aran and Worsted are two different kinds of #4 yarn. I am glad I know the truth… maybe I’ll be able to get my gauge right from now on!

By: Debi Stoll

Debi Stoll — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:36:23 +0000

I also just recently came across wpi and thought it had something to do with the number of ply that make up the strand of yarn. Thanks for the info. It’s one less thing I have to peruse.

By: DawnS

DawnS — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:30:00 +0000

You’re the best! Thanx for this info…