How to Accurately Calculate Yardage for Crochet Earrings

Now, you may be wondering, what kind of crazy person cares how many yards they’ve used on a small crochet project? Well, ahem, that would be ME. I care how many yards I’ve used on a tiny crochet project. With OVER 50 earring patterns under my hook (see what I did there?), I have definitely become adept at measuring my thread (or yarn) for patterns that take less than 10 yards. WHY in the world do I need to calculate yardage for crochet earrings? Well, the people (ahem, crocheters who buy my patterns) have certain expectations. If they need to know, I’m going to tell them (and even if they don’t NEED to know but just want to).

Find these earrings and MORE in my Ravelry Shop.

Also, if you happen to test my patterns (or other earring designers’ patterns), this information will help you return the best and most accurate feedback to the designer. OR, perhaps you ARE an earring (or other small item) designer and want to know the best way to get this information in order to provide an amazing, accurate, detailed pattern to your customers.

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Traditional Ways to Determine Yardage

By weight with a handy-dandy kitchen scale–But that sure doesn’t work if your item is too lightweight to weigh!
Measuring a certain number of stitches and MATH–NOOOOOOOO! I can already hear the collective screaming of crocheters around the world. No one wants to ‘MATH’. But you can figure out how many yards it takes to create X number of stitches and multiply that by the amount of times you will make that number of stitches in the pattern… Then it gets even more complicated if there are different stitches. And now we are all screaming NOOOOOO again!
Willy-nilly guessing–Let’s just say this is how I used to do it. GULP. It’s also the way a lot of my testers do it (I can tell by their wildly inaccurate estimates. Don’t worry, I’m not mad. Remember: I used to do it too!)

I have even heard tell of people who will MAKE an entire earring (or other small project) and then FROG the project (frog is crochet-jargon for “rip it, rip it, rip it” out –get it? get it? get it?) in order to measure how much thread or yarn they used. I just can’t stand by and let good crocheters continue to undo THEIR HARD WORK. There HAS to be a better way.

An Easier Way to Calculate Yardage for Crochet Earrings

I have this miracle ruler. Fine; I’m lying. It’s a quilting ruler: the kind that you line up on your fabric and use your rotary cutter on the edge of to make PERFECTLY gorgeous straight fabric cuts. Well, it has perfectly wonderful additional uses as well. If a quilting ruler isn’t in your budget, I think this ruler on Amazon is a great affordable option!

Like the thread in this photo? Check it out at We Crochet!

My ruler happens to be 18 inches long. One complete wrap around the ruler equals ONE YARD (1 yard = 36 inches). So, I wrap my thread (or yarn) around the ruler (lengthwise) 5-10 times. I then MARK that spot, and remember (ahem, write down, for those of us with memory ISSUES) how many yards I measured. I usually tie a small slip knot there, but you could also mark the yarn or thread with a Frixion pen. These pens are great and erase with friction/heat. I love using them in my embroidery and sewing projects as well!

NOW, just crochet your project with the measured thread. If you’re making earrings, you only need to make one. Cut your thread/yarn at the end of the project and measure how much remains. Your beginning length minus your remaining yarn equals the total yardage to make one item. For earrings, multiply that by two. For example, if I started with 5 yards and have 1.5 yards remaining, my earring took 3.5 yards, and it will take 7 yards to make two.

TA-DA! It’s that simple!

To recap! Weighing doesn’t usually work with tiny items, math is crazy-making for all projects–big and small, willy-nilly is NOT the way to go, and frogging leads to crochet-frustration!