Weights and measures

We often get asked if there's a clever way of knowing when you're halfway through your yarn. It turns out that there's a couple of ways, so we thought it would be useful to share them with you here. First of all, when might you need to know such a thing? If you're making toe-up socks and you know the mid point of your yarn, then you can just work till you approach that point and cast off. Result: matching socks with no leftovers! Making a stunning scarf like Baktus or any of its lovely crochet variants is simple if you know the midpoint of your skein. The Heart to Heart Beaded Scarf in the picture above (and blogged about here) is another example: start at one side, increase until you're half way through, then start to decrease. You can't run out of yarn this way! There's two ways of finding out your midpoint. One takes longer than the other, but you don't need any special equipment. The other just needs a digital scale and takes only as long as winding the yarn. For the first method, take the two ends of your yarn, hold them together, and starting winding with the yarn held double. When you can't wind any more, you'll come to a loop right in the middle. That's your mid point. Snip right there, and then start winding each end into its own ball (this is best done slowly, possibly in front of some good TV - wind a bit on one ball, wind a bit on the other to avoid tangling). This method has the advantage of finding the exact centre of the length. The second method needs a digital scale. First of all, wind your yarn into a ball and weigh it. Now take one of the ends and start winding a new ball with it, leaving the first ball on the scales as it gets lighter. Keep an eye on the number as it goes down, and stop when you reach 50% of the original weight. That's halfway. Snip the yarn there if you want two separate balls, or just tie a slip knot in the yarn and keep winding if you want just one ball. The second method can easily give you thirds or quarters too. It works equally well whether you're winding by hand or with a yarn winder