Cat Mad Crochet

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Let’s talk about crochet calculators! I see mentions of them here and there, but I have never used one because, despite hating it with my whole entire soul, I feel safer doing the math myself. This is not because I believe I am particularly good at math, but because I only want myself to blame in the inevitable instance of a math crisis. That being said, I have certain standards for a crochet calculator. A yarn calculator has to account for all weights of yarn and needs some way of measuring your personal usage rate from a sample, as well as accounting for the myriad of stitch patterns that make up the world of crochet. A stitch count calculator needs to take in different stitch patterns and their repeats and how those need to be placed to make an aesthetic project. 

In case these sorts of tools should ever prove helpful for me, I spent some time playing with several and came across two that are really good. The first is a yarn calculator and the second is a stitch and row count calculator.

Yarn calculators are intended to help you figure out how much yarn you will need for any given project. If it works, this is super useful. A nice gauge for how much yarn to add to the stash so I have enough for any given project would be a cool tool. I have my own little plan, but it fails me sometimes. 

The Knotty Lace (links below) offers not one but two yarn calculators. One is for basic stitches (though she does explain how to use it for more complex stitches) and is based on frogging a bit of the project and measuring the length of yarn used and the other is for more complex stitches and requires you to weigh the frogged bit. 

I love these methods. I have used the second method myself and it really works. It also accounts for the fact that, surprise, not everything is worked in single crochet as seems to be the assumption with so many other calculators. It also makes allowance for the fact that every crocheter is going to use yarn a little differently because of their own personal tension. Especially in situations where you are designing/winging your own pattern, this is vital to figuring yarn needs for a project. She even accounts for projects that use different panels (or motifs), so you can use this for virtually any crochet project from motif scarfs to one piece sweaters.  

She also provides really clear instructions on how and why each measurement is needed for both calculators. Be still my happy little heart, she even shows you how to tare the scale so you start at zero for your measuring. This calculator was made by someone who seriously knows her crochet and her scale, and it shows.

I tested out the second calculator and, after putting in all of the information, it tells me I will need 2.2 hanks of yarn for my pattern with a two row repeat. This meshes with my own calculations perfectly. Nicely done! This is a working yarn needs calculator for crochet that accounts for different stitch patterns, personal gauge, yarn weights, and different hook sizes! Happy day!

The Knotty Lace yarn calculator is perfect. Use this one. Bookmark the page. She knows her stuff. Yes, you have to do a little more work frogging, measuring, and/or weighing, but it will be worth it if you aren’t sure how much yarn you will need.

Calculate How Much Yarn You Actually Need

Free Yarn Calculator | How Much Yarn You Actually Need – Ver 2

Now let’s look at a stitch multiple calculator. These calculators are meant to help if you are starting a project on your own and need to know how many stitches across it has to be for you to reach your target size. It also tells you how many rows long to make it for your desired length considering the stitch repeat. If you are not used to doing this sort of math, or can’t get someone else to do it for you, this is a useful tool. With so many cool stitch patterns in crochet, each with a different number of stitches in a repeat, it isn’t always straightforward how many repeats you need in a project to reach width or height.

Edie Eckman provides a stitch multiple calculator for figuring the number of stitches to start a project and the number of rows to work, specifically when there is a repeated pattern to the stitches. Think anything beyond all one stitch. It works for knitting and crochet (a novel idea :/). I love that the entire calculator is based on the idea of repeats in the stitch pattern. This really sees crochet’s stitch patterns and embraces them. 

You need a very specific swatch size, 6 inches by 6 inches, but you only count a 4 inches section of it. I count my own swatches from about an inch in from each edge, so this made me happy. Encouragingly, she also accounts for stitch patterns that might not finish exactly at 4 inches by having you count the extra stitches that don’t quite end up finishing their repeat. She explains all of this, both how to measure and how the math works. Then you put in measurements for both your swatch AND for the repeat of your stitch pattern with space for the extra stitches to finish the repeat. From there, the calculator gives you stitch counts based on your target size, with a look at how the repeats will fit, as well as stitch counts based on exact repeats for both cutting out the part pattern repeat and finishing the part pattern repeat. It’s so well done! 

So many stitch calculators seem to only account for people working one stitch. As there are books and books out there of crochet stitch patterns that don’t do that at all, this sort of calculator is really needed. If you are not used to doing this sort of math, it is a great help in designing your work. 

For my little swatch I got the following results:

Now this is useful information in planning a project. This tells you quite neatly how many repeats you would need to start a sweater or a pair of mittens or a hat and not end up with a part of a stitch pattern repeat that makes the whole thing look poorly planned.

Online Stitch Multiple Calculator for Knitting & Crochet – Edie Eckman

I did not try any of the increase or decrease calculators. Increase and decrease calculators may be impossible beyond single stitch patterns because of the intricacy of manipulating complex and open stitch patterns with multiple row and stitch pattern repeats. These increases and decreases are an art unto themselves. It isn’t a matter of just making it fit, but of making the whole thing look aesthetic while being functional.

If you find yourself in need of a calculator, Edie Eckman has an excellent stitch count calculator to plan your projects and The Knotty Lace has an ingenious yarn needs calculator that will keep you from over or under buying yarn, a real benefit when you are dealing with limited yarn lots or expensive hanks. Hats off to both of them! 

I did come across one other useful website in my searching. Oombawka Design Crochet offers a very large list of crochet calculators. If you want to go play with some calculators, I highly suggest trying out their list. It’s a curated list of good calculators, which should save you some time and energy weeding out the weird ones.

Top Online Crochet Calculators: Your Ultimate Resource

Happy crafting!