Questions about what size needle to use for yarn

[noturavggeek]

Hello all! I think my question has been answered here before, but it's not jumping out at me.

I bought some yarn off etsy awhile ago, and can't wait to use it, however it never specified needle size! All it says is 3 ply, and to me it looks like fingering weight, but I'm not sure. Is there a way I can figure this out without making swatches with a bunch of different needles?

[striker923]

Hello all! I think my question has been answered here before, but it's not jumping out at me.

I bought some yarn off etsy awhile ago, and can't wait to use it, however it never specified needle size! All it says is 3 ply, and to me it looks like fingering weight, but I'm not sure. Is there a way I can figure this out without making swatches with a bunch of different needles?

You might be able to do the Wraps per inch thingy.  Wrap the yarn around a ruler in the space of one inch and count the strands.  This site tells more about it.  Good luck!

[soozeq]

Yes, the wpi can work as long as the yarn isn't fuzzy. If it's a fingering weight, then which needle size depends on what you want to knit with it. For socks you need a really small needle to get dense stitches, for lace, you want a really large one for the looser open stitches, if you want to make a light floaty items, then you'd use a fairly large needle too. If you double it, that would be like a DK weight.

[noturavggeek]

80% superwash merino wool and 20% nylon ultraspun into a smooth, soft, dense, elastic yarn! This yarn is unbelievably soft and very smooth, giving wonderful stitch definition. It is 3 ply and dense so it wears extremely well. It also has a little very fine nylon blended into it to help it wear well, but it is difficult if not impossible to feel the nylon - not even remotely scratchy or stiff. You get the benefit of tough as nails hard-wearing socks after all your hard work AND the extra-plush ultrasmooth butter softness of beautiful merino yarn to knit (and wear).

^^This is the description for it. I'm guessing since it mentions making socks I'd use a smaller needle. I was going to make some fingerless gloves with it or socks, haven't quite decided yet.

[nastij]

1.) swatch to see if you can get the gauge called for in your pattern; or,

2.) using a needle gauge, see which size hole a doubled piece of the yarn fits through.