Colourwork Calculators

Colourwork adds complexity to yarn planning because each colour requires a separate calculation. Running out of one colour can mean buying from a different dye lot or even substituting yarn, so accurate planning is essential. Our colourwork calculators help you estimate yarn for every colour in your project.

Fair Isle (stranded colourwork) uses two colours per row with the unused colour carried across the back. This technique uses roughly 10-20% more yarn overall than plain stockinette because of the floats. The proportion of each colour depends on the chart pattern, and our Fair Isle yarn calculator lets you specify the percentage of each colour in the design.

Intarsia uses separate lengths of yarn for each colour block, with no carrying of yarn across the back. Each block needs its own measured length of yarn, which must be calculated from the number of stitches and rows in that block. Our intarsia calculator converts your chart dimensions into yarn lengths per colour.

Stripes are the simplest form of colourwork. For even-row stripes (2, 4, 6 rows), you can carry the yarn up the side. For odd-row stripes, you need to cut and rejoin or work with a circular method. Our stripe calculator works out how much of each colour you need based on your stripe sequence and total project length.