Using and Ashford Yarn Gauge.

 The Ashford yarn gauge is a varnished wooden tool for spinners. It has both an inch and a half inch cut out. This is where you measure your yarn’s equivalence to weight to a commercial yarn.

I tend to use the inch cut out to make calculations easier.

Start by winding your yarn to a point about 30-40cm in from the start (this means you should be measuring consistent yarn and not any uneven beginnings. Take the yarn and gently wind it around the inch cut out. Do this by gently placing the yarn together in an aligned manner… not too tight, or overlapping in anyway. Once you have filled the inch gap, count the number of threads used… these are called your warp threads. Let’s say you have 10 warps (10 threads in the inch gap). Here you would say your yarn is 10 warps per inch. Using the chart below you can see that 10 warps per inch estimates your yarn to be a bulky weight… anything from Aran weight and above.

Here is the yarn gauge warp information;

Type of wool (plied)	Warps per inch	Equivalent in commercial wool	Appropriate drive ratio	Twists per inch	Twist angle (degrees)
Fine	More than 20	2 and 3 ply	9-13:1	10-17	25-45
Medium	12-20	4 ply and double   knit	5-10:1	5-10	15-25
Bulky	Fewer than 20	Bulky and triple   knit	3-6:1	1-4	5-15

Also see – Confused-by-warps-per-inch-wpi? and What-size-knitting-needle-do-I-have? knitting-needle-conversion-chart

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