Free crochet tool
How much yarn do I need?
Paste a pattern and it counts every stitch — exactly, from the same engine that renders the 3D preview. Then tell it what a project you have already made took, and it turns that count into grams, metres and whole balls using your consumption rather than a stranger’s.
300 stitches across 14 rounds — counted, not estimated.
Calibrate from something you have made
This is the only reliable route. Take something you have already finished, get its stitch count with this tool, weigh what it took — and from then on the estimate uses your own hands rather than an average of everyone's.
Until then: a rule of thumb
Your yarn's ball band
From a rule of thumb — it can be out by half again in either direction. Calibrate from something you have made and this number becomes yours.
Why every other yarn calculator disagrees with every other one
They all estimate the same unknown from the same weak signal: a yarn-weight category in a dropdown. But amigurumi is worked far tighter than a ball band assumes — usually a hook a size or two below what the yarn suggests, so the stuffing cannot show through — and how tightly you hold the yarn is personal. Two people, same pattern, same yarn, can differ by half a ball.
A dropdown cannot know that. So a number produced from one is an average of other people’s hands, presented with a decimal point.
The method that does work
Work backwards from something finished. Its stitch count is knowable exactly — paste the pattern and read it off — and its weight is a kitchen scale away. Divide one by the other and you have your grams per stitch. Apply it to the next pattern, whose stitches are also counted exactly, and the only remaining uncertainty is how consistent you are between projects.
That second exact count is the part no rule-of-thumb calculator has. It is why calibration is worth doing here and not elsewhere: both halves of the sum are real numbers.
What the count does and does not include
It counts every stitch the pattern works, with range rounds expanded — “Round 4-6” is three rounds of yarn, not one line of text. It does not know about the tails you weave in at a colour change, and a piece worked in four colours can lose several metres to them. Nor does it split the total by colour yet, so for multi-colour work the number is the total across all of them.
Questions
- How much yarn does an amigurumi take?
- It depends far more on your tension than on the pattern. The reliable way to find out is to work backwards from something you have already made: count its stitches, weigh the yarn it used, and divide. That gives grams per stitch for your hands, which is the only figure that transfers to the next project. This tool counts the stitches for you, exactly, from the pattern text.
- Why do yarn calculators disagree with each other?
- Because they are all estimating the same unknown from the same weak signal — a yarn-weight category. Amigurumi is worked much tighter than a ball band assumes, and tightness is personal. A dropdown cannot know it, so every such calculator is quietly reporting an average of other people's hands.
- How do I count the stitches in a pattern?
- Paste it above. The count comes from the same parser and compiler that renders the 3D preview, so a round written as a range ("Round 4-6") is counted as the three rounds of yarn it is, not the one line of text it looks like.
- How many balls should I buy?
- The tool rounds up, always. Running out with two rounds left is the failure that matters, and by the time you notice, the dye lot you were matching may be gone. A spare ball is the cheaper mistake.
- Does stuffing or a colour change use more yarn?
- Stuffing does not, but a colour change does: every join leaves two tails to weave in, and a piece worked in four colours can lose several metres to them. If your calibration project had colour changes and the new one does not, expect to need slightly less than the number here — and the other way round.
- Is the estimate per colour?
- Not yet. It counts every stitch in the pattern, so for a multi-colour piece the number is the total across all yarns. Splitting it by colour is a natural next step, and the pattern text already carries the colours it would need.