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A Guide to Ball Bands

Now that we are open, many of you can start a new knitting or crochet project for the first time in what felt like forever. I could say that I missed this feeling but, to be honest, I have so many projects on the go or waiting to be started already that I didn't get a chance to! Nevertheless, starting something new can be exciting. That is until you start reading the ball band. There is so much valuable information on a ball band but fathoming it out can be confusing, regardless of your knitting/crochet experience. Fear not; today, we will look at everything you need to know before you start a project and where to find it. I will be using the Creative Smile Super Chunky ball band as an example, but the information is pretty much identical on all ball bands, albeit in a different layout. Below is a picture of the ball band.

The Main Section: Brand Details and General Information

This section is the part that bears slightly less importance when you are starting to work with the yarn, but it can be quite interesting to know these details. At the top is the name of the brand that makes the yarn (Rico in this case) followed by the name of the yarn itself (Creative Smile). This may seem stupid and obvious but it is so important that you keep these details in case you need to order in more - you may be sure that you have enough but there is every possibility of the tension being not quite right or the pattern miscalculating the number of balls you need.

Below this is the amount of grams and metres per ball. The amount of grams can sometimes be useful if you are doing a pattern using a different yarn to what it used originally but using the amount of metres is much more accurate because some wool can be very light, meaning you can get a hundreds of metres on a 50g ball, whereas that won't be the case for something thicker and heavier. In my last post, I explained how to calculate how much wool you need to use for a pattern if you are using something different to what it suggests.

Then, below this, it tells you what materials are used. This may not be a priority for you necessarily, but if it is, for whatever reason, then here are a few tips:

• If you are passionate about the environment, then wool, cotton, bamboo and any other natural fibres are great options as these biodegrade very quickly.
• If you want something that is particularly warm and stores heat, acrylic is a good option.
• If you want something that regulates heat and is more breathable, natural fibres are best.

Finally, we have where the yarn was produced, which is pretty self-explanatory. A lot of wool is produced abroad, though if you are trying to reduce your carbon footprint by buying things that are produced locally, I recommend yarns from the brand West Yorkshire Spinners, which we do stock.

Colour Information

In this section of the ball band, you can find two numbers and sometimes a name for a colour, though some brands choose not to name their colours because of how subjective colour is to opinion.

The first number and the name tells you which colour it is in the range and the second number, known as the dye lot, tells you a bit more detail about which batch it came from. Ideally, both of these numbers should match when you are using multiple balls of the same colour, though if the second numbers do not match, it can be a big  issue as these can be big differences from one dyed batch to another. The key thing to note if you have two balls with differing dye lots, they are meant to look the same colour but could differ slightly because they were not dyed using the exact same dye.

Tension and Sizing Information

Now we will look at the tension and sizing information, which is particularly important if you are following a pattern but not using the yarn that is recommended. The first symbol shows which needle or hook size (in millimetres) you should use when working with that yarn. Next is the tension square. When you are following a pattern, you should check that the tension is the same on both the pattern and the ball you are using. In the tension diagram on this ball band, you can see that, to make a 10cm by 10cm square, you need to cast on 11 stitches and do 14 rows. If I wanted to use this to make something that has the same tension or similar (eg. one more/less stitch or row). Then, to check that your tension matches the tension square, you need to try knitting it up. So, in this case, you would cast on 11 stitches using 8mm needles and do 14 rows. If your square matches the measurements that the ball band shows, your tension is correct and you are ready to start the project. If not, try bigger needles if it is too small/tight and smaller needles if it is too big/loose.

The bottom two diagrams are a lot less complicated and are not too important unless you are not following a pattern at all. These tell you how many grams you need for a certain size jumper. In this case, you need 700g (ie. 14 balls in this case) for a size 14/40inch jumper. Also, do note that not all ball bands have this diagram.

Washing Instructions

Finally, we have the washing instructions. I won't explain every symbol that exists because there are hundreds of them, but I will explain the ones shown here and a few others:

• The first one shown here tells you the maximum temperature that you should wash it at.
• A triangle tells you that you can bleach it; a triangle with a cross means you cannot
• A square with a circle inside means you can tumble dry it. If the symbol has a cross in it, you cannot.
• A square with a horizontal line means you should dry it flat.
• A picture of an iron means you can iron it, though they can have dots inside which indicates how hot you should be ironing it at. An iron with one dot means you should iron it a low temperature, one with two dots means you should iron it at medium temperature and an iron with three dots means you can iron it at high temperatures.
• A circle with a P inside means you can tumble dry it but must not use a certain chemical, which is indicated by the number of lines underneath this. You can find more detail about this on websites that specifically focus on these symbols.
• A square with nothing inside it means you should let it dry naturally.

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If you come across one not shown here, you can find it online by searching for images of washing instruction symbols.

And there you have it - you now know how to navigate a ball band! If you have a specific question about a ball band you have, do let us know in the comments!

Happy Crafting!

​Caiti