The Case for Fingering Weight Sweaters

I was chatting to a friend the other day about the different weights of yarns used in sweaters. We were discussing the various benefits of using fingering weight vs DK weight vs Aran weight yarn.

The Theory

During our discussion, my friend mentioned that she had heard a theory claiming that regardless of the yarn weight used, sweaters tended to use the same amount in terms of meterage. Curious, I decided to test the theory by comparing two common sweaters: the Weekender and the Weekender Light. Both are designed by Andrea Mowry from Drea Renee Knits, but the Weekender uses Aran weight yarn and the Weekender light uses a light fingering weight.

(This article is going to contain a fair amount of maths, but bear with me)

First, Meterage Required

I went and searched the two patterns and discovered that the meterage required for each was as such:

(Please note that all of the maths was done for the recommended ease of someone with my chest size of 42”)

Weekender: 1267m

Weekender Light: 1509m

This was far less discrepancy than I had assumed, considering how often I have heard people comment that thicker-weight sweaters require less yarn. There is only a 20% difference.

Second, the Yarn

After seeing how many metres of yarn was needed, I realised what needs to be considered is how many skeins of yarn would be necessary to make the garment. I decided to use Knotty Habit for my calculations.

Weekender: 1267m ÷ 174m/skein = 7.28 = 8 skeins

Weekender Light: 1509m ÷ 400m/skein = 3.78 = 4 skeins

Third, the Cost

Knotty Habit yarn costs R210/skein

Therefore,

Weekender: 8 skeins = R1680

Weekender Light: 4 skeins = R840

The Conclusion

A fingering-weight sweater, in this instance, costs the consumer half (at least in regards to the yarn requirement) of what an Aran-weight sweater does.

Further food for thought

After chatting further we realised that the most common argument as to why a knitter should consider making sweaters in Aran weight is as such: it goes faster.

This is true. A sweater made with thicker yarn, on larger needles, means bigger stitches and less time needed for knitting the garment

However, this should also be considered in relation to cost. For the price-conscious knitter (or crocheter) a garment or item requiring fingering weight yarn, as per my calculations, is going to cost you less in how much yarn you have to buy, but it will also mean saving money in the long run as you are able to spend more time knitting with the same yarn.

If we assume (this is pure guessing) that an Aran weight sweater takes 40hrs to knit and a fingering weight sweater takes 60 hours to knit, this means you will get 1/3 more time knitting on the same item which in turn means 1/3 less yarn requiring purchase.