Start with a square.
A small, representative sample makes a much more useful plan than a generic yarn chart.
1. Weigh your yarn
Use the yarn, hook and stitch pattern intended for your blanket. Weigh each yarn before and after making the square. The difference is its consumption. Include tails as you normally make them. Record the remaining usable yarn separately as your inventory.
2. Make the measurement meaningful
If a color uses less than your scale can measure reliably, make several matching squares and divide their combined yarn use by the number made. Record each color, including 0 for unused colors. Do not enter the entire square’s weight as the weight of each color.
3. Measure the finished square
Measure after the same finishing or blocking process you intend for the blanket. All sample styles in this version must have the same finished square size. Different yarns or changes in tension need their own measurements.
4. Build a color sketch
Choose the rows and columns, select a sample style, then apply it to squares. The colored shapes are only a sketch; they do not describe stitch rounds or an actual crochet pattern.
5. Allow for finishing
Joining and border width affect the estimated dimensions, but do not tell us how much yarn they use. Enter your own color-by-color finishing allowance. A blank field means that yarn is not included. The default 10% body allowance is editable and is not a validated accuracy margin.
6. Check before buying
The results are estimates. Tension, tails, reworking and finishing can change actual use. Recheck your samples, yarn availability and dye lots before buying. Save explicitly on your device, or print the plan.
Worked example: use less of the color you are short of
Illustrative numbers, not a tested crochet pattern. Measure your own samples; these weights are not yarn-consumption presets.
Imagine a 2-row × 3-column blanket with 100 g of color A (red) and 10 g of color B (blue). Sample S1 uses 4 g of A and 2 g of B per square. Sample S2 uses 1 g of A and 5 g of B. Both samples must have the same finished size.
Start with four S1 squares and two S2 squares
Enter a 10% body allowance and finishing amounts of 5 g for A and 0 g for B. Zero explicitly excludes blue finishing yarn; leave it blank instead if you have not estimated it yet. The allowance here is a planning choice, not a validated safety margin.
- A: (4 × 4 + 2 × 1) × 1.10 + 5 = 24.8 g needed. From 100 g, that leaves 75.2 g.
- B: (4 × 2 + 2 × 5) × 1.10 + 0 = 19.8 g needed. With only 10 g, you are 9.8 g short.
Change the two S2 cells to S1
Select S1 in the planner and apply it to both S2 cells. Now all six squares use S1. A needs 6 × 4 × 1.10 + 5 = 31.4 g; B needs 6 × 2 × 1.10 = 13.2 g. The blue shortage drops to 3.2 g, but it has not disappeared.
You can recheck the samples, reduce the planned size, or obtain more blue yarn. Moving the same six styles around without changing their counts does not change total consumption. Any border or joining yarn still needs its own measured allowance before you decide what to buy.
Read the calculation method, then enter your own measurements in the planner.