For those of you, who thought, that was my sock stash, I have to break it to you, that there's a bit more. Today, I'm going to give you the low-down on the 'mid-price' ranges. These are probably the staple for most sock knitters. There are printed, patterned, hand-painted, plain and multi-plied yarns. I know that for me, these are like rice to my diet. They might be mid-price but they are anything but middle of the road. For the purpose of grouping here, the middle-range retail at between £5.25 and £9.50 per 100g. For my sample size of 58 skeins, I had to admit that I was astounded by the results.
Again, I used +/-2g margin of error, so that all skeins between 48-52g (for 50g) and 98-102g (for 100g) were considered 'at' manufacturer's stated weight.
The really shocker was, of the 19 skeins that came in underweight, 7 of them, I consider to be massively underweight, at 4-6g less than the stated weight (with the 2 gram benefit of the doubt adjustment). If you got one of these massively underweight skein for man-size socks, say US 11 or so, you're definitely going to run short if you knit a 8 inch leg at say 8.25sts/in.
If you're using a mid-price yarn, you should weigh your skeins carefully before starting, as there is a 12% chance that your skein will be massively underweight, unlike the luxury selection from yesterday, where there were a very few outlyers in the underweight range..and those outlyers were really not that far off.
The Araucanian Ranco, Tess's Designer Yarn, Louet Gem, Fortissima and Regia all generally came in at weight or slightly overweight.
Shockingly, 3 brands that I had considered to be reputable and reliable, Lana Grossa, Opal and Trekking, turned out to be consistently underweight. Now, I know that several people had experienced this with Opal and have even mentioned this in the comments, but until I actually weighed my Opal skeins, I really had not expected this much discrepancy.
My Plymouth Sockotta was also very underweight, but with just one skein, it's not easy to say how much of an anomaly this one was.
I am most definitely going to be writing these companies with my feelings on this matter, because I find it unacceptable. Consistently short changing, one's customer for immediate gain is not a good long term business strategy. It's not like we're not going to find out either, especially as many of the short skeins were in dark colours, suitable for men socks.
| Brand | Type | Country | Stated Weight | Actual Weight | Variance |
| British Alpaca Sock | Solid | UK | 100 | 95 | -5 |
| Fortissima | Germany | 100 | 102 | 2 | |
| Fortissima | Germany | 100 | 101 | 1 | |
| Fortissima | Germany | 100 | 101 | 1 | |
| Fortissima | Germany | 100 | 103 | 3 | |
| Fortissima | Germany | 100 | 101 | 1 | |
| Fortissima | Germany | 100 | 99 | -1 | |
| Fortissima | Germany | 100 | 96 | -4 | |
| GGH | Marled | Germany | 50 | 47 | -3 |
| GGH | Marled | Germany | 50 | 47 | -3 |
| Jojoland | Multiplied | USA | 50 | 50 | 0 |
| Jojoland | Multiplied | USA | 50 | 49 | -1 |
| LG - Meilweit | Germany | 100 | 99 | -1 | |
| LG - Meilweit | Germany | 100 | 96 | -4 | |
| LG - Megaboot Stretch | Marled | Germany | 100 | 94 | -6 |
| Louet | Solid | USA | 50 | 54 | 4 |
| Louet | Solid | USA | 50 | 52 | 2 |
| Online | Germany | 50 | 47 | -3 | |
| Online | Germany | 50 | 47 | -3 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 101 | 1 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 99 | -1 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 99 | -1 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 99 | -1 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 98 | -2 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 97 | -3 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 97 | -3 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 97 | -3 | |
| Opal | Handpainted | Germany | 100 | 97 | -3 |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 94 | -6 | |
| Opal | Germany | 100 | 93 | -7 | |
| Plymouth Sockotta | USA | 100 | 92 | -8 | |
| Ranco | Handpainted | USA | 100 | 104 | 4 |
| Ranco | Handpainted | USA | 100 | 102 | 2 |
| Ranco | Handpainted | USA | 100 | 102 | 2 |
| Regia | Germany | 100 | 100 | 0 | |
| Regia | Stretch | Germany | 50 | 50 | 0 |
| Regia | Silk | Germany | 50 | 50 | 0 |
| Regia | Silk | Germany | 50 | 50 | 0 |
| Regia | Silk | Germany | 50 | 50 | 0 |
| Regia | Silk | Germany | 50 | 49 | -1 |
| Regia | Silk | Germany | 50 | 49 | -1 |
| Regia | Silk | Germany | 50 | 49 | -1 |
| Regia | Silk | Germany | 50 | 49 | -1 |
| Regia | Germany | 50 | 49 | -1 | |
| Regia | Germany | 50 | 49 | -1 | |
| Regia | Stretch | Germany | 50 | 49 | -1 |
| Regia | Silk | Germany | 50 | 48 | -2 |
| Regia | Germany | 100 | 97 | -3 | |
| Stahl Limbo | Germany | 50 | 49 | -1 | |
| Stahl Limbo | Germany | 50 | 48 | -2 | |
| Steinbach | Germany | 100 | 102 | 2 | |
| Tess Designer Yarn | Handpainted | USA | 100 | 102 | 2 |
| Tess Designer Yarn | Handpainted | USA | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| Tess Designer Yarn | Handpainted | USA | 100 | 99 | -1 |
| Trekking | Ombre | Germany | 100 | 94 | -6 |
| Trekking | Bamboo | Germany | 100 | 94 | -6 |
| Trekking | Ombre | Germany | 100 | 93 | -7 |
Wow Polly, that is fascinating, the statistics and getting a sneaky look into your sock stash. You didn't happen to take a photo when you were weighing, did you? ;0)
Posted by: yvette at November 12, 2007 04:45 PMI think you may judge some of th eyarns unfairly. Wool in particular can draw a lot of water depending on how it was treated and dyed. So the weight can differe with the ambient humidity quite dramatically. I used to work with wool samples and in order to make accurate measurements the enteire room was climatised to humidity and temperatures and the tiny samples had to be in it 24 h in advance of the measurement...
Still a great entry and statistics I can follow. ;-) A miracle.
I keep telling people that statistics is a very practical math with many useful applications to everyday life. :) Thanks for sharing all of this information & good luck on your letter writing! I'd love to hear that the companies are responding to customer feedback.
If I can find my sock stash & a scale, I'll have a go at mine as well.
Posted by: Jamie at November 12, 2007 03:30 PMAh, science...and what it does to improve the life of mankind.... I'm always ready to contribute!
Here are my results, in g, w/wh.label:
Trekking XXL: 99/98 g
Regia 4-ply: 50/48
Regia 4-ply: 54/52
Koigu KPPPM: 50 g
Koigu KPPPM: 50 g
Opal Hagebutte:101 g
Opal: 100/99
Regia 4.ply: 99/98 g
And stats has never been my thing, but it looks acceptable overall, I'd say. But no ball will be knit in this house until it has been weighed...
Now. Who wants do do the yardage check?? Hehe...
Posted by: Rippedoffknitter at November 12, 2007 01:29 PMSo interesting Polly! Thanks for doing all this. As soon as I get a proper scale, I'm having a go at my stash.
Posted by: Carol at November 12, 2007 12:15 PMThose results are pretty amazing. I'm surprised that Opal is so underweight. I've been fortunate with knitting socks for myself, but I've not knit socks for SO with it. Although I am planning to knit a pair of socks for him in Trekking. Hmm, I'll have to ration it out b/c I don't have a scale.
Posted by: Wanda at November 12, 2007 05:27 AMI think we ALL should start weighing our sock yarns! And we should notify the manufacturers if the skeins are short. After all, we knitters demanded pointier addi's and got em...if we let the manufacturers know, we can make a change...POWER TO THE KNITTERS!!!!! :)
Posted by: Debi at November 12, 2007 04:18 AMWell... From now on, I'm going to weigh all my sock yarn before I use it. Even if the socks are just for me.
Posted by: Dotty at November 12, 2007 02:31 AMYou are amazing! Thanks for going thro all the trouble of weighing your stash (I am just as guilty) & presenting the info to us - it's such useful info & I will have to watch out for those underweight ones.
Posted by: Ann at November 11, 2007 11:51 PMThis has been quite fascinating. I feel the urge to get out the sock yarn and scale, but must wait until no one else is watching.
Posted by: Sarah at November 11, 2007 10:33 PMI love your very informative posts. I think you should include a photo of the yarns so that we can all drool over them too.
Posted by: Ling at November 11, 2007 08:42 PMPolly, am enjoying your daily posts, and these really informative ones especially. I think this is one time the companies are going to rue your having bought so many of their skeins! It is really shocking. Thanks so much for taking this trouble - also hats off to those companies who consistently are over the stated weight.
Posted by: desiknitter at November 11, 2007 06:37 PMwow Polly, I am going to have to investigate my sock stash now! I'm not sure what the allowed difference is in the UK, but I think it might be more than 2g (and that's per 50g!)
Posted by: dawn at November 11, 2007 06:33 PM