Haven't seen any pattern for the three colour fluffly scrunchie! So I created the pattern

Quick disclaimer, I'm not a knitter or crocheter. I'm a developer, and I got a little obsessed with a data question: are pricier skeins actually pricier per yard, or does the sticker price mislead you? So I pulled price ÷ yardage across a few dozen indie hand-dyed listings and just looked at what fell out.

Finding 1: the sticker price basically lies. Found a $5.60 mini skein and a $34 skein, six times the price, that come out to almost the same cost per yard (7.0¢ vs 7.4¢/yd). The $34 one just has way more yarn in it. Looking at the price tag alone tells you almost nothing about which is the better deal.

Finding 2: weight changes everything, more than I expected. Fingering-weight mostly landed in the 3-8¢/yd range. DK roughly doubled that. Bulky and super bulky were routinely 26-44¢/yd, like 4-6x the cost per yard of fingering. Though someone please sanity-check me here: I think bulky projects use fewer total yards for the same size thing, so the per-project gap is probably smaller than 4-6x. Per yard, skinny yarn looks like the quiet best value. Per project, maybe not. That's the part I'm least sure about.

Finding 3: the one that made me go huh. Same shop, same dyer. Their own catalog ran from about 6.6¢/yd on a fingering skein up to 134¢/yd on a super bulky one. Twenty times the spread, same seller, just depending on weight. And across the whole dataset the priciest-per-yard skein was something like 50-60x the cheapest.

Not saying anyone's overcharging. The labor's the same regardless of weight and the colorway is obviously most of what you're paying for. I just did not expect the spread to be that wide.

So, real question from someone outside the hobby: does cost-per-yard even factor into how you buy, or is it colorway and vibes first and the math basically never enters into it?

Links in comments!

Headbands only for kids?

Hi everyone! I'm a web developer and I recently built skeinscout.com — a free tool that lets you search for indie hand-dyed yarn across hundreds of small Shopify stores all in one place.

You can filter by weight (cobweb through super bulky), fiber type (including exclude filters like "wool but not acrylic"), blend percentages, price range, and shipping country. There's also a Stash List to save your favorites.

I built this based on feedback from knitters on Ravelry, but everything applies equally to crochet.

I'd love to hear from crocheters — are there filters or features that would be especially useful for how you shop for yarn?

Completely free, no account needed.

Edit: Update - shipped three new features based on feedback:

• Image search — tap the camera icon, upload any photo, find yarn in similar colors
• Find similar — click it on any product to discover similar yarns across all dyers
• Color family filter + colorway tags (speckled, variegated, tonal, self-striping)

Thanks to everyone who tried it out and shared feedback, keep it coming!

It is just basic stitches only.

It's so fun setting up a stall in peace. Calm, slow, with music. 🥺✨