Hello everyone! Tara here—
Have you heard of the Craft Yarn Council?
The Craft Yarn Council, also known as the CYC, was created for both knitters and crocheters and was made to help educate makers. There are how-to videos and tutorials. There is access to different classes and all of the information you need to know to become a teacher of your craft. You can find crochet chart symbols HERE and you can even find Spanish and French Translations HERE.
There are even care instructions for the different fibers and information on how to read yarn labels.
But what you may not know is that all of the garments in our magazines and on our catalogue are all made using the CYC Standards.
So what does this mean?
When we list a size as a medium, we are designing it to fit someone with the body measurements listed on the CYC for someone that has the measurements of a medium. You can see the standard women’s sizes HERE.
If we want the garment to have positive ease (we don’t want it to be skin-tight), our sizes will be larger than the CYC standards, but the CYC standards will always be our base to ensure that the garment will actually fit across all of our sizes offered in the pattern.
It isn’t just used for our women’s tops either. The CYC provides standard sizes for men, children and babies, and even includes standards for your hands, feet and your head!
And, while all of these standards are amazing, they aren’t going to be helpful if you don’t know your measurements. Luckily, you can learn all about how to properly measure yourself on the CYC’s site HERE.
These measurements are there to make sure that the garments you spend hours making (literally) will actually fit the way they’re meant to. As long as you remember to create a gauge swatch to make sure your stitches are the same size as what was used in the pattern, your pieces are going to fit the way they’re supposed to!
All of this is just the beginning. The CYC offers so much more and it’s definitely a website to have saved on your computer!
Let us know in the comments what you love the most about the Craft Yarn Council website!
– Tara Orchard, Editor of Crochet! Magazine
Have questions about Gauge? Check out Britt Schmiesing’s post on Common Gauge Misconceptions6 Misconceptions About Gauge.
