Guaging Yarn Weight

I sometimes have issues with yarn weights, especially because I often buy the yarn and then try to fit it into a pattern, which is probably what most people do.  I must admit that this is fundamentally wrong, in the sense that it then becomes very difficult to gauge what we can actually do with the yarn, unless you end up buying a pattern specifically for that yarn, which is not necessarily what you want!

I've ended up making many project messes with that one and will seek to avoid doing that again, believe me! Such a waste of yarn as it is never the same once you unravel it again. It seems to lose the natural feel of the fibre though that has never really made a difference to the finished project.

I've managed to find a good weight guide here.  This should allow me to be able to guage whether a pattern is good for the huge stash I have at home... and hopefully to start working through it although I sometimes spend years not even looking at the yarn I have!

Here is the simplest and probably the best form of chart, commonly available elsewhere on the internet: