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Yarn quantities are usually measured by weight in ounces or grams. In the United States, balls of yarn for handcrafts are usually sold in three-ounce, four-ounce, six-ounce, and eight-ounce skeins. In Europe, yarn is often sold in increments of 25 grams, with 25 g, 50 g, and 100 g being common quantities. These measurements are taken at a standard temperature and humidity, because yarn can absorb moisture from the air. The actual length of the yarn contained in a ball or skein can vary due to the inherent heaviness of the fiber and the thickness of the strand; for instance, a 50 g skein of lace weight mohair may contain several hundred meters, while a 50 g skein of bulky wool may contain only 60 meters.
There are several thicknesses of yarn, also referred to as weight. An effort by the Craft Yarn Council of America is being made to promote a standardized industry system for measuring this, numbering the weights from 1 (finest) to 6 (heaviest). Some of the names for the various weights of yarn from finest to thickest are called lace, fingering, sock, sport, double-knit (or DK), worsted, aran, bulky, and super-bulky. This naming convention is more descriptive than precise; fiber artists disagree about where on the continuum each lies, and the precise relationships between the sizes.
