Kay's Korner - A Knitters Notes

January 22, 2008

One of the favorite sayings in our household is that even a blind hog finds an acorn, every now and then. Hopefully, we can approach the task of finding a substitute yarn with more than blind luck.

Previously, I have talked about substituting a different yarn from what is recommended in a pattern. This is something that comes up so often. You find a pattern that is oh so perfect, but either the recommended yarn is unavailable or for some other reason, found to be unsuitable. It could be too expensive for our project budget or simply a fiber we prefer not to have next to our skin. Whatever the reason, we begin the task of finding a substitute yarn.

Not long ago, I began a cunning little hat for my sister-in-law who lives in New York. She had been on chemotherapy and was getting into hats, so I set out to make her the perfect cover. Having found a great pattern for a moss stitch hat in Louisa Harding's book, Gathering Roses - Accessories. The pictured hat was knit up in Fauve, one of Harding's designer yarns distributed by Euro Yarns. Although I have an enviable stash and the inventory of Rare Purls at my disposal, alas, no Fauve. The search began for an alternative yarn.

First, I checked the gauge listed on the label of Fauve, which was 1 inch to 5 stitches on a #10.5 U.S needle. Although the hat pattern listed a slightly different gauge for Fauve in moss stitch, I thought that I should search for substitute yarns by their gauge in stockinette.. When I found that Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Cashmere recommended use of a #8 - 10 US and realized that the pattern in Fauve recommended a size #10 US (rather than the #10.5 US on the Fauve label), I thought the Silky Cashmere a probable substitute. Silky Cashmere is a soft, sumptuous yarn in designer colors, definitely a splurge purchase for me at $8.95 for 25 grams..(Since writing this article, there have been discounts available through some vendors.) As I worked my gauge swatch, I realized that the hat made in Silky Cashmere would be oversized by approximately 25%. I made another swatch using #8 US needles, yet still my gauge swatch was 13% too large.

My next choice for a substitute yarn was Kathmandu Aran, a wool/silk/cashmere blend from the Queensland Collection, a current favorite of mine, also distributed by Euro Yarns. Once again, my swatch was 25+% too large on #8 US, an even smaller needle than recommended in the pattern. Oddly, Kashmir had more yardage per 50 grams than either the Silky Cashmere of Fauve, which would lead one to believe that it would be a finer yarn, yielding a smaller swatch, proportionately, but that was not the case.

For my next try, I pulled out Cable Cotton by Elsebeth Lavold, a very soft 100% cotton yarn with great stitch definition. With a little blocking, my swatch knit on #8 US matched the gauge swatch on my pattern. Success at last!

Understand, it is unusual for me to have this much difficulty finding a suitable substitute yarn. I had used two of my three basic guidelines for comparing yarns, the three being yarn weights by group, recommended needle size, and the one I did not use, wraps per inch. My next blog entry will discuss the first two guidelines and other good information you will find on the ball band of your yarn. The following week, we will explore what I have found to be the most accurate guide of all for finding a substitute yarn, finding the wraps per inch (or wpi). I will also tell you how to make your own tool to measure wpi. Until then, happy knitting!

Post script from Kay -
Had I not been wanting to discuss various ways of determining if a yarn may be used in place of another yarn, I could have used Silky Cashmere by pulling out my calculator and converting the number of rows and stitches down by 25%, not so difficult to do when a pattern is in garter or stockinette and only slightly more challenging when using moss stitch. But for the sake of this article, I wanted to do what most knitters do to make a yarn match the pattern gauge, which is to go up or down in needle size, until the correct gauge is accomplished.

Copyright 2008 Karen Mather