Helpful Swatch Part 5: Substituting One Yarn for Another

August 31, 2020| LindyBeir| 0 Comment | 8:00 am

Categories:

Many times a knitter will select a pattern to knit only to discover that the yarn used in the pattern is either not available or there isn’t a sufficient quantity available for purchase or it costs more than what the budget allows. So, that leads to finding a reasonable substitute to use. I have seen many forum posts in Ravelry where knitters have had difficulty making a proper substitution.

The first step in substituting one yarn for another is to look for a yarn of similar fiber composition that has approximately the same weight and recommended gauge as the yarn listed in the pattern. By this, I mean if the yarn used in the pattern is worsted weight (size 4), it’s best to find another worsted weight yarn to use as the substitute. If you are purchasing from a local yarn shop, the staff may help you find a substitute. If shopping online, Yarnsub.com is a helpful website that can be used to guide your initial search. Another resource is Ravelry – if the pattern is available in the Patterns database, you can look at others’ projects to see what yarns have been used. Regardless, once you pick your substitute yarn – you’ll need to swatch to find your gauge before you cast on and begin knitting the pattern.

Question: “I’m not getting the same gauge with my substituted yarn as the gauge stated in the pattern – what do I do now?

Here are some options to consider:

Change needle size and reknit the swatch to see if you can match the gauge. If you are getting more stitches than the stated gauge – go up one or two needle sizes. If you are getting fewer stitches than the stated gauge – go down one or two needle sizes. If you succeed in matching gauge with the change in needles and you like the fabric you are producing, then simply follow your pattern and knit with the size needle that helps you get gauge.
If you still can’t get gauge after changing needle sizes, but you like the fabric you are getting, calculate the number of stitches you need to cast-on to match your chest measurement and check the pattern to see if there is a size that uses the same number of stitches. You may still need to make adjustments in shaping if your row gauge is different from the pattern.
Use the pattern as a guide only – use the schematic plus any adjustments you need to make and then determine the stitch counts and rows needed to make the garment with your own gauge. (A good reference for this is Knitting Pattern Essentials by Sally Melville)

Here’s the next issue for substituting one yarn for another: Does the substitute have the same weight and yardage as the original yarn? If it does – you are in luck and can simply buy the same amount of yarn as what is given in the pattern for the size of the garment you want to knit. (Remember to buy an extra one for swatching.) However, in most cases there is a difference in yardage and/or weight between the substitute and the original yarn – which leads to the question: “How much of my substitute yarn do I need? This brings us back to the basic math I covered in my previous post: “To determine the number of skeins, balls or hanks of yarn you need: Divide the number of yards by the number of yards in the skein. Or divide the total number of grams by the number of grams of the skein. Remember that you will want one extra skein for swatching. “

How to Knit a Basic Beanie without a Pattern — Part 2: Crown ShapingHow to Knit a Basic Beanie without a Pattern — Part 2: Crown Shaping

In my previous post, I discussed the basic structure of a basic beanie hat and how to knit the brim and the body of the hat. Once you have knitted the hat to the desired length before the start of the crown shaping, you have basically knit a cylinder as shown below.

If you look at the top of the cylinder, it is a circle – and this is the area where you shape the crown by gradually decreasing stitches to close the top of the hat. I usually decrease my stitches down to somewhere between 6 to 12 stitches and then finish the top of the hat by breaking the yarn and using the tail to close the very top of the hat.

Shaping the Crown: The shape of the crown is determined by the number of stitches you need to decrease, the type of decreases you use and how frequently you make your decreases.

Basic beanies usually have either a “spiral” shaped crown or a “wedge” shaped crown. Spiral shaped crowns are made by dividing the number of stitches into an equal number of segments where the decreases are made. The number of segments can be 5, 6, 7, or 8. The number you choose depends upon the total number of stitches and whether the total is evenly divisible by the number of segments. For example, 96 stitches can be divided into 6 equal segments of 16 stitches, or it can be divided into 8 equal segments of 12 stitches. If you have a number of stitches that cannot be evenly divided, then you will need to decrease your stitches down to a number that can be evenly segmented.

Typically, the decrease used for crown shaping is K2Tog which is a right-leaning decrease. You can also use the SSK decrease which leans left. However, you need to use only one of these two decreases in order to knit the spiral shape for your crown.

A wedge-shaped crown has only 4 segments. If you want this shape for your crown, you will divide your stitches by 4 and then use double decreases as you shape the crown. Using 96 stitches as an example, you would have 4 segments of 24 stitches.

To decrease you can use a combination of K2Tog and SSK at each point of decrease or you can use a Central Double Decrease(CDD).

I usually place a stitch or 2 between the K2Tog and SSK decrease when making the wedge-shaped crown. This gives the top of the hat a decorative ridge. The CDD makes a decorative line itself.

Rate of Decreases: Typically, I start crown decreases at a rate of every other round – where I decrease in each segment until I have knit approximately 1.5 inches and then I switch to decreasing every round until I am down to somewhere between 12 and 6 stitches. This is based on my experience.

Calculating Decrease Rates: I know it’s a lot of math, but here goes: To calculate your own rate of decrease, you need to know the number of rows that remain for the crown of the hat and your row gauge. The crown of the hat is approximately 1/3 of the total length of the hat. For example, the total length of the hat is 11 inches — and 1/3 of this is 3.7 inches. Using a row gauge of 7 rounds per inch. 3.7 x 7 equals 25.9 rounds (round up to 26 rounds). I need to decrease from 96 stitches to 12 stitches at a rate of 6 sts per decrease round. This gives me 14 sets of decreases (96-12 = 84, 84/6 = 14). Dividing the total number of rounds by the number of decrease rounds gives me 1.9. Now I can opt to decrease EOR over 28 rows, which makes my hat slightly longer, or I can decrease EOR for 20 rows (decreasing 60 sts) and then decrease every row for 6 rows (decreasing 36 sts) and end with 10 sts to close the top of the hat. Either way will give me a hat with a close-fitting crown.

I have now covered how to make a basic beanie hat without using a pattern. Give it a try using your choice of yarn and your gauge. Happy Knitting. 🙂

Combinations of Knit & Purl – Simplicity or Complexity?Combinations of Knit & Purl – Simplicity or Complexity?

The other day while waiting for my MIL at the beauty shop, I took out my baby blanket and sat knitting in the waiting area. One of the stylists came up to me and asked me what I was knitting. So I showed her. Then she said, “I could never knit anything like that – it’s too complex.” I replied that this pattern was actually very easy – it was just a three different combinations of knit and purl stitches, and I showed her the graph of the pattern square. She then told me that she had once knitted a sweater for her granddaughter that had a color pattern of a frog. So, I told her that if she had done that type of color knitting, this textured pattern would be easy for her to do. She replied that “maybe, she could do it – BUT she didn’t think she’d ever be able to master anything like cables”. So in spite of my gentle encouragement, I’m not certain this knitter will try to knit something with a variety of textures – which is too bad, because she will miss out on some wonderful knitting projects.

Have you ever limited your knitting by such thinking? I know I did many years ago – but after discovering Elizabeth Zimmerman’s approach to “unventing” things, my perspective has changed greatly. I’d like to encourage all my readers to think about this. There is a lot of freedom in being able to take a printed pattern and view it not as something that has to be followed exactly, but more as a place to start something uniquely yours. BTW – if you have never read Elizabeth Zimmerman’s books – you are missing an absolutely fun and enlightening experience!

As I spend time knitting my baby blanket, I find myself marveling at how those two basic stitches – the Knit Stitch and the Purl Stitch – can be combined in endless ways to make up fascinating textures. Consider the sheer simplicity of these two stitches. They are just opposites of each other. Yet these two stitches are knitting up nicely into teddy bear squares surrounded by seed stitch borders. And this project is rather simple. Then consider an Aran sweater pattern as an example of a far more complex combination of textured patterns – but again, the textures are made by the way one combines the basic knit and purl stitches and applies techniques such as cabling. Thus, knitting is both simple and complex and filled with unlimited possibilities of variation and combinations. No wonder we knitters love to knit!

Knitting Needle Sizes & ConfusionKnitting Needle Sizes & Confusion

Knitting Needles sizes are fairly straightforward in the sizes that one uses for DK, worsted weight and bulky yarns. (Size US 4 and up). But it is a much different story when it comes to small diameter needles used to knit fingering, lace and other finer weight yarns. This can be very confusing – I just discovered that there is a significant variation in the sizing labels for some of these needles.

Let’s start with the standard “US” sizing – which uses a numerical designation for knitting needles, from “0000” up to 35 – with the needle diameter increasing as the numerical designation increases. Seems like a fairly straightforward system – until you run across US size 1 & 2 needles that are different diameters. If you never use a knitting needle smaller than US size 4 (which has a diameter of 3.5 mm), this will not be a problem for you. IF, however, you get into knitting socks and lace using much smaller diameter needles – it may cause you to pull out your hair.

Fortunately, most knitting needles sold today also come with their diameter size stated as well as their US size. What I have currently in my assortment of circular knitting needles are as follows: US Size 0 (2.00 mm); US Size 1 (2.25 mm), US Size 1 (2.50 mm), US Size 2 (2.75 mm), US Size 2 (3.00 mm). These needles have all been purchased in the last 10 years. I have seen patterns referencing size 1.5 needles, so I am guessing that the size 2 (2.75 mm) needle may also be a 1.5, but it’s difficult to tell for certain. Just a word of caution to those using patterns calling for these US sizes of needles – make certain your metric diameter matches the pattern (if it’s stated) and BE SURE to check your gauge!

I found two websites that have charts comparing the US sizing to the metric diameter:
http://www.fibergypsy.com/common/needles.shtml
http://www.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/faq-search.cgi?store=/stores/eyarn&faqKey=97

Point to remember: Gauge is the measurement of the number of stitches per inch you get with a particular needle – this is more important than using the size of needle stated in a pattern. Always do a swatch for gauge!