Knitting Patterns: Add Yarn

Video Transcript

"Sometimes when you're going along your way, you'll either find yarn that you adore and you must have, or you'll find a pattern that you love, but you don't like the yarn that it comes in, and that's when you learn about substituting yarns and what goes into making those choices. So for our purposes, if a pattern called for a worsted weight yarn, you'd have to consider, was it a worsted weight in a wool, was it a worsted weight silk, was it a worsted weight cotton. Because the different fibers will react differently. You wouldn't want to knit necessarily the same pattern that you find for wool, that you would with cotton, because you might have different results. So the first thing you're going to want to do is, look for yarns that are in the same weight class, worsted weight getting 4 to 5 stitches to the inch. And the next thing you're going to want to consider is, what is this pattern have going on, are there a lot of cables, is it lace. And then you want to consider if it's lace, if use a fiber that's going to grow, how is that going to affect my project, so you want to consider what fiber you're choosing to substitute. And after you do that, then you're going to want to get the same amount of yards in the pattern, as the pattern specified for the yarn they wanted you to use. And then when you have enough yardage, always throw another ball in there, just so you're not caught up short. And again, you have to knit a gauge, because once you change the yarn, you change the pattern. What it says for gauge, and what it calls for needles, changes. So you're going to want to knit with the yarn needle that the new yarn comes in to get your gauge. It's not the needle that specified that matters, it's the needle required to get your gauge."