Substituting yarn

[MsBhaven]

For what ever reason you have for substituting yarn whether it be the recommended yarn is discontinued or you want a color they don't make, or it has wool in it and your allergic. There are a few things to keep in mind when substituting yarn.

The weight of the yarn you will be using. The Craft Yarn Council of America has developed a standard yarn weight system. Yarn comes in seven standard weights. The weights range from very fine fingering weight (zero) to super bulky yarn (six) I have looks at a bunch of skeins and have found that not all skeins have the numbers on them but if they do not have the number on them you can find the weight in words. see the yarn chart listed there http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/weight.html you will want to substitute worsted weight for worsted weight you can at times substitute 2 strands see http://www.lionbrand.com/faq/16.html?language=
the number of yards or meters in each skein A pattern will generally indicate the number of ounces or grams in each skein as well as the number of yards or meters. Even within the same weight of yarn, there may be a difference in the number of yards or meters per ounce or gram. To have enough yarn to finish the project, you need to have the same number of yards or meters. If one type of yarn is in meters and the other is in yards you may find the following conversions useful:

1 yard = 0.9144 meters
1 meter = 1.0936 yards

the number of ounces or grams in each skein to substitute yarn this is another attribute to keep in mind when substituting yarn.

now here is where I want to make sure that all are aware that with the yards/meters and grams/ounces YARDS/METERS IS MORE ACCURATE then grams/ounces. Because of different fibers and spinning techniques, there can be as much as 100 yards difference between 8 ounces of one kind of, say, worsted weight yarn, and another -- enough to really mess up a project. When you think about it, when you knit or crochet, what's going through your fingers isn't how heavy it is but how long it is.

ALWAYS CHECK GAUGE

If anyone has any other information to help with this please add your comments

[Poinciana]

EXCELLENT post, MsBhaven!

[Susan2014]

This is so helpful and have wondered about fibers, sub. and etc. Thank You MsBhaven.

[determined_to-crochet]

Thank you for sharing this very helpful information!

[SharonO]

Thank you for sharing, very helpful.

[catbalou]

Thank You for taking the time to spell it all out.....have done much subbing but always by guess or by gosh and some experimentation to get what I want.....more/less stitches, smaller/larger needles or hook, resetting pattern position, etc.