All About Substituting Yarns

Over on my blog, I wrote a post about substituting yarns and how to choose the best yarn for your project, and I thought it might be helpful for some of you.

There are all sorts of reasons you might not want to or be able to use the yarn used in a particular pattern. Maybe the yarn has been discontinued, or isn’t at a price point you can afford. Maybe you don’t like the colors or only want to buy from independent yarn makers or use yarn from your stash.

Whatever the reason you might want to choose a different yarn, if you haven’t substituted yarns before it can be hard to know where to start.

I look at the major considerations — weight, fiber content, and construction characteristics — to help you make smart decisions when you want to use a different yarn for a project.

What did I leave out? How do you go about choosing a different yarn for a project? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Next Pattern:

Not too long ago I was seeing a crochet pattern for a glasses holder shaped like a bear all over the Internet. It was super cute, and also useful as a place to put your glasses on your bedside table instead of just throwing them somewhere random.

This project stewed in my brain for a little while and I decided I needed to make a knit version, but I didn’t want to make a bear. If you know anything about me you might know that I’m a cat person, so of course my version had to be a cat.

The base is just a basic little basic worked from the center out to the desired size, then up the sides as long as you want them. Knit some ears and add embellishments to make it whatever kind of animal you want.

The way I figured out to work the base from the center out was to use a crochet cast on, which gives you an easier way to pick up stitches from the back of the cast on than if you worked a more traditional cast on for a knitting project. It’s kind of fun to do things in a different way from time to time.

This little project is adorable if I do say so myself, and even as a plain little basket not made into an animal it’s a cute way to keep your glasses or other little things in one place. I’m tempted to make one for my desk to hold pens or even little little scissors and sewing needles that are always on my desk but somehow always seem to get lost on my desk.

If you need a little holder for your glasses on your table, check out the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]

Next Pattern:

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