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!

One of my favorite things to make on a circular knitting machine is scarves, because they’re a great way to use leftover yarn and certainly faster than knitting by hand.

But if you pay attention to the colors you’re using and how you are using them, you can make fun knitting machine scarves that look like something different when you roll them up.

One of the first versions of this I saw was the sushi scarf, are there are a lot of variations on this one. For example this one from Flower and Anchor that uses five colors of yarn, or this one from Three Threads NE that uses four. These generally are made to look like California rolls, but you could change up the colors to make them different things if you like. Just make sure the outside of the “roll” is black or green to indicate the nori. I found another version on Pinterest if you’re looking for a free pattern, but there’s no image of it rolled up.

Another popular variation is making a scarf that rolls up to look like a mug with coffee, tea or another fun beverage inside. This collection of three mug scarf circular knitting machine patterns from Idaho Cottage Creation includes green tea, a pumpkin spice latte with whipped cream and a candy cane colored confection (which honestly reminds me of the Grinch since it has a green mug!). Again you can change the colors of the mug part and the drink part. The little handle looks like it’s crocheted on these, and it doubles as a loop you can thread the scarf end through when you wear it.

Again there’s a version of the green tea scarf on Pinterest with crocheted elements. I also found a latte done with a striped yarn and a red mug that’s pretty cute and gives you an idea what a different beverage would look like.

I also love this pumpkin pie scarf designed by Jodi Favish Saunier. It has a bit of crocheted edging to give it a fancy crust but you can omit that if you don’t crochet. These are all on Facebook but she also has a watermelon and lemonade pattern that are super cute.

Have you read?