Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Yarndex.com Your Source For…..

by

You wanted it, you got it. This is my primo source. I NEVER (and I repeat: NEVER) knit a pattern with the yarn that is recommended. There are a plethora of reasons for this, mostly centering around the fact that the brain currently housed in my little head isn’t very organized.

But enough of that. I have enough yarn in my stash room to substitute just about anything. So what do I do?

I find out how many yards of yarn I need for my project. Then I connect to www.yarndex.com and find the brand and name of the yarn that is required and find out both the weight of the yarn and how many yards are on each skein. From there I multiply how many yards on each skein by how many skeins are called for to give me the total yardage suggested for my project. I then take that number into my own private lys yarn room and go from there.

That’s my best advice for substituting yarn. You can always take 2 or more lighter weight yarns and hold them together to get a heavier weight also, but that’s kind of sketchy.

Next Pattern:

Comments

  1. THANK YOU!! My private yarn room – closet, garage, under the bed, behind the sofa – will appreciate the help too!

  2. Thank you so much for your endorsement of Yarndex.com and your description of how you use our yarn reference library. We at Yarndex really appreciate hearing about how knitters, crocheters, weavers, designers, really anyone with a passion for yarn enjoys exploring all those options (over 5,000 yarns to date and still growing)!

    Thanks again for your support,

    Jan and the Yarndex Yarn Enthusiasts

  4. Can anyone advise me on a substitute yarn for Red heart and TLC Baby Amore Yarn. The size of hook is 5mm. I need various soft baby colour. I don’t understand the term worsted but the blanket is the first I have done. Will using a different wool affect the size or the pattern which is of little baby ducks, dogs, cats and dogs. I would appreciate some advice. Thank you in anticipation.

  5. Hi Tina,
    Worsted is a standard size, a tad bit heavier than DK but less than bulky. I don’t know how crochet hooks size up as far as worsted weight yarns, you’d have to ask JD, our crochet editor. I’d think, with a child’s sweater that will most likely be machine washed and dried, you’d want to have all the same makeup of yarn (ie, all cotton, or all wool….).
    Hope this helps!

    Terrye

  6. Have a Beret pattern caling for Croajingolong yarn. Haven’t been able to find m uch on it. How about a substitute, please.

Have you read?

Knit a Fish Pouch, for Reasons

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]