or vice versa? I dont have a lot of needles yet, and I want to knit a scarf and earwarmer set. But my scarf pattern calls for size 10 needles, and the earwarmers for 10.5. I dont want to buy both sizes right now, so can I substitute one for the other?
It all comes down to guage.
If you were knitting a sweater, where insuring that the size of the finished object is EXACTLY what you expect, then guage is very important. For something like a scarf, you can be more lenient (if the scarf ends up being 5" x 50" instead of 4.5" x 48", I doubt you’ll notice, or care).
I’d recommend knitting a guage swatch with whichever needle you choose (10 or 10.5) and compare it to the guage swatch listed in the pattern, then at least you can know what to expect when you’re done (i.e. it will be larger or smaller than what the pattern states).
Hope that helps!
I don’t think substituting for the scarf would make all that much difference, but the earwarmers may turn out a little too big unless your gauge is correct. You could give it a shot and maybe tighten your gauge a little for the earwarmers.
Forgive me if you already know this, but reading your original question, something occured to me: do you know that this pattern is referring to needles by US sizes? Size 10 is 6mm and size 10.5 is 6.5mm. So if they don’t have those sizes printed on the package or the needles, those mm measurements are what you’re looking for. There are 10mm needles, which is a US size 15, and then you jump to 11mm, which are US size 17. I’m just mentioning this since you only want to buy 1 pair, and I’d hate for you to get the wrong thing and be stuck!