@salmonmac, I am currently in UK with my daughter, and frantically stocking yarns before I fly back to india. While choosing the yarns for the projects, I am mostly struggling to see whether the yarn guage will work for a specific project.
Please provide me your wisdom - here is an example.
One of the projects lined up is Jo Sharp Lacy Cable Cardigan for my daughter.
Both the pattern & pattern’s sample yarn guage are same (in this case) - 25 St x 33 rows with 3.25mm needle
The yarn that I chose has a guage 28 St x 32 rows with 2 - 2.75 mm needle.
While I will swatch for sure before starting this project -
do you think I have secured the correct yarn ? Would I be able to go with a 3.25 mm or 3.5 mm needle perhaps and get close to the pattern guage ? Hopefully the stitches will not be too loose with higher size needles.
I bought Alpakka Silke fingering yarn for a test knit - guage 27 St with 3mm needle.
The pattern sample yarn is 24-29 St with 2.25 mm - 3.5mm needle, so I figured my yarn should work.
The pattern itself has a guage 29 St x 46 rows with 4 mm needle !!
With the Alpakka Silke yarn that I bought, the stitches are so loose - with 4 mm, I tried then with 3.5 mm and 3.75mm too - but the the stitch definition is so poor that I gave up.
Last year, when I started knitting, I was bolder, with very little knowledge -
With a bit more understanding now, my fears seem to have increased