Choosing the right yarn

@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 :rofl:

The best way to tell whether the yarn will work and you’ll like the lace fabric is… , you guessed it, a swatch with your yarn and needles. It doesn’t sound like you’ve got that kind of time.

The yarn you chose might well work but it is finer weight than the pattern yarn or the yarns used on the Ravelry projects. The larger needles will help but it’s the look and feel of the knit fabric that you recognize is a concern.

You might make this work by knitting a larger size than you normally would. That may be enough to compensate for a tighter gauge with the thinner yarn. Just be sure to buy a few extra balls of yarn. Ideally you would like more of a sport weight but the swatch will tell all.


Really lovely sweater!

Yes, I made many fearless knits some of which worked and some of which were disasters. It’s all a learning experience but some lessons are just harder than others. Good luck with your yarn search. If the yarn you like doesn’t work for this project there are others that it will be lovely for.

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@salmonmac, This is so encouraging. I will definitely swatch and see how it feels - For my peace of mind, I would try to get the guage close to what the pattern recommends. If the look and feel then doesnt feel right, I will need to source an alternate yarn.
One take away from your inputs - try to choose the same weight of yarn as recommended by the pattern. I have been looking largely at the guage and not necessarily the weight of the yarn.
The Alpakka Silke case, I did both, but it still didnt work. Fine yarn that is silky seems best knitted with wooden needles. It slips too easily on metal needles, spoiling the stitch definition.

I wish I had easier access to yarn :slight_smile: would be so much fun ! I would probably not (over) think so much then.

Thanks once again, @salmonmac. Will post outcomes once I swatch.

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Hope it all works out. The swatch will certainly help.
Almost all of us wish there were more local yarn shops. Ordering online has its benefits but there’s nothing like seeing and feeling the yarn in person.

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So true - nothing like buying yarn in a shop - I visited Iceland and got some Icelandic wool.

For the Lacey Cardigan - I am thinking of buying Millamia Naturally soft merino - sport yarn and guage is same as the pattern and pattern sample yarn - 25 St x 34 rows !! Safer to travel with this yarn :slight_smile: than having to wait months to get the right one. Small additional price to pay !

Thanks again for this interaction which is so valuable to me !!

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It is a problem familiar to most of us because even tho we don’t have to go into an area of “yarn shortages”, factors like dye lots etc. are ever present in this day of “to your door” purchases. When/if I am able to get the same stitch gage on yarn (often just in the online description) I often take a look at the oz./yd (or grams/meter) ratio on both to see if they are similar. (You may have to translate metric to English). This gives me an idea of the loft and compressibility of the yarn. 2 yarns yielding the same gauge can look quite different in terms of drape and stitch definition, and imo, this calculation helps me when mail ordering, etc. Best of luck.

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Makes so much sense @FluffyYarn, thanks for that tip - I need to work on improving my “intuition” and “assessment” to better balance guage, yarn weight, yardage and yarn composition :slight_smile:
(yarn composition - as in, if there is 20% silk or 40% alpaca).
Add choice of color to this list, and it can be quite a task even before the real task of knitting begins !
And … after all that careful and long process of online selection, land up with some misfits.

It gives me energy to know that I am not alone in facing these dilemmas !

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I spend way too long browsing patterns and yarns online. I decide what I’m making and with which yarn and in most cases the yarn arrives and I decide it wants to be something else and rethink my pattern choice.

I almost always sub yarn for one reason or another.
I’ve used dk yarn with an aran pattern BUT with the intention of it being a much looser open knit than the pattern intends and I swatch to check I will be happy with the result. When doing this I used the needle and gauge of the pattern to obtain the correct overall size.
I wouldn’t want to make a cable pattern like this though, the stitches woukd be too open to show the beauty of the cables in my opinion.

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Thanks for adding your perspective @Creations !
The golden rule is to swatch :slight_smile:

Shall keep you all posted ! Probably going to take a while as the alternate yarn may not arrive before I leave.

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