.
Hello,
I need to find a bulky 100% wool yarn that comes in plain colours and matches this 4 inch gauge:
[B]14 STITCHES
20 ROWS[/B]
Briggs & Little’s [B]ATLANTIC[/B] yarn has the correct number of stitches but does anyone know how many rows it yields over 4 inches?
Or can anyone suggest a suitable equivalent for what I seek? It’s proving more difficult than I imagined.
Kindest regards.
Don’t worry about the rows, that’s more from an individual knitter’s tension. When comparing yarns you want to roughly match just the stitches to get the same weight yarn. So this one should work.
.
Thanks for the response.
I wish to make a cardigan that has a large animal design on the back. Won’t the design look distorted if I use a yarn that gives 16 rows over 4 inches when the pattern is for a yarn that yields 20 rows?
.
I’m not sure about that; usually you can get by knitting less rows.
As Sue says, match the stitch gauge. I’ve knit plenty of animals and characters on sweaters and the row gauge hasn’t mattered. When the st gauge is good, the row gauge will be close enough.
I have found a yarn that is the correct gauge for stitches (14) but yields 16 rows not 20 as the pattern stipulates. It is called Cocoon.
If the pattern’s animal design is 12 inches tall, that would be 60 rows in the pattern’s recommended yarn.
As all 60 rows would be needed for the design to be completed, this would be 15 inches in the Cocoon not 12 inches.
The width would be correct as both yarns yield the same gauge of stitches but the length would be too long so the design would look odd - as one yarn yields less rows than the other,
Am I going mad or is this correct?
Yes, that’s right for the numbers given for the yarn and for the pattern. But do you always get the same st gauge and row gauge that the yarn or pattern recommends? i think that is the important consideration. You could buy a ball of the yarn or of several similar yarns and test out your gauge with them if you want to be sure before you start the project.
That’s the ideal row gauge but you could adjust your needle size slightly to see if you get closer to the row gauge when you actually knit it. I’ve found row gauge changes more when you go up or down a needle size than stitch gauge does. You may get 19 rows instead of 16 with the yarn you want to substitute. Especially after you wash or block the piece.
Thanks for all the swift and helpful advice.
It is a Cowichan cardigan with an animal design on the back. It is knitted quite tight so possibly not much leeway for changing needles etc.
I think I may have the solution, I’ve been told that I can use Patons Classic wool (20 stitches/26 rows on US 7 needles) but use it double on US 10 needles which would match the ply of the pattern’s recommended yarn.
One more query, there seem to be two Patons Classic Wool yarns. One says CLASSIC WOOL on the label the other says CLASSIC WOOL MERINO. They give an identical gauge.
Are these both the same yarn despite the differing labels?
.
Well I hesitate to support that idea. Double a worsted weight is going to be very very tight on size 10s. And while the other person may have been able to match the gauge, no two knitters get the same gauge on the same yarn with the same needles. So I hope it goes well for you.
The yarns are the same they just changed the labels.
The info. to double the Patons yarn came from Mary Maxim customer services who made the original pattern, so fingers crossed, it should work.