Sweater puzzle, need help

#1

Hi! :waving:

I saw this sweater pattern in the latest Lion Brand magazine and fell in love with it! The pattern is free so I downloaded it last night. It looks like it would be very enjoyable to knit and to wear.

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/90464AD.html?noImages=

Here’s my dilemma. I’ve knit socks with the Fisherman’s Wool called for in the pattern and the socks came out great for warm, heavy and comfortable ski socks. Just awesome!

But I really want something much more colorful and probably much softer for the sweater. I keep thinking a variegated color would be beautiful and unique.

The Fisherman yarn is a category 4 medium wool and an 8 oz skein contains 465 yards.

Here’s the rub - the pattern calls for a double strand of the yarn throughout. Having worked with this yarn before I can predict how overly heavy that would be and I don’t think it would be as soft as I’d like it.

I thought of using perhaps a very soft bulky or extra bulky yarn in a pleasing colorway or maybe a double strand of a softer Category 4 yarn and hoped to get some advice from my buddies on here.

So - thanks ahead of time!

Ruthie:hug:

#2

If you click on this site:

http://cache.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/yarnInfo.cgi?yarnByClass=1

You should be able to find all the other yarns made by LB listed according to their weights. So, if you want a different #4 yarn, scroll down to #4 and see what they have!!

Then you’d have to make sure that you buy the same amount that you’d need of the other yarn.

HTH, knitcindy

#3

You could actually knit the sweater with a single strand of a worsted/#4, for a lighter weight one. You may not match gauge, but you could follow the instructions for a larger size.

For a bulky weight yarn, Lion’s Woolease Chunky and Jiffy may be good, they’re pretty soft. Bernat’s Softee Chunky is very nice. For any of these yarns, I’d recommend working them on size 11 needles though. I’ve found that even soft yarns feel rough and stiff when knit on a size 10 (not any that I’ve knit, factory swatches).