BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Knitting Substitutes for specific yarns.

I found one posting that may be of help to me on this subject. But I'll ask anyway in case there are other opinions. I get frustrated with these newer pattern books in that they always recommend a particular brand (usually some fancy designer) of yarn. I'm not a real practiced knitter;but I can pretty much handle any pattern if I just take the time to figure it out. I live in a small town and don't have the resources to find these special yarns. Nor do I necessarily want to (sometimes they are just far too expensive). How can I figure out what type/weight these yarns are so that I can get something more available/affordable to me?

When they suggest expensive yarns and you just can't afford it (like me) go to the site of the yarn they reccomend and look up the information on that yarn. It will tell you the thickness of the yarn by a number that stands for fingering, worsted, bulky, etc. All the modern yarns that I know of are rated by this scale. There will still be some differences in exactly how the yarn is but it will be pretty close. Remember that higer quality yarn may give a noticably better product but if you can't afford the good stuff, a lower grade will have to do, and you might not even notice the difference. You might be able to go through EBay or yard sales and get the "good stuff" at a really low price, too. Be sure you know if it's a specialty type like the furry ones or lumpy ones, like boucle and if they're fuzzy or smooth. Try to match them up as well as yo can and give it a whirl. You might to try something really different too. Just be sure you keep to the right gauge.

Oh, that is such a good idea! And I suppose for some of my older patterns where the yarn is no longer made, if I could find a yarn that has the same gauge listed for a swatch, I could substitute that?
Thanks for your help!
Robin

Yarndex.com has a lot of different yarns listed some of which are no longer available, and they have all the information about these yarns as well.

Yes you can substitute one yarn for another but there are two problems. One is that of length - cotton yarns to take one example have less length per ball than wool because the fibre weight is different. So if possible you'll want to check how much yarn you get per ball, multiply the number of balls in the pattern for your size by the length in yards/meters or whichever is appropriate, and then divide the overall length required by the yardage per ball in your substitute.

Of course with some older yarns this won't be possible so I'd buy a few extra balls of yarn to be on the safe side. You can always make a bag or a scarf or something with the extra!

Also be aware that substituting different fibres can change the way the garment looks and flows over hte body, particularly if a stitch pattern is used other than stocking stitch or garter stitch.

Never be afraid to play around with different yarns, just be aware of the different ways in which the different fibres behave and use them accordingly.