There are tons of yards out there so don’t let the pattern impress you man. Check it out. You
want to look at your options. I'm Vicky Howell from DIY’s Knitty Gritty and I'm going to show
you how to substitute some yarns and free you from the shackles of your pattern. Let's look at
this.
As you can see, tons of different yarns with completely different looks. Now the first thing you
want to check for is drape. Does the yarn that you want have the same drape as the yarn suggest
it? As you can see these two yarns, completely different looks but very similar drapes. See?
Waving in the wind, both of them. So they’d be a good choice for substitution. This, however
completely differently, see? No wavy. Wavy. No wavy. Wavy. So if you want the wavy, not so
much with this one.
The second thing you want to look for is if you have any textual stitches or detailed pattern in
your project, you don’t want it to get lost in the craziness of a highly pattern yarn? No. you want
it to shine through in the smooth goodness of a classic yarn.
The next thing you want to look for is the weight of the yarn. If your pattern calls for a nice
bulky yarn but you really have your heart set on a luscious finer yarn? Try doubling them. See if
you double strand them, you might get the same gauge. The important thing to remember is that
you must do a swatch. It’s crucial. You need to make sure that you're getting the same gauge.
Another way that you can change things up is by changing the needle size. Just a needle size up
or down can completely change the weave, the openness, the way it flows. So people, explore.
Use your creativity, your imagination, and most of all, have fun. It’s knitting.