Yarn Substitution Success Stories

Have you substituted Knit Picks yarns for the suggested yarn in your pattern? Share your success stories and pictures here!

Tags: substitution, yarn

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Permalink Reply by Elianastar on February 15, 2009 at 5:12pm

Yeah I saw the "add another colorway" button... THAT's a great idea! I have entered all the KP yarns in clusters of the same yarn in different colors. I went down and brought up ALL the KP yarn, sorted it all by line, and then entered in all the same yarn in different colors together.

I'm not too worried about the magazines right now. I have a TON of older ones. I'm thinking I'll get those all organized by year and then month and start with the oldest. If they pop up they do, and if they don't I won't worry about it. I do have almost all my books in... there were a few that wouldn't come up. I searched by both title and/or author. They really should have the option to search by ISBN though... much more efficient to have all three ways to look for a book.

I have joined the "Help Group" and learning a lot reading those threads and have posted a couple of questions. The bad thing is I'm spending more time here and there and less knitting/crocheting! That's gotta stop cuz I have a LOT of yarn I need to use up! LOL!

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Permalink Reply by Marta on February 15, 2009 at 6:23pm

Sounds like you are up and running. The help group is always a good way to read a lot of previous questions and answers and get ideas for your own circumstances. I missed your earlier question about moving something from projects to patterns. Did you want to have it in your queue instead of as a working project? I'm not clear about that and don't really need to be. Usually when I come across an interesting pattern I just hit the add to queue button and that way I have a future link back to the pattern. I don't bother filling in any extra info, but usually just a comment in the bottom box about why I added it to my queue... make it for x, use up x yarn, something to remind my sieve brain what I was thinking.... If I put it in the wrong place, I can just click on the link which takes me back to the pattern and then I can add it where I really want it and then delete it from where I didn't want it. I think you are cooking! And yes, that's why I usually stay away from forums and things on Ravelry. I'd never get anything knit!

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Permalink Reply by Elianastar on February 15, 2009 at 10:13pm

I have no idea HOW it got in my Project folder... it was SUPPOSED to go into favorites. I went looking for it to see if I had fiber I might like to use to make it and couldn't find it in either the Queue or the Favorites and thought maybe it just hadn't actually gotten saved at all. I accidentally opened the Projects folder a few days later and discovered it there, all by its lonesome.

The only way to get it out of the Projects folder, as of now, is to delete it. If I want to have it in either the Queue or Favorites, I'll have to save it as though it were the first time, again.

So, my choices are to just leave it until I do actually make it and then update whatever data I want to keep with it, or 2, "hibernate" it until I've made it (which is what I've decided to do), or 3, delete but go find it at the source again and save it again somewhere else, or 4, just delete it and forget it.

I would prefer to keep the Queue for projects I actually plan to make at some point in the relatively near future &/or want to order/buy the yarn to make sooner rather than later, and save Favorites for anything else I want to be able to find again in the future in some easier manner.

Yeah... I'm figuring it out. One of the moderators from the Help group seems to have already figured out how I got the nickname "pit bull" from my husband! LOL!

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Permalink Reply by Peggy Stuart on February 15, 2009 at 3:00pm

A friend wants to make a scarf that calls for kid mohair mixed with another yarn, which she already has. Ravelry says that kid mohair is worsted, Aran or 10-ply weight. Could she use Suri Dream? Any other suggestions for substituting? --Peggy

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Permalink Reply by Elianastar on February 15, 2009 at 5:16pm

Gosh... I would think so. A scarf is pretty easy to adapt too... she could always use a different needle size or a different number of cast ons to make it work, I would think... Could be a really pretty scarf, and the alpaca would make the mohair a little less itchy, something I guess lots of people complain about.

OR, she could maybe use the Suri Dream AS the "mohair" yarn... or was that what you were asking? LOL! If so, yes... I've seen several projects on Ravelry that called for "mohair" and they used Suri Dream for the project. [giggle] I just realized, that probably IS what you were asking! LOL!

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Permalink Reply by Peggy Stuart on February 15, 2009 at 6:16pm

Star: Yes, that was what I was suggesting. I'm glad to know you think it would work. She e-mailed me wanting to know which KP yarn to substitute. I suggested she call KP, but said I would ask on the site, too, as there are a lot of knitters, like you, who have had experience trying different things. Thanks. --Peggy

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Permalink Reply by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on February 15, 2009 at 6:44pm

I've been wanting to try some Suri Dream with a lace weight together - maybe something like Gloss (though I haven't checked for color compatibility). If I don't have to use my Smoke Suri Dream on the Hemi, I plan to try it with some Alpaca Cloud that I purchased at about the same time.

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Permalink Reply by Elianastar on February 15, 2009 at 10:18pm

Ohh! yes... I think that would be a great combo! I've made a couple pair of gauntlets in Alpaca Cloud and I really like it. I'd be really interested to see the fabric of the two together! Might have to try that myself, at least as a swatch, really soon! :-)

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Permalink Reply by Marta on February 16, 2009 at 7:04am

If it's in your projects list, you should be able to click on the pattern info on the right (I think) and go to the pattern and then add it wherever you want to put it. Then you can delete it from where you don't want it. But use the system to get you straight to the pattern. I move projects from in progress to hibernating and back again often.....

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Permalink Reply by MsT on March 9, 2009 at 8:28am

I would like to use a knit picks cotton yarn, maybe the new organic ginger color for a pattern from BWOF that uses Schoeller + Stahl "La Spezia" 100% cotton 115m to 50g. The pattern gauge is 3.5/4 mm needles 24sts/30 rows, 10 x 10 cm swatch. I don't know metric, please help. I'm a new knitter, so this will be my first substitution! Thanks so much!

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Permalink Reply by Alison on March 9, 2009 at 9:32am

10cm is about 4", so you're looking for a yarn that knits up at 6 stitches to the inch. Simply Cotton Sport knits to this gauge, although it has more yardage than the La Spezia yarn suggested.(164 yards vs. 125 yards). We'd recommend buying a single ball of Simply Cotton Sport and swatching with it to make sure that the final fabric has the drape and feel that you'd like in your final garment. And remember to wash and block your swatch the way you'll launder your garment - the organic cotton may shrink a bit after washing.

If you can wait a little while, we're coming out with Comfy Sport this month - it's a cotton-microfiber blend that's machine washable with minimal shrinkage, and it's extremely soft and touchable. Here's Comfy Worsted, in case you want to check out the the colors.