A Look at Yarn

How does one go about choosing yarn.  There are multiple factors that go into making your yarn choice be just right.

Weight of Yarn

First off, there are multiple different weights of yarn. Each pattern calls for a specific weight of yarn which refers to the thickness of the yarn.

Some of the most common weights used in patterns are:

• Fingering (28 stitches per 4 inch)
• Sport (24-26 stitches per 4 inch)
• DK (22 stitches per 4 inch)
• Worsted (20 stitches per 4 inch)
• Aran (18 stitches per 4 inch)
• Bulky / Chunky (14-15 stitches per 4 inch)
• Super Bulky / Chunky (7-12 stitches per 4 inch)

Each yarn is categorized by using a knit gauge . A knit gauge looks at how many stitches can be knit within the space of 4 inches. However many stitches fit within that space indicates what category of weight the yarn is. For new knitters, this is often a very complicated part of the knitting process as the size of your knitting needles changes the gauge. Even seasoned knitters can have a hard time finding the perfect yarn for a pattern and finding the right gauge.

Knitting a Swatch

A swatch is a small section of knit prior to knitting your project in your desired yarn with the suggested needle size. This is done for the purpose of testing your gauge to insure that the number of stitches that you knit within 4 inches is similar if not the same as what the designer of the pattern suggests. What can happen if there is no swatch made is that the yarn gauge can be either to big or small. For the final product, this means that the garment can either end up too big or too small or the fabric of the garment can be too loose or too dense.

When you knit a swatch, it also gives the knitter the opportunity to practice the pattern of the garment. For my current cardigan pattern, there is a new stitch type called a bobble that I already tested out on my swatch. I found this very helpful as I was able to make mistakes and get a better grasp of how to do this pattern properly without having the mistakes show up on my garment.

As you may notice from my last post ‘Tools of a Knitter‘ the colour of the yarn used for my swatch does not match that of the yarn I chose for my cardigan. The yarn shown in the image above is in fact the same as I am using in my cardigan ( Universal Yarn Co.  Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash ),  just in the colourway 905 Pine. I originally chose this colour because green is one of my favourite colours, however after swatching I realized that the darker colour of this yarn did not allow for the bobbles of the pattern to stand out as much as I would have liked. Further, this colour turned out to be much more similar to a yarn I had just used to complete a sweater right before starting this cardigan. I found that I was already tired of looking at this colour of yarn before I had even started knitting the project. I felt that this would not be a good choice for me as I wanted to give myself the best chances of not getting tired or overwhelmed with this project while I knit it throughout my school semester. So far, knitting with the Deluxe Worsted Tweed Superwash  yarn in colourway 910 Porcelain has been a dream. The bobbles standout really well and the yarn and pattern choice have kept me engaged and excited to keep at it.

Featured Image by Les Triconautes on Unsplash