How does this work? Yarn Substitution

We all deal with it. We fall in love with a pattern. EVERYTHING about the pattern. 

The yarn. 

The drape. 

The color. 

It's exactly what you have dreamed of. 

So, you hike on down to the yarn store...just to discover that yarn is discontinued or not offered at that store. It is defeating, we know!!!

Sometimes the switch out is super easy...you need Red Heart Supersaver? Uptown Worsted will sub in perfectly! You need Cascade 220? Deluxe Worsted...step on up!!!

But other times, the yarn is very specific. It's a blend of Cotton, Silk, Yak and Unicorn Kisses, with a chainette ply and is super lofty. This is where it gets hard! Because it might have the yardage of a fingering weight yarn, but the floofy-ness (ya, that's a word) of a DK weight. Therefore, it's categorized as a DK. HOWEVER, if you sub in a very stout DK weight yarn, it might resemble a cardboard box more than a sweater! This is where gauge swatching is VERY important.

Sometimes this process can be very frustrating. Why did the pattern writer use THIS specific yarn? Didn't they know it would go out of print or be hard to get? We hear this EVERY day!! But many times, a designer uses a yarn that is either given to them to design with, or they know that yarn will react the way they want it to for that fabric they want.

Designers aren't trying to be difficult and yarn companies aren't out to ruin our days. This is just part of the process.

The more you sub in yarns, the better it gets, I promise. But sometimes there just isn't another yarn that is comparable. That's when I check out www.yarnsub.com

This website allows me to look up all the specifics of the yarn I'm looking at, and gives me the best matches. 

Another hack I use, is looking up the pattern on Ravelry...

Let's say I want to knit the Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West

The pattern lists West Wool Tandem as the yarn used. However, if you click on projects (there are over 10k!!!) you can see all the different yarns that people used to knit their shawl. This way you can see if that is the look you are going for, what the drape looks like, etc.

Subbing in yarn will never be easy peasy lemon squeezy...but with some of these tips it might be a little better!!