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Stitching TipsYarn Substitution A yarn takes your fancy, you just have to order it but you haven't any idea what you will use it for. Then you find a pattern you like. Can you use the new yarn for this pattern? Will you have enough yarn? To calculate how much yarn you will need, follow these steps: 1. Find out how many metres are on one ball of the suggested yarn. 2. Multiply the metres by the number of balls needed for the pattern. 3. Divide this number by the number of metres on one ball of the yarn you wish to use. Hey presto, you have the amount of balls required to knit your article in the yarn you chose. If the suggested yarn has a high acrylic / man-made content, you will find that you will need more balls of a high wool content, and even more balls of a cotton yarn. Acrylic is lighter than wool which in turn is lighter than cotton. A cotton yarn doesn't go as far as an acrylic yarn so you get less metres. Alternatively, the table below provides an INDICATION of the quantity in metres that you will need to make a long sleeved sweater. Do bear in mind though, that these are ESTIMATES ONLY. Patterns vary enormously and so does the yardage per ball for different types of yarn. Cotton, for example has less yardage than wool because it weighs more and so you get less metres to the ball.
Always join in a new ball of yarn at the start of a new row. Leave a long tail so that you can sew in the ends. In this way you will avoid having a bump where you have sewn in the loose ends in the middle of your fabric piece. NEVER knot the ends together, as this will create a hard knot which you will feel through the fabric! Nan says, "Always sew in the ends AFTER you have sewn the pieces together". The benefit of this is that the sewn in ends don't get in the way when you have to pick up stitches for the neck, for example. ************************************* If some of your stitches look a bit big or too loose you can tighten them up by knitting into the back of the stitch. This often happens at the start of a row. To do this, pick up the loose stitch by placing the needle into the loop which rests on the back of the needle, rather than the front of the needle, then knit it as usual. What will happen is that this stitch will have a twist to it which takes up the slack. This is a useful tip where you have the odd baggy stitch. Be careful though, that you don't use the technique for too many stitches on your row, as the twists will affect the look of our knitting. ************************************** |
