HOW TO SUBSTITUTE YARNS IN A PATTERN | A guide to yarn weight in Australia, the US and the UK
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- Опубликовано: 28 июл 2024
- Welcome to my series about how to substitute yarns in a pattern! In this first video we're talking all about yarn weight (for beginners and up). Understanding yarn weight is very important in knitting and crochet but it can be tricky - especially since it's talked about very differently in different countries. I go over Australian and NZ yarn weights, US yarn weights and UK yarn weights and how to convert between them all, as well as how you can use yarn weight and gauge to substitute yarns in a pattern.
✦✦✦ THINGS I MENTIONED ✦✦✦
· Download the Yarn Weight Conversion chart PDF: www.dropbox.com/sh/k5jcpjghj2...
· Yarnsub: yarnsub.com
· Craft Yarn Council standard yarn weight system: www.craftyarncouncil.com/stan...
· How to knit a gauge swatch: • Knitting Help - Stella...
· Bendigo Woolen Mills 10 ply cotton: www.bendigowoollenmills.com.a...
· The Petite Wool from We Are Knitters: www.weareknitters.com.au/skei... (use MGMCGUZ6P for $15 off)
✦✦✦ BOOKMARKS ✦✦✦
0:00 - Hello!
0:24 - A brief explanation of yarn substitution?
2:52 - What is yarn weight?
5:06 - Yarn weights in Australia and New Zealand
6:20 - Yarn weights in the USA
7:08 - The Craft Yarn Council standards
9:03 - Yarn weights in the UK
9:53 - Yarn weights and substitution
15:01 - Substitution using gauge
20:39 - A note about ply
✦✦✦ HOW TO FIND ME ✦✦✦
Instagram: / oliphantkat
Ravelry: www.ravelry.com/designers/kat...
Etsy: oliphantkatknits.etsy.com/
Newsletter: oliphantkat.com.au/newsletter
DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service using these links, there's no additional charge for you but I might receive a small commission. Thanks for supporting Oliphant Kat! Хобби
Hi everyone, I hope you found this helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions about yarn weight, and grab the conversion table at bit.ly/international-yarn-weights.
Thank you. This is so interesting and informative. We in South Africa seem to have a simpler system - or maybe it's just because we haven't caught up with the rest of the world yet. 😊
Traditionally we haven't ever used the term "yarn". We call everything wool even if it doesn't have a single strand of actual wool in it. We have 3 ply yarn, which is used mainly for baby garments and blankets, etc, 4 ply which is like fingering weight (my personal favourite but not too freely available anymore), DK or double knitting, and chunky. I see that Aran weight is becoming more available now. There also more bulky yarns available but not many. Although we are a wool exporting country unfortunately we don't have as wide a variety of yarns available to us here. It's also not easy to buy yarns from other countries because of the cost. That doesn't stop is from carrying on with our knitting and crocheting, though.
Brillant international Yarn 🧶 weight/name chart!! 👏🏼 👏🏼 Brava! Also, excellent explanation overall n most importantly - recommending a gauge swatch before starting a pattern. Yarn.sub reference also good, especially for Americans n Canadians. Another topic, perhaps for another vid, would be to explain Yarn textile types n how Yarn is processed (twisted, chain, single ply, etc.). Ex: A cotton DK chained Yarn will look, feel, stretch, work up n block very differently than a spun single ply DK acrylic would do. So, added explanation of how Natural fibers behave very differently than man-made, etc. Great job 👍🏼 n nice graphics.
Hi! I am Canadian and we use the American system here. Thank goodness...we don't need yet ANOTHER system to use! Great video with lots of useful information, especially for beginners.
Oh thank goodness, that's a relief 😅. Thanks for letting me know!
This was very hellpful. Thank you!
So helpful. I’m an Aussie in Canada and you just saved me hours of confusion. Most yarn I see here in the US or UK/Europe weight chart. But wow was that helpful. Thank you thank you!!!
Thank you so much
Learning about yarn is such a headache but you made it so easy
Can’t thank you enough
Thank u , i live in the USA and purchased 2 baby outfit sets accidently in Aran yarn and have been trying to figure out how to substitute it for a medium 4 weight yarn with a recomended hook size of 5 mm. Thanx to your charts i realize its pretty much the same thing and it shouldnt matter with making these baby closthes. Ty and God bless!
Congrats on starting a podcast! So good to see more Aussie Knitters on here! I’m a knitter in Melbourne! ❤️
Thanks Jess! I'm in the middle of your first episode now 😉
Best explanation ever! Sure wish i had found this alot sooner. Saving this for reruns as im sure im gonna need it❣
Awww thanks for making this vid. Just got into crocheting and learning from YT, but it's hard when most vids are made outside of AUS and sometimes when they talk about yarn I don't understand and use the wrong ply and my project looks completely different. Thanks for the PDF! Real helpful!
Yay, I'm glad it was helpful! I have some videos about specific local yarn too, you might find them handy 😊
this topic was excellent Kat. Thankyou for your explanations and visual illustrations
No worries, I'm glad it was helpful Cheryl!
Thank you so much. For a beginner knitter, this is really helpful information!!👍🏻👍🏻
No problem, its the stuff that I wish I'd known when I was a beginner so I'm glad to hear it's helpful for beginners 😄
Ha ha I’m in the U.S. and I’m completely confused now for sure. I don’t think I’ll be venturing out of my narrow comfort zone 😊 Thank you for your efforts?
Thank you!!! So much of the crochet and knitting community online is US related and as a complete beginner in Australia this is super handy!!
You are so welcome! I'm glad you found it helpful, I was specifically hoping to find some Aussie beginners to help out 😊. If you have any other topics you'd like to see videos on please let me know!
This is great! Thank you for putting this together and providing the chart! So helpful. 💛
No problem, glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much for your excellent explanation of yarn weights. Thank you for the chart to convert from one system to another! I had no idea that Aran weight yarn was a UK definition that overlaps with worsted wt. in the USA! It's all so confusing, but you've helped me understand things!
You are so welcome! I'm glad it was helpful 😊
Love the name Oliphant!! In my language, Afrikaans in South Africa, it means Elephant! This video is very very helpful, solved lots of my crocheting problems!! I started to knit as a kid already in the 60's , so much changed that I am today totally confused, could be the age too😹Thank you Kat you where very helpful! Clicked Like and Subscribed to your Channel!
Oh yes, I had someone comment before saying they assumed I was South African before they started watching because of the name :D Welcome to the channel! If you need help with anything let me know, I know knitting's changed a LOT in just the last decade or so so it can get quite confusing.
This video is so useful thank you Kat for this information 😊
No problem, glad it was helpful!
Omg this was super helpful! Thank you!
No problem, glad it was useful!
Thank you for this useful info. As an Aussie knitter, I still get confused with understanding all the conversions. Only recently I was inquiring about yarn to purchase and thought that it was ‘2ply’ from the description but it was really 4ply in weight. The 2 ply was describing the 2 strands. The table chart was really helpful too. Thanks again.
No problem, glad you liked it! Yeah it's becoming a common problem, I've noticed that more American yarn companies are starting to mention what ply their yarns are and it's making a lot of Aussie knitters confused.
Thank you. This was helpful ❤
No problem, glad it helped!
In my country Egypt we almost only have Turkish yarn
Thank you, Kat! This is good information! I live in Canada so I guess I fall under the US weights.
Hey Carol, glad it was helpful! Yes someone else from Canada told me recently that you guys use the US weights - thank goodness there isn't yet another weight system to have to keep track of 😄
Hi thanks for your information.
I like your jumper.🧶
No problem, I'm glad it was useful! And thanks 🥰 If you're looking for the pattern its here: www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/necessity-jumper
Thank you for this 🙏
Ps: I would happily have exchanged my email address for that chart 😉
Hahah omg I know, I made the chart with the idea that it'd be a lead generator and then I ran out of time to set it up before the video came out and I just never came back around to it. Thanks for reminding me! If you still want to sign up to the newsletter I won't complain, it comes with a free beanie pattern 😝
Oct 4, 2022. Hi, this was extremely helpful. I’m Canadian, also an expat Brit so I’ve been very very confused by all this stuff - weight, ply, categories, etc. still a bit confused but your video was great and the chart I screen shot is so helpful. I don’t think Canadians have their own yarn weight/categories but tend to use either US or UK. Not very helpful to you who wants to learn more 🤷♀️🤣. I watch a lot of UK podcasts and their constant use of the term DK drives me nuts! We don’t get DK in Canada. Brits call DK a 4 ply yarn but as you and I know 4 ply is a misnomer as ply has nothing to do with it. I therefore believe that DK is a US equivalent of ‘worsted’ or ‘medium’. To my mind, worsted was always thicker than DK??? So, still confused 🤷♀️. I don’t knit garments, too much faffing (ie fiddling) around with fit, I knit and crochet mainly blankets and lacy shawls and I tend to go with the ball band ‘3’ or ‘4’ ie medium type yarn. I do hats though and have had good success with ‘4’ yarns. I think ‘4’ is really equivalent to a UK DK. Have I confused you yet🤣. Anyway thank you for taking the time to try to sort us all out and straighten out the mess of all these categories. I found your video thru an IG/blogger called Knit Like Granny. FYI.
Hey! Sorry for the late reply on this. So from what I understand (after people told me on the comments in this video), Canada uses the US system. So if you're seeing a "3" or a "4" on Canadian yarn, those are the CYC categories I was talking about. 3=DK, 4=worsted.
I *think* that DK in the UK and DK in the States is the same, and 4ply in the UK is what they'd call fingering in the States, but honestly given your background you'd know more than me I assume (I know the least about the UK terminology).
Thanks for the heads up about Knit Like Granny!
I chose YT for the visual aspect. This tutorial (for me) would have had more impact if u displayed swatches for substitutions. Just a thought. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for the suggestion!
What about doubling and tripling the thickness of my yarn if I can’t find the right color for example which happens a lot in countries like mine?
Thank you so much for your tutorial, things make more sense to me now. Just wondering if I can get your conversion charts. I don't seem to be able to download them when I click on the link. Cheers
Hey Leanne, thanks for letting me know the link was broken! You can download the charts here: www.dropbox.com/sh/k5jcpjghj2wtphc/AAD4AlqTqwGfOCIh9ckhDPm2a?dl=0
I am in Australia and wanting a substitute for an outdated cotton yarn that is described as 5 ply (12 wpi). What is wpi? And what problems are there if substituting a boucle yarn? Loved your video, your explanations are right on target.
WPI refers to “wraps per inch”
This is more commonly used by spinners and is another way of measuring the yarn thickness, because handspun yarn can differ due to the technique used in spinning.
If you wrap the yarn gently but firmly around a ruler or a wpi tool and count how many strands fit within 1 inch, this will give you an idea of the yarn weight and help to make other calculations. Each yarn weight Katrina mentioned in this video will have a corresponding wpi range, but some of them overlap depending on the yarn weight, density and construction.
What A Wilesmith said 😄. Ravelry has a good chart that's similar to the one I presented but has the WPI conversion on it too: www.ravelry.com/help/yarn/weights
Can I use 2 balls of worsted 4 to make a sweater with 5ply or bulky please.
Hi! Two strands of worsted held together will come out to be something like a super bulky, but I'd recommend swatching to see if you get gauge.
I get my yarn from china and it’s so confusing. Apparently 5 ply yarn from there is similar to dk while 8 ply is a worsted or bulky depending on the brand and it’s so confusing
Oh that's so interesting! Sorry, I can't be much help - I don't think I've ever bought any yarn from China. If you're not familiar with "wraps per inch" go look it up, it'll help you figure out what weight your yarn is when you're unsure.