September 8th, 2012
How to choose yarn for a knitted project.
Choosing yarn is a crucial part of the knitting process. You will never achieve the effect you want if you use the wrong yarn. Case in point, you can't make a sleek dress sock with a bulky wool and 9mm needles. You need a fingerling weight wool and 2.5 mm dpns. Wool type should also be a consideration. Again if you want a sleek sock, you shouldn't use felting wool. When choosing yarn you have to consider three things, appearance, gauge and fiber content.
Appearance:
When considering appearance we must look at texture and colour. Texture is the weight and smoothness of a yarn, how may plies in a yarn. Single plied yarn is make of one strand of yarn. Multiplied plies are multiple strands twisted together. This can make the yarn bulkier but not necessarily. The weight of yarn is more dependent on the thickness of each individual plie strand and they can vary between fingerling to bulky.
Solid colours and smooth yarn is good when making a piece with a pattern or cable knit. Cable stitches can be lost if the yarn is too crazily coloured. At the same time, a plain stocking stitch project can really be jazzed up if you have a funky yarn, sock, scarves and hoodies come to mind.
When choosing yarn for a project remember the Simple and Complex Rule. The simpler the pattern, the more complex the yarn. Alternatively, the more complex the pattern, the simpler the yarn.
Gauge:
Gauge is how many stitches there are per inch. It is extremely important, if the wrong gauge is used on a project then the item may be too big or too small. It is also important to use the appropriate needles for the project. This can be found on the label of the yarn ball.
Fiber content:
Fiber content dictates how the yarn will act. Silks and cottons will not stretch. Wools can shrink. Acrylics stretch. Pick the yarn that best goes with what the project needs. Fiber content also dictates how a yarn feels. They can be fuzzy like angora or smooth like cottons.
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