Combining Yarns and Calculating Gauge // Technique Tuesday
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- This video explains how to calculate the resulting gauge of a yarn created by combining multiple strands of thinner yarns. This process can be used if you are trying to match the gauge of a thicker yarn by creating a yarn substitute with several strands of thinner yarn, as well as just figuring out gauge you'll get when combining several yarns, so that you can figure out what needle to use.
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To jump to a specific point in the video, click on the adjacent time-stamped link:
Introduction: 0:00
What is meant by "yarn weight": 0:23
Three reasons why you might combine yarns: 2:11
Combining two strands (how to calculate resulting gauge):4:03
Combining three strands: 6:55
Combining four strands: 8:00
Comparing results: 8:35
Exceptions to the rule: 9:25
Figuring out the needle size needed: 10:42
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Possible future technique video could be adding distitch stitches to hat to add extra warmth over ears. Thnx for video. Helpful as usual.
I think this will be very useful as our stash runs out :)
I wanted to ask you these questions during your next live session. However, since you are on one of the topics I was curious about I will ask them now. 1. Do you think it’s best to ply the yarns we combine? 2. How do you manage the jog when only knitting one row of stripes in the round? Do you use different knitting needles for different types of yarn or projects - bamboo, metal ,etc.? By the way, you are the best and thank you!
This is fantastic knowlegde, very useful. Thank you 🧶😍🙏
Great information! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with the world. 😊
Thank you. You are always so helpful. Stay safe.
This video is exactly what I was talking about this morning. Wish I would have saw this earlier. Thank you.
You’re bloody brilliant, Rox. I’m loving your fore/afterthought heels, too.
Very helpful, as always. Thank you Roxanne. I love combining yarns! Kid silk mohair info especially useful as I’m addicted. 🧶😉
Thank you for this!!!! (Beginning knitter here :) )
Very educational video that I was interested in for a while now, thanks to you it’s much more understandable!
Excellent technique Tuesday! I have been trying to find resources for this. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. You are amazing
Really well explained. Thank you.
Thank you so much for doing this video! I’m a fairly new knitter and was wanting to learn this 😁
Great podcast. I've saved this one for future reference!
I really appreciate the many tips you share. Especially this, one as I have been wondering how to estimate yarn thickness and gauge. So 🤗🧶👍🏼
This is extremely useful information, (for crocheters too)! Thank you so much.
Thank you Roxanne this is very useful information, especially in these times of confinement. Gratitude !
By the way your hair looks really good. ;-)
Helpful. I had combined two Aran weights thinking I’d get like a 6 bulky weight, but didn’t it was more like a five weight. It’s weird you’d think well I have two- four weight yarns together that should make at least a six... I will use this next time I need or want to alter thickness of my yarns! 😊
All of the yarns that fall within a particular category include a range of yarns that aren't necessarily good substitutes for each other. Two yarns from different categories can be very good substitutes for each other if they both lie at the same border between categories. A heavy DK weight and a light worsted are typically interchangeable, even though the DK is in Category 3 and the worsted in Category 4. At the same time, I wouldn't substitute a light worsted for a heavy worsted, even though both are within category 4.
Roxanne Richardson yes I see a noticeable difference between say LB Pound of Love to Caron One Pound, the One Pound is thicker and heavier, and RH super saver falls in between those two. That’s just for the affordable/easy access acrylic yarns. I believe I held together two Pound of Love strands at that time for a stuffed animal, and it barely made a 5 weight. Thanks again for the info! 😊
Thank you so much for this information! I am finally ready to try a top-down raglan sweater and I found a free pattern from Lion Bran Yarn, but it calls for chunky yarn. This video has allowed me to estimate the use of multiple worsted weight yarn strand to match the gauge. Thank you so much!
This video was really helpful, thank you.
I’m trying to use scraps of various weights of acrylic yarn to make an Afghan and found this extremely helpful. Thank you very much!
I did a bunch of math with data from Ravelry a while back to figure out needle diameter to yarn thickness, and got an average of 0.61, which held across all CYC weights. I was happy to see that 0.6 in your math 😊
A very useful video. Thanks.
This was helpful. I wanted to add a yarn to my lace weight alpaca mix and now know how to do so.
Thanks this was excellent info.
Thank you.
This was a great video, thank you so much Roxanne! The one thing I find a bit confusing is the section about holding lace mohair with another yarn. Lots of recent patterns seem to assume that mohair lace+fingerweight= DK weight gauge (which is often around 20sts/4in in a lot of these patterns). I personally find that I get a fabric that I like when I knit it at a sport gauge (23-24 sts/4in). This seems to go against both your suggestion and that of many popular designers. I realize that you can knit yarn weights at lots of different gauges, but for a sweater, mohair+fingering at 7sts/in seems quite tight and knitting it at 5sts/in seems crazy loose.
I imagine it would depend on what sort of mohair you want to use, as well as what you want from the fabric. If you already want a fabric with a looser gauge, as many designers seem to do these days, then perhaps the added mohair would lend a little bit of structure. The kid silk mohair I was showing is so fine, it's not going to add any appreciable thickness to the fabric. Any time you combine two strands together, there is a bit of experimentation needed to get the desired result.
Thanks!
You bet!
Perfect 😉
I've got a question for you. I am knitting the green sweater from the Interweave Knits Spring issue. To knit the size I wanted with the yarn I chose, I needed to go to an even smaller needle size than the pattern called for. So the sweater is taking even longer and I'm about ready to put what I've done aside until the next "Finish it February". But I wondered, if I'd gone up a needle size or two, could I have just knitted one of the smaller sizes of the pattern? I'm beginning to think pattern sizes are designed differently for different size people and maybe the arm holes would not have been right or the length of the sleeves would not have worked, but I don't know. I'm getting exactly the gauge I needed with a 2.75 mm needle and the 39 inch size. But after a month or more of knitting on this, I'm about ready for something else. I never intended to knit a whole sweater on such a small needle!
excellent information. Are the formulas for estimating gauge standardized, or did you come up with them from years of experimenting and measuring? I had never heard about this before, but would like to try combining yarns, as I have a lot of fingering weight in my stash that I would like to use for larger projects.
There are a couple of different formulas people use that work sort of, some of the time. The "ply" system was reliable at the time when the size of a single was standard. You knew what a 2-ply was and a 4-ply, and you could combine yarns based on the number of plies to get larger yarns that were consistently the correct size. Two 4-ply (aka "single knitting") yarns would equal an 8-ply yarn (aka "double knitting" or DK), but not all fingering weight yarns these days are equal, nor are all DK yarns, so doubling a fingering weight/category 1 yarn to get DK weight may or may not result in a yarn that is what you wanted. Another formula, that is used to estimate gauge for 2 yarns is to add the gauges and divide by 3 (which is close to multiplying by .7). The formulas for 3 yarns and 4 yarns were ones I worked out myself, and I think they work okay, but they likely aren't perfect and probably fall apart a bit when combining yarns that aren't all the same gauge. It's a way to estimate, hopefully with a certain degree of accuracy, rather than blind guessing. You still need to swatch and see if the resulting yarn creates a fabric you like.
It’s as if you’re my psychic friend...I was just googling this!
I vote for the striped hat! It's meant to be fun and foolish, and IMO stripes fit the bill!
How do you know whether to use 0.6 or 0.7 etc., when multiplying? I’m sure you didn’t just pull those numbers out of the air.
A combination of well-known formulas, observation, and calculations.
Can you please, do a video on the formulas, or math for knitters?
Hello. Great video, thank you. Any pointers on how to work out gauge when using more than one kidsilk strand in combination with other yarns for a substitution? Would you use the same equation or is the working different?
Swatching is the way to go to. Start with a needle size a size larger than with one strand of kidsilk and then, swatch over several needle sizes to see which you prefer.
@@RoxanneRichardson ah, thanks for getting back to me. Ok, swatching it is then! I thought there might be a general weight it multiplies into and I was missing a trick 😊
Are swatching to get your personal gauge for each add on or using the band gauge?
do you have to knit to the advertised gauge or can you just swatch to see what gauge your tension makes and go from there? do tighter than recommended guages result in warmer fabrics due to more trapped air?
Tighter gauges don't trap more air (they're going to trap less, because you're compressing the fibers, which means there is less room for air). They will be more durable, less apt to stretch out, and will block the wind better than something knit with a looser gauge. Yarn construction affects the trapping of air as well. Woolen spun yarns trap more air and have less drape (but are perhaps more prone to pilling)
@@RoxanneRichardson thanks.
Before I saw your video I had experimented with knitting using two strands of the same yarn.
I held the strands on separate fingers so that they would always land on the needle in the same orientation because I wanted to avoid getting myself all tangled up in yarn while working lol.
Doing so created the odd effect of my stitches being about the same gauge as single stranded, but they were of double the depth. Looking at the switch straight on it looked rather like a normal swatch but from an angle it was noticeably thicker.
Recently I was playing around with two strands again and I didn’t attempt to hold them in the same position like I did previously. This time the strands were sometimes double thick and sometimes double sized, making for a chaotic looking mess.
My question is how does one avoid the two yarn strands from sitting in irregular positions like that? Is the only answer to ply the two strands together to create a single skein that can be worked?
Without seeing the swatches and knowing more about what you did to change the gauge with different needle sizes. It would be unusual to get the same gauge with two strands that you got with one strand, particularly if you went up to a needle size that would be appropriate for the doubled yarn. All I can say is that typically, knitters working with double strands do not attempt to control the behavior of the individual strands. The idea is that you're using them as if they *were* a single strand, using a needle size appropriate for that doubled yarn. They will wrap around each other as they are worked. The way the yarn looks/behaves might have something to do with the fiber and/or how the original yarn was constructed (a firm twist vs something looser, for example). The answer for *you* for how to knit with two strands will be to find the combination of techniques that gives you the result you like best. If plying them together gives you that result, then that's what you should do.
Roxanne Richardson thanks for the advice. Much appreciated :)
I there a general rule to distinguish between a beginner to intermediate knitter? When I buy patterns it says advanced etc. don’t want to buy a pattern that might be too challenging but not sure how they come up with putting them in the different categories. Thanks again, Judy
Skill categories are not always that helpful. An adventurous knitter is going to dive in and knit the thing that appeals to them, and learn what needs to be learned as they knit the project that is exciting to them. A cautious knitter might limit the number of new things they are willing to take on within a particular project, and then knit that type of project over and over before moving on to the next challenge. Some people are good at reading instructions (of any type) while others are quick to misinterpret. In addition, you can be an expert at one type of technique and a total beginner at another. The Craft Yarn Council has definitions of project levels, although they changed the definitions a while back (to be more vague), www.craftyarncouncil.com/standards/project-levels
Roxanne Richardson thanks Roxanne you are so right! Will keep that in mined when I buy patterns. Judy