Yarn Substitution Made Easy: Matching the Right Yarn to Any Knitting Pattern
When beginning a project, every knitter confronts the question: “What yarn should I use?” The answer can be complicated. Sometimes the recommended brand is unavailable or too expensive—or you’d rather use extra yarn from your stash. But even similar products might yield different results, altering structure, size, and texture. Now, trusted knitwear designer and teacher Carol J. Sulcoski provides solutions to this common conundrum, offering a wealth of information. She explains what characteristics to consider when substituting yarn, and gives guidance on calculating the quantity of yarn you'll need and how to evaluate your swatches. Ten projects offer case studies of yarn substitution in action; each finished project shows suitable alternatives and reveals how yarn choice affects every aspect of the item.
Reviews (48)
This book does what it says in the title
In Carol J. Sulcoski's seventh book, she brings her immense knowledge of yarn and how it behaves to the topic of how to choose a different yarn than the one specified in the pattern. In the first section, "Yarn Fundamentals," she tackles huge topics that have had whole books written on them and distills out what you need to know about yarn behavior, content, weight, construction, and visual dye effects. The second section guides you through choosing a substitute yarn for a pattern based on the characteristics of the yarn specified for the piece, with an eye toward getting a similar result. (She specifically states that this book is not about how to rewrite a pattern to suit a different weight yarn.) The third section offers deliberately simple patterns, each chosen to highlight a yarn characteristic (one requires very elastic yarn, another a very drapey yarn, another requires a yarn with excellent stitch definition, etc). Each of these patterns is written for a specific yarn, and then Sulcoski shows you good, workable, and poor swaps for each one, and why they are good substitutions or not. This book is valuable to anyone who doesn't always choose to purchase the yarn specified in a pattern. It's written in a very readable, almost conversational style. I found that, having been a knitter for over 25 years (ouch!), I realized that I already understood a lot of this information, but in a more intuitive way. I probably couldn't have articulated it well, and certainly not as well as this author, with her years of experience teaching. I also tend to stick to certain corners of the knitting world. Give me some hand-dyed merino and I won't bother anyone until my tea goes cold. This book's information is still useful to me. For instance: that cardigan was written for a camel/silk/yak blend - can I get away with merino? What about merino/silk? My only nitpick is that I found a couple of typos. They likely will be fixed in the next printing, and do not detract from the information presented.
THREE PLUS STARS
I had high expectations for this book which my first explorations reduced to a lower level. There is a lot of information contained, and for that I am truly grateful and very pleased. However there is significant room for improving the book. For starters a lot of different yarns are pictured (on the cover as well) with no information about brands or indeed anything at all EXCEPT in the section including patterns for several different garments. Most of those yarns are unusual and lovely; I'd love to know more. In the section with patterns, the patterns themselves are for rather uninteresting pieces -- perhaps they are by the author? In that section three different choices of yarn is shown (in smallish pictures) and there is ample information there. But for the type of knitting that I do (as do many of my friends) the info, while helpful, isn't for the types of yarns we use. The author mentions a day job as lawyer, and 3 almost grown kids plus teaching knitting classes. I suspect that she's maxed out on time demands so the book represents a pretty sizeable time commitment but could use some essential tweaks. She's done a great job on much of the book and achieves some of her goad but I think a more detailed index, the index, some traditional patterns (Fair Isle, Scandinavian and Gansey for starters) and full identification and characteristics of the yarns shown would improve the book tremendously. She would get six stars from me -- well a 5 plus!
An excellent resource for knitters of all levels!
This is a thorough, clearly written book on the complex subject of yarn substitution for knitters. We live in a world with seemingly infinite access to knitting patterns and yarn, but that really complicates the task of choosing the right yarn for our next project. Carol Sulcoski's new book focuses on the details of yarn structure, fiber content and appearance (color) to educate the reader about yarn in general, and then she provides a range of simple but appealing pattern designs with which she offers specific options for yarn substitutions, and explains why each of these options may or may not be successful. The photographs of swatches for each option are very helpful and the photography throughout the book will please any yarn lover. I particularly love her use of the word facets to describe the way plied yarns reflect light and shadow to help create stitch definition. I have been knitting for 45 years and teaching knitting and other fiber arts for 25 years; I am delighted to be able to recommend this book to my students as a terrific resource.
Carol, the Yarn Goddess, has done it again!!!
A simply amazing book for yarnaholics who want to learn how to substitute that perfect skien of yarn in the SABLE stash!!! Carol takes you through the aspects of yarn construction and further provides explanations of how yarn behaves when knitted. But, WAIT, there’s more. Carol also provides examples through the clever use of a few patterns at the end of the book. These examples are by far the coolest way to show knitters how different yarns behave when knitted. The Yarn Goddess explains the pros and cons through an easy green, yellow, red method to show case why or why not you would want to use different yarns. These informative explanations guide knitters on a journey to select the perfect yarn based on article construction and yarn composition. This is a must need in all knitters libraries.
Awesome!!!
Love this book and the level of “clean reading”, meaning, I found it easy to absorb and understand. After getting the wrong guidance too frequently when making a purchase at an LYS, and from my solo selection voyages ending in disaster, this book caught my interest. I feel like I’m taking a course and impactfully increasing my yarn knowledge. Thank you to the author!
This will save you from hours of frustration
As a beginner, this book would’ve saved me hours of frustration on projects that did not work because I used the wrong yarn. It would’ve saved me money as well. Don’t let this happen to you. Buy it!
Lots of info, but wish there was more.
I loved the book and how it was organized (The Big Three, Fiber Content, Yarn Construction, Visual Effects, Classification, substitution process, selecting, and Patterns for Practice), but I couldn't help wishing there was more information in the Fiber Content section and more fiber types covered. I ended up ordering Book of Yarn, in the hopes that I would get what I wanted. (Deets on yarn fibers, the pros and cons, and what functions they excel at.) Still waiting for the new book to arrive, but this felt like a really good start.
Very good book
Very good book for your reference shelf. Have used it many times.
Small percentage is on actually substituting
This book is mostly a book on yarn. The types, qualities, sizes, and so on. Very small section is on actual yarn substitution. I will admit the info on the yarn is interesting but there are books out there on yarn. I bought this for the substitution part. Maybe she should have titled it "All about yarn: types, uses, and substitutions". When you get to the actual substitution section I was left with a less then thrilled read. Onto the projects ...suppose to be a hands on lesson type compilation. Instead it is her showing you 3 yarns she picked and why they work, might work or won't work (most are obvious) . Overall I feel the book is not what I thought I was purchasing.
Should be required reading for serious knitters
This is a great book to learn about how yarn is made, what it is made from, and how to make good decisions as to whether the yarn you want to use will result in the kind of outcome you expect when it’s turned into a garment. The prose is well-written, there are lots of pictures illustrating the author’s points, and I am fairly sure it saved me money right off the bat as I realized the yarn I wanted to use for my summer knitting project was about to cause a knitting disaster. Instead, I learned what yarn I SHOULD use and why. I will keep this reference around to avert future yarn failures (really pilot error) and better match the yarns I love to their best uses. I highly recommend this to anyone who knits and wants to use yarns other than the one the pattern calls for.
Comments
Post a Comment