Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Wool Yarns Substitutes for Homespun Yarn

Hi - I've been asked to try out a girl's sweater pattern that calls for Lions Brand Homespun Yarn. For A of A, I need to make it in a wool or 75%+ wool yarn (or similar natural yarn).

I'd appreciate your suggestions for this yarn substitution.

Peggy

6 comments:

Elizabeth D said...

Peggy, what's the gauge the pattern calls for? That will help us help you. (And is it knitted or crocheted?)

Barbara in California said...

Peggy, I checked on LionBrand.com, and found that Homespun is considered a bulky or chunky yarn. For knitting, the gauge is 14 sts and 20 rows = 4" on size 10 needles. For crochet, the gauge is 10 sc and 10 rows = 4" on size K-10.5 hook. You could check with your yarn store for a yarn with that gauge...

Tory said...

How about doubling up some thinner yarns to get the gauge called for in the pattern?

pldrake said...

I'm working on Tory's comment by checking some yarns I have, including one that's 50% wool and 24% alpaca, that are similar in feel to Homespun and can be doubled -- or maybe not. I made Bev's mittens using it for my nephew for Christmas that turned out very well.

Not sure I have enough (it's a discontinued Sensations yarn from JoAnn). If not I do have some bulky yarn I may try.

Also -- what's with all the references to "for our purposes" that apparently some a of A'ers use to limit what can be crocheted??

I've crocheted several items recently with "extra bulky" yarn, most notably mittens, that turned out very well.

Just what are those "purposes" that seem to be anti-crochet without any justification provided??

Knitting is not superior to crochet any more than crochet is superior to knitting.

Elizabeth D said...

PL, the "extra bulky" is about twice the thickness of regular bulky, and is knit at about 2 stitches per inch. Because of the structure of the crochet stitch, and the way it eats up yarn so fast, it's not possible to get enough yarn for a sweater into a single box -- not to mention that the sweater would weigh a ton. The giveaway of superbulky yarn is intended to increase the quantity of sweaters received for this campaign. Sweaters are the best thing we can send, but (1) they take longer and (2) they require larger quantities of yarn, so they're always the garment A4A receives the fewest of. (That sentence is grammatically disastrous, but will have to do.)

No one is "dissing" crochet -- we love crocheters and knitters alike. Hope this helps explain. By all means, keep on crocheting those mittens!

pldrake said...

I'm going to try using a double strand of Pacaboo from Joann's Sensations yarn. I have some, but I'm not sure I have enough (darn -- I made a set of mittens with it for a Christmas gift). If not, I'll try some bulky wool yarns that I have. The Pacaboo yarns have a similar feel to Homespun but are just thinner. I haven't found another yarn with wool (and alpaca in this case) that really feels like Homespun (for better or for worse). A lot of my knitter friends complain about some of its features, but it seems to do better for crochet. I saw a women's jacket-style sweater made in Homespun last fall that looks just wonderful. I'll keep you posted on what happens as I scan my yarn stash and get going with this project.

Thanks for everyone's comments.

Also, the other complicating factor is that JoAnn has discontinued the Pacaboo yarn -- what I have is actually a Pacaboo Print that I found on sale some months' back.

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