Yarn Substitution

[Gigic]

Is there a chart somewhere for general guidelines if you don't have the right yarn for a pattern? I wanted to make a baby hat, the pattern called for bulky yarn, I only had size 4 yarn, so instead of using the size 9 needles, I used 10, shouldn't logically that have worked? The hat is about an inch short in height and and an inch short around. In my head it seemed so logical, lol. I really want to use the yarn I have for this hat, I am thinking I may have to use size 11 needles, but that is how you do it right? To make it bigger, I'd use bigger needles?

Thanks so much!

[Ingrid]

This is where gauge comes in. You knit a swatch a little over 4 x 4 inches using your yarn and needles and see how many stitches per inch you get. You make it 4 inches to allow for slight differences in tension.

Then you use that number to see how many stitches you need to make your hat (or whatever) the size you want it to be.

For example, if the gauge of the hat with bulky yarn was 3 stitches per inch, and it was 20 inches around, then the cast on would be 60 inches.

If, with your yarn and needles the gauge was 4 stitches per inch, you'd have to cast on 80 for the same size.

Width gauge is most important. You can change how many rows you knit to make it longer.

[suzeeq]

If you were going by rounds rather than inches for the length, the smaller yarn might have made the same number of rows too short. You can use size 11 needles, but you still need to do a sample with them and your yarn to see how many sts per inch you get. Then divide the sts into the number of CO sts to see what measurment that works out to. A hat should be about an inch less than the head measures, so you might be okay with the size 10s, just make it an inch longer. Hats stretch and if you make it the same size as the head, it won't stay on, they need to be at least an inch smaller in size.