Something of a Wooly Issue...

Forgive the terrible pun but I'm rubbish at naming threads... I have a bad habit when knitting of not paying much attention to the wool specifications in the pattern. Mainly because most of the things I make are suited to double knit which is what makes up the majority of my stash is. But I'm making [url:0387c]http&#58;//knitty&#46;com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTwinecozy&#46;html[/url:0387c] for my parents anniversary so I want it to be right. So my question is, how can I tell worsted weight wool from other wool? Is it noticably heavier/thicker? Is it marked as such? I tried our local department store but the girl there hadn't heard of worsted weight wool. Is there an easy substitute for it? Or do I just need to find a wee dedicated wool shop? Any help would be muchly appreciated. <!-- s:art: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cats/artistic.gif" alt="creative" title="creative" /><!-- s:art: -->

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9 replies since 3rd May 2007 • Last reply 3rd May 2007

Reply #1:

Hello! This is my first post here so hopefully it will be a helpful one! I live in the UK, but I learnt to knit two years ago during a 6 month stay in Toronto. I have encountered the worsted dilemma many times, and unfortunately its an American weight of wool. We have dk, which is slightly lighter, and aran which is slightly heavier than worsted! Very, very annoying. Quick bit of googling and to be precise apparently dk is 8 ply, aran is 12 ply, and, guess what? Worsted is 10ply. This might help: [url:1d917]http&#58;//www&#46;yarnstandards&#46;com/weight&#46;html[/url:1d917] What I have found is either to experiment a bit with gauge and needle size and adjust the pattern slightly, or there are a bunch of UK based online knitting shops that sell American yarns so you can just sod it and buy worsted weight. <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cats/calm.gif" alt="cool" title="cool" /><!-- s8) -->

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Reply #2:

Ah crud! I should have checked the date of your post, I'm probably way too late. How did you get on in the end?

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Reply #3:

Hee, I found a wee wool shop to ask in and they said 'use dk and adjust your gauge/tension'... so I'm using dk and bigger needles and that seems to be coming out fairly well. Once its all done I'll post a picture. Hopefully it'll work as I'm planning to make two...

(ps. Welcome to the board! <!-- sHappy --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cats/hyper.gif" alt="excited" title="excited" /><!-- sHappy --> <!-- s:dance: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cats/ecstatic.gif" alt="dance" title="dance" /><!-- s:dance: --> )

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Reply #4:

Happy to be here, and I look forward to seeing the pictures!

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Reply #5:



I finally finished them but here they are all shiny and done. I ran out of time so they're just plain rather than decorated but those can be added later. I made the green one first but it was a bit tight for the wine bottle I had in the house so I made the blue one a bit bigger so its less of a snug fit. The seam is supposed to be some sort of complex crochet thing but I can't crochet so they're just sewed up normally. It's my first completed 'tangy' project from knitty so I'm rather pleased to have successfully moved up a level <!-- s:art: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cats/artistic.gif" alt="creative" title="creative" /><!-- s:art: --> <!-- s:dance: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cats/ecstatic.gif" alt="dance" title="dance" /><!-- s:dance: -->

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Reply #6:

Yay, looks great. How long did it take in the end?

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Reply #7:

The green one took forever as deadlines kept getting in the way, but the second one took me about 2 weeks to do but I did most of the work in about three days so probably if I'd had three days to devote to it then it would have been done really quickly as there's about six inches of plain stocking stitch that goes really quickly. <!-- s:drink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cats/refreshed.gif" alt="drink" title="drink" /><!-- s:drink: -->

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Reply #8:

Although I like the items on the knitty website I just dont like the patterns, I find american patterns difficult to follow...but thats just me.

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Reply #9:

Hmm I learned to knit from the Stitch N Bitch books / my Nana, so I really didn't have that problem with American patterns.

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