A beginner’s guide to buying the right yarn

It should come as a shock to no one that I really like yarn. I like talking talking about it, writing about it, photographing it, using it..! I just love it.

However, I can vividly remember being totally overwhelmed by the number of options on the market and being totally unsure of how to buy the right yarn for my chosen pattern when I first started knitting. This resulted in some very dodgy pieces of knitting early on in my knitting career and a lot of wasted time and money.

I’ve been thinking a lot more about to best serve less experienced knitters, as my new Semper Sweater pattern has been written with beginners in mind. Part of this involves having a clearer conversation about the different types of yarns available on the market, how to best use them, and how to substitute one for another.

As such, I’ve prepared a guide which you can download through the button above that covers the following topics and more:

• Yarn types

  • Materials

  • Weight

  • Construction

• Gauge aka Tension

  • Swatching

  • Blocking

• Substituting yarn

  • Substituting yarn fibre

  • Substituting yarn weight

I hope that the guide will be helpful for knitters of all abilities and levels of experience. It has been written in relation to the Semper Sweater, but the same principles outlined here should be applicable to all knitting patterns.

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