Thicker Yarn – Half the Stitches

Hi everyone,

I have a big problem.

I ordered some yarn online to follow a pattern.

Unfortunately, I just realized that my yarn has twice the yardage listed in the pattern.

Can I just halve the number of stitches?

Best regards

If the yarn has twice the yardage, you’ll actually need more
stitches than specified in the pattern, because the yarn is probably
thinner. But it’s hard to
give a general answer because we
don’t know whether you’re knitting or crocheting.
If it’s a scarf or a sweater, you can do a
gauge swatch and use that to calculate a new number
of stitches for the dimensions you need.

Best regards

I bought a pattern for felted booties here.
The pattern says 50 g = 50 m, but mine is 50 g = 25 m

Can I convert that on a 1:1 basis—so cast on 16 stitches instead of 32?

Please ignore the calculation in the post above :-).

It just occurred to me that you’ll also need more rows to achieve
the required measurements if the yarn is thinner.

Best regards
 

But mine is thicker than the yarn used in the pattern.

Best regards

I’d really hope the pattern includes a gauge swatch...!
Make your own gauge swatch with the thicker yarn—and possibly recalculate accordingly.
I wouldn’t just halve the numbers like that!
Good luck and I hope it turns out well!

Best regards, Angela

Since you need a larger needle for thicker yarn—which means the stitches will be larger—you really can’t skip doing a gauge swatch.

In the case of felted booties, I think the
math involved would be too tricky for me. If it doesn’t require too much yarn, I’d rather just order
yarn with the correct yardage.

When I wrote in my first post that the yarn was thinner, I was referring to the fact that it had twice the yardage
as specified.
 

For your information: Gixxersusi, the lady with the very thick felting yarn, sent me (as the designer of the pattern) a private message, and we thought together about what nice things we could make with this yarn. It’s not suitable for felted shoes because, although you can achieve the desired width with fewer stitches, the thickness of the yarn itself makes the felted shoe too bulky. But we’ll definitely make something very special out of it. I’ve already given her a few suggestions, and I’m curious to see what she decides on.

Best regards from Ina