Let's Knit Magazine - Your knitting, your style

That’s lovely, I like the shades.

The James C Brett is acrylic too, which suits me as I just want to chuck it in the washer rather than faff about with it. I was surprised that it was acrylic because it’s so soft - I bought some stuff cheap on ebay that was so nasty, it made me cringe to touch it.

Lovely knit as always Gill, (and the cardi too ) x Janet

http://www.yarndex.com/
Try this site. I know it’s american but lists such a variety of Yarns from all over the place, You can search by tension, gauge, needlesize....whatever!! I use it often...to often I think!!!

I think it mainly comes down to tension. Check what the tension on the ball band reads against the tension required for the pattern. If its quite a big project check the meterage as well on the yarn, if the substitute yarn has a shorter meterage than the one recommended then you may have to buy extra but also if there is far more you may get away with buying less. Brands like Sirdar, Stylecraft, James C. Brett and Patons have been around for years and tend to wash quite well. Beware of very cheap yarns as they don’t always wash as well and after a couple of wears may stretch to twice its original size. They are ok for toys and blankets and even baby clothes that don’t have to last very long but for something thats going to take you a lot of time and effort it’s worth spending a little bit more to have you enjoy it for longer.