How to Combine Multiple Strands of Yarn for a NEW Larger Gauge

Hello knitters!
I’ve been doing a bunch of Holiday hat knitting – maybe you’re gift knitting too?

It’s been fun going through my stash to find yarns that I can evolve into some more useful sizes.

Have you ever gone to a show or festival or shop and ended up with a lot of single skeins? Or, if you’re like me, you cannot resist the siren song of sock yarn!

This year, while making this huge stack of socks, I discovered that all sock yarn is not created equal and might be better off being something else.

I’ve been combining two strands of fingering weight yarns to get a DK or worsted weight, which is much easier to knit a hat with! It’s been great fun creating some lovely marls, too.

Combine three strands of 7st/inch fingering weight and you have VOILA! Bulky weight, which goes even faster.

How you do dat?

Well here’s a handy dandy chart for you to use for holding two strands together of the same weight yarn (CLICK HERE to open larger size chart):

Bonne-Marie-Burns-Yarn-Combos-600

To combine three strands of yarn:
• Find the gauge for two of the strands first by using this formula: (G1 + G2)/3 = New Gauge where G1=Gauge Yarn 1 and G2=Gauge Yarn 2
• (Hint: just use the chart if their original gauges are identical).
• Then, apply the formula again, now adding the (New Gauge + G3)/3 to get the 3-yarn combined gauge.

EXAMPLE: combine 2 strands 8st/inch fingering and one strand worsted.

I can take the first combo gauge from the chart because it uses two equal gauge yarns to give: 5.5.

Now I add that to the worsted weight gauge and divide by 3:
(5.5 + 5)/3 = 3.5 sts / inch

Perfect for the He Said She Said hat/cowl set! (CLICK HERE for pattern…)

HSSS-0245-650

Try some fingering weights together and use up all your sock tidbits to knit one of these, the 4-Way Brioche Infinity Cowl (CLICK HERE for free pattern from Chic Knits):

Chic Knits 4-Way Brioche Infinity Scarf

HINT: remember – you can make this scarf any length you want – a shorter version of knit to 40″ then join – would be so pretty!

Play Yarn Chicken Like a Pro – Part Two

When last I left you, I was busy knitting the sleeves on my IBA cardi (Play Yarn Chicken Like a Pro – Part One)…

Right from the beginning of the knitting, I wasn’t sure if I had enough yarn to make this sweater as long as I really wanted it to be. So, to eke out all the available yardage I had, I put the body of the sweater on scrap yarn, and knit the sleeves first.

That way, I could use all the remaining main color yarn to add maximum length to the body of the sweater.

Then, once I finished using up that color, the plan was to add a skein of Gold to the mix – this would be the last yarn used, to the end.

But, horrors! I started panicking as my gold yarn ball started to shrink.

How could I know when I could switch to my hem ribbing without running out of yarn?

Here’s some little Yarn Chicken secrets that bailed me out:

• Unravel a stitch, measure and record how much yarn in length each stitch uses.

• Mutiply that number by the number of stitches in the row to get the number of inches or yarn used in that row.

• Now divide that number by 36 to get an estimate of the amount of yards used per row. [36″ / 1 yard]

• Then I measured off enough yards to finish the Ribbed Edging of my sweater and wound that up in a smaller ball Without Breaking or Cutting that little ball from the Main Ball.

• Then I stuck it in the middle of the bigger ball to hold it.

Chic Knits Knit Blog

NOW I could just do my favorite: Knit Until the Yarn Runs Out on all the rest of the yarn that wasn’t in the Little Ball!

And, this, my autumn colored Iba wrapper cardi, might just be the Longest Sweater I’ve ever made!

• STATS:
main color – 5 skeins – Foliage (1,000 yds) – took me to 24″;
contrasting color – 1 skein – Gold (200 yds) – 30″ total length

Chic Knits Iba Knitting Pattern

I can’t wait to wrap myself in its woolie goodness!

>>> for all the pattern details, click HERE

Knit Until the Yarn Runs Out

Chic Knits PNW #1

Lately, I’ve been living in a little something that, as they say, just hits the spot…

It is cozy and warm and pretty good looking to boot!

These are my plain verisons of the PNW #1 cardigan, from l. to r. in oatmeal color and navy chunky yarn…

Going through my stash, I found an extra skein of the oatmeal color and got a bee in my bonnet to add some length and pockets to make it even more like a jacket.

That’s the beauty of top-down knitting! You can just knit until the yarn runs out! I made the pockets first, then added the rest of the yarn to the length of the body. Because the gauge on this is 4 sts per inch, it’s pretty fast knitting, too!

So, I’m ready for a hike, raking the leaves (never ends here in Portland!) or just a nice cozy cuppa coffee in the morning wrapped in fluffy comfort…

find the details and pattern here
•••> PNW #1 <•••