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Yarn Tips: Yarn Substitutes and Budgeting Tips

 Continuing from my previous post on my adventure with this potential yarn project: Tomioka's Haori. Once I knew how much yarn I'd need, I needed to buy it. However, turns out 15 balls of yarn is expensive! (Who knew!?) So...this started me on a journey of research for the best price! This leads me to consider other yarn brands and yarn weights. 

Finding Similar but Cheaper Yarn

It will be a roll of the dice whether you're lucky to find a more economical price and have the yarn include all the same features as your original plan or whatever the pattern called for. This is where the internet helps us. Some websites have categories of different yarns that you can search by weight, fiber type, price range, gauge, and more. Ravelry has an extensive yarn database. But I also like to use Yarnsubs.com. 

Search engines or AI can help identify alternatives for you as well by typing in "an alternative to brand name yarn". 

Or you can go to your preferred yarn shop in person or online and look at what they have available for your yarn's weight and fiber content. 

In my case, Yarn Bee True Colors seemed to be an alternative for what I wanted for my project, it had nearly all the colors except the burgundy. It had a Cranberry red which seemed to be too bright for the more muted, wine color that I was looking for. 

So I went to my Hobby Lobby and looked at what else was sitting around on the shelves in Super Bulky. Didn't see any colors in Weight 6, I did see one in Bulky weight or size 5. Which got me thinking..."could this be an alternative? I could use this yarn along with the True Colors line and get the results I want...in theory."

Changing Yarn Weight 

So you can't find the right color in the alternative yarns in the weight you want. What can you do? 
Turns out that you could knit or crochet holding multiple strands of a yarn as one to get to that weight class. However, you will need to figure out if your yarn does that. The guesstimating method is that 2 strands will be equivalent to 1 strand of the next weight class up. So 2 Bulky yarn strands become 1 Super Bulky yarn strand. But you might want to try to bulk up from an even smaller weight yarn like Worsted Weight to Super Bulky. 

For this I would recommend using an online calculator to see the true new weight class of your multi-strand yarn. Or the method/formula from this website: Math for Knitters

The annoying thing now is you have to recalculate how many skeins of yarn you need! But it's not terribly complicated...if you did the previous calculations. 
So let's say you know you'd need 7 skeins of yarn from your original planned yarn. Each skein of yarn has a certain yardage on the label. Multiply that yardage by the number of skeins to get a total yardage for the project that the new yarn needs to meet. In my example it's 567 yards for the project. 

Now bear with me this is a bit confusing. Divide that total project yardage by the yardage available in your replacement yarn. That accounts for how many balls of the new yarn you would need to meet that yardage IF you were working with 1 strand of the new yarn.  In my example it would be 567 ÷ 109 yards = 5.2. So I'd likely use only 5 skeins of the new yarn to meet the same yardage. 

HOWEVER, because we are working with 2 strands of the new yarn, so you'd need to double the number of skeins used. If you were working with 3 strand, you'd triple the number. 
In my example it would go to 10 skeins of yarn because I'd need double the amount to meet the weight class of the original yarn. 

Any of that make sense? I hope so. 

Budget Strategies

So now you have a few options for alternative yarns. 
  1. Find a yarn substitution with the same weight, colors, and fiber content as your planned yarn. 
  2. Split the purchase between two or more brands. 
  3. Check for yarn in smaller weight classes to see if doubling up might work...OR adjust the pattern to suit the smaller weight. 
  4. Wait for Sales, coupons, or find it thrifting.
  5. Buy in spaced out chunks 
I tell you I wrestled with what my plan was going to be in my case. Because the yarn I built the pattern around had all the colors I wanted in the hues that I found appealing. Plus I like the brand. But when I went to purchase online (because JoAnn's was the only place that had the colors I wanted. 😭), I was a bit startled by the price. 

It was close to $100 for 15 balls of yarn plus shipping and taxes. 😵 Yikes...so that's why I looked for alternatives that I might get locally so I checked Hobby Lobby. Found the True Colors Super Chunky yarn and thought I found my solution...except there was no burgundy. Color choice is super important to me so that's when I noticed a color in another weight. 

So if I was to go all Yarn Bee (with the inaccurate color) the price is closer to $75...significantly cheaper BUT not all the colors that I want. 

So what if I mixed a couple of brands. What if I did the burgundy with the Bulky yarn and the other colors with Yarn Bee. Well, because I'd have to get 18 skeins, it would be around $90. Not much cheaper. Then I thought what if I use the Lion Brand Burgundy and the True Colors? 
Well that came to about $82 because of shipping. 

Weighing the Options

The project requirements and your own priorities come into play here. Of course feelings will come into play too. Are you willing to change your mind about color tone or fiber type? Is it worth it to get a lighter weight class? Is there a way to avoid shipping costs and time? Is convenience and local availability a priority? Are you restricted by time, funds, or something?

To be honest I struggled with my own decision. I really, really wanted to use the yarn I had planned originally, but the price tag made me pause. I wrestled with going for Yarn Bee and just accepting an inaccurate color. But I just couldn't do it. I HAD to have that burgundy. I was thinking of just getting the burgundy from Lion Brand and the other colors from Hobby Lobby when I got an email that changed things. 

A 30% off sale dropped the price of Lion Brand to a total close to $63 before shipping and taxes. (It went up to $80 after that.) Which is pretty much what I would have paid for mixing Lion Brand with Yarn Bee. In the end, I got the yarn I wanted originally. But it was good to weigh the pros and cons. 
Now to wait for the shipping. 


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