Affordable yarns for new patterns!

We’ve seen some lovely new patterns popping up the past week or so, so we have a round-up of our favourites here, along with yarn suggestions that we have picked out to match the patterns specifically for their affordability.

Knitting can be an expensive hobby! Buying yarn for a sweater might seem difficult for you at the moment, but in our post this week we want to show you that it doesn’t have to be too pricey, and you will have an absolutely wonderful finished item at the end.

Leafbird

This beautiful cardigan by Singaporean designer yamagara is knitted with lace weight merino and a lace weigh mohair silk. We think the construction is really interesting! It would make a wonderful light layer to wear over dresses or blouses.

We would recommend using the Isager Spinni to replace the merino, and the Isager Silk Mohair to replace the mohair silk the pattern uses. These two yarns combined will create a light airy fabric.

Sunset Rock

Lori Versaci‘s lovely new cardigan is such a great ‘everyday’ cardigan, and as Lori points out on Raverly, you can dress it up or wear it casually, it looks great both ways!

Sunset Rock is knitted in a sport weight, so we think a good substitute would be either the CaMaRose Hverdagsuld or the BC Garn Semilla. Both of these yarns are fantastic value for money, and they wear very well too. The Hverdagsuld knits up to a light weight fabric, so a cardigan in it would be so easy to throw on when ever you need another layer! The Semilla is a smoother yarn, and so would be great to bring out the stitch definition on the textured panels.

Our stock of Hverdagsuld is sadly quite low at the moment, but rest assured we will be receiving another delivery in September!

Venetian Tank

This lovely new summer top designed by Finnish designer Sari Nordlund is so elegant! It is knitted in two strands of silk in a light fingering weight held together throughout.

The Ito Kinu would be perfect for this top – it’s a lovely pure silk that comes in lots of colours, and even for the largest size you would only need 4 cones of yarn!

Theodora Vest

Several of our Loopettes are big fans of designer Gregoria Fibres, so we’re always excited when she releases a new pattern!

The Theodora Vest is such a sweet layering piece, with it’s oversized collar it’s also quite playful.

Theodora is knitted in mohair silk held triple. If you would like to knit yours this way, the Isager Silk Mohair would work wonderfully. However, this can work out as quite pricey, so we think you could substitute the three strands of mohair for a worsted weight instead. You will simply need to divide the total yardage for your size by 3.

For example, if you would like to knit the 4th size, you need 9 balls of the mohair silk suggested, which gives a total of 1,890 metres needed to knit the vest. Then divide 1,890 by 3 which gives you 630 – so you’ll need 630 metres of worsted weight to knit your vest! You’ll just need to double check your gauge to make sure you’re spot on, as this will affect how much yarn you need.

Some of our favourite worsted weights are the CaMaRose Lama, which is quite new to the shop and comes in loads of lovely colours, the De Rerum Natura Gilliatt, which is lovely and soft and wears very well, or the Malabrigo Rios, which has lots of fun colours (11 of which are new!) and is machine washable which is always helpful!

Pop Spots

Last week we announced our Loop pattern Pop Spots was available as a kit, and you loved it so much it completely sold out! We now have pre-orders available, but we also wanted to suggest a more cost-effective option for you as well!

Pop Spots is knitted in a 4ply weight, and so is perfect for CaMaRose Yaku. Yaku is a machine washable 100% wool, and has a fantastic colour palette. You could go for subtle neutrals or zingy colours that really ‘pop’!

Cinnabar

Andrea Mowry’s latest shawl is set to be another popular one! Andrea contrasts a a subtle marled yarn as the main colour with a bright multicoloured contrast colour. The shawl also has a lovely texture as the yarns used are of two different weights.

Andrea used a DK weight for the main colour, which we think would be lovely as the BC Garn Semilla DK, and a 4ply/sport weight as the contrast colour, which you could use the Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball for.

• 

• 

We also want to share a little round-up list of more of the affordable yarns we stock at Loop!

• All of the CaMaRose yarns – they also have beautiful pattern support
• Kremke Soul Wool – Lazy Lion is a great affordable hand-dyed sock yarn that stripes really nicely
• Rico – the Merino Aran is perfect for autumn jumpers
• All of the BC Garn yarns – and their Semilla wools are organic!
• Malabrigo Rios – another fantastic yarn for sweater quantities
• Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift – perfect for colour work as the yarn comes in small quantities, but it’s also lovely for things like light shawls
• All of the yarns from Isager – Isager yarns are fab for holding multiple strands together as their colour palette is consistent across their different bases
• Schoppel Wolle Zauberball – we mentioned this above but it’s a great sock yarn and a really good substitute for the Spincycle Dyed in the Wool
• Lang Jawoll – a great basic sock yarn but it works so well for baby items and adults sweaters too
• All of De Rerum Natura‘s yarns – and we love their colour palette!

We hope you enjoyed this post, and that you found it informative! Happy knitting everyone!