dee kay

On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:35:50 -0800, Millie James spewed forth :

Nooooo, not really. They'll knit up at a different gauge even though most yarn grist/weight charts lump them together in a range of "yards per pound".

Most yarn grist/weight charts show DK and sport with about a 100ypp overlap. Sport-weight yarn and double-knitting yarn made up in stockinette on the same needles will produce different gauges. Either of them doubled will knit up as "worsted weight" at 4-5 spi but again, the fabrics will be different.

As always when attempting yarn substitutions: swatch, and swatch some more. If necessary a pattern can be overhauled to suit a different gauge, but if you have to do that you may as well find a pattern (or design your own) to suit the yarn you do have.

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Hey Wooly - please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't DK in the UK similar to Worsted Weight here? I know what DK is over here. ;>)

Shelagh

Putting my oar in from this side of the Great Shining Water; I've always thought of Aran weight as being nearest to worsted weight yarn, but try this to help with determining what's what:

On Fri, 7 Apr

I've always understood DK to be finer than sportweight and called "double knitting" because when doubled it knits up at worsted gauge. The *ahem* Craft Yarn Council of American *cough* would have us believe that DK is in fact heavier than sport. Major yarn vendors (WEBS, Halcyon, to name two I checked just now) seem split on the subject as do most knitters.

And then, spinners and weavers have different ways of measuring yarn thickness so from that POV "DK" and "sport" are sort of meaningless, and "worsted" means something else altogether that isn't at ALL to do with how fat the yarn might be.

Regardless of one's orientation it ought not be assumed that the two weights are interchangeable in any given project. As with any yarn substitution the character of the FO will be altered due to subtle (or gross) changes in gauge, drape, handle, loft, etc etc etc. That might not be a BAD thing but it is something to be aware of so you're not surprised (OH MY GOD MY NIPPLES ARE HANGING OUT BUT I WAS KNITTING TO GAUGE! or OH MY GOD THIS THING IS SO HEAVY I CAN'T WEAR IT EVEN THO I LIVE IN YELLOWKNIFE!) later.

Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET. This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%. Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...