Despite liking to make patterns I don’t often go out of my way to try and find the yarn specified for a project in most pattern books. If I’m getting a pattern from a store or shop that also sells the specific brand of yarn I’ll look into it, but a lot of the time my patterns are off blog posts or old pattern books and I use the weight listed in the pattern to look for a similar weight yarn. Sometimes this is because I just don’t have the money to buy a specific brand of yarn, and sometimes it’s because I like the pattern but not the specific color the original maker used.
When it comes to pricing at least one problem is that if a yarn was specified in a pattern book from twenty to thirty years ago, it’s highly likely that now it’s discontinued. There is always a chance that I’ll be surprised and it’s still in stock at a local store, but I highly doubt I’ll be that lucky. If the yarn is discontinued the only next option would be to look around online or with knitters groups to see if there is anyone with the specific yarn in their stash and willing to sell. I remember reading a book about a knitter that wanted to do a specific pattern with a specific yarn only made oversees that had a color that was discontinued. I remember admiring her dedication to completing the pattern as designed and her ability to network with others to track down one handful of yarn after another, until she had all the colors and skeins needed. I have since come to admire it even more, as I can admit that as an introvert, that would not be me. When I’m at work I can go around, compiling and reaching out to others for information but on my own free time, in a hobby I do for fun? Yeah, if I can’t get what I need off eBay at a reasonable price, I’m just going to have to look for substitutes.
And it’s not like that isn’t an option! The patterns themselves allow for substituting yarn if you can’t get the original yarn specified, so long as you make sure the replacement yarn is the right gauge. Sometimes this can be even more fun, like a jigsaw puzzle that you’re putting together. Of course there is always the concern of wanting to make sure the gauge will work before you buy a whole bagful of yarn, but that’s what’s so wonderful about common yarns. You can buy one skein, make your gauge, then buy the rest of the yarn you need once you know it’s a good fit.
Since I do have a lot of older pattern books I may one day try to track down the yarn the patterns specify, but for now I’m content making gauges and using substitutes. Especially for patterns like shawls and scarves which don’t need special measurements to fit.
