Another newbie crochet/knitting question:

[hedgehog]

How safe is it to mix yarns - as in I have two skeins of 100% acrylic worsted , both machine wash and dry, from two different companies?

I'm trying to figure how to use left over yarn.

[LoisB]

1. I have never had a problem mixing the same yarn from different companies.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. That would be fine to mix. Just don't put something like a 100% wool and

an acrylic together.

[SheilaT]

3. Actually, you can mix together any two yarns you want.

It's just that you'll want to use the gentlest possible cleaning cycle for the completed item. If one is machine wash and the other hand wash, dry flat, you'll want to hand wash and dry flat. You can never go wrong be erring on the side gentleness.

Besides, sometime combining two very different yarns can result in something very lovely and different. Never be afraid to experiment. About the only caution I'd through out is to understand that some yarns are easier to use than others.

I mostly crochet. I know how to knit although I'm a very bad knitter -- can't go more than ten stitches without making a mistake. It's been my observation that absolutely any yarn can be knit, because of the way the stitches are held stable on the one needle while you use the second needle to work the next stitch. So even pretty esoteric yarns, like eyelash yarns or very bumpy novelty yarns, can be knit. When crocheting, the stitch is simply up there in the air while you use the hook to work the stitch. There's nothing holding it in place, except the shape of the stitch itself. As a consequence, a lot of novelty yarns, like eyelash yarns, cannot (at least I cannot manage it) be crocheted unless paired with some kind of simple yarn to give them stability. Then they crochet beautifully.

Took me several years to figure this out, but a lot of the fun of crocheting or knitting is figuring out some different things to do with all of the wonderful yarns out there.

[applegrove]

4. My mom mixed yarns all the time when she knitted socks. Works like a charm if they are the same

fiber.

[surrealAmerican]

5. It's no problem at all.

The one thing you want to avoid is mixing yarns of different thickness (like one "bulky" and one "sport&quot since they would need to be worked with different sized needles. Even that can be done, but your results may not be what you expected.

[SheilaT]

6. If you mix yarns of different thicknesses,

or even if you mix yarns of the same thickness, you simply use whatever size needles works with the combined bulk of the resulting yarns.

Besides, needle (or crochet hook) size is not fixed in stone. If you use a different sized needle (or crochet hook) than is generally called for, you simply get different results. Although, come to think of it, I'm not sure if you can go down a needle size or two the way you can a crochet hook size or two.

If you are making a garment or anything else for which the resulting size really matters, than you must make a swatch. If you're making a scarf or blanket or anything else where the finished size isn't rigidly defined, it's not quite so important to do.

In the end, don't be afraid to experiment.

[surrealAmerican]

7. I may have misunderstood the question here.

You're talking about holding two strands together. I had interpreted the question as doing some sort of color work (like fair isle maybe), which is one place where not matching the yarn weight would usually lead to undesired results.

I'm all for experimenting and swatching too, even when size is not the issue.

[SheilaT]

8. Aha!

I had not even thought of things like fair isle work! That, of course, is totally different, and in that case the yarns can be from different companies, or even different kinds (cotton vs wool vs synthetic) but would absolutely have to be of the same thickness.

Thanks for making me think a little harder about the original question.

In my defense, since I only crochet these days, and don't knit, and never learned complex things like fair isle, it simply didn't come to mind, but I sincerely appreciate being reminded of such things.

[Warpy]

9. As long as they're in the same ballpark as to thickness

you're OK. Acrylic is impossible to turn into anything but itself and acrylic from two different companies will play nicely together as long as the colors don't clash to the point of nausea.