Cheap wool?

OrkneyStar

FelinePrincess wrote: »

Do you know how much it is? Is there much choice of colours?

Sorry yes there was cream with brown flecks, grey with pink/blue flecks, blue with brownish flecks and I think a pink colour.
Also second charity shops (although do the sniff test!) and try freecycle/freegle!

Barneysmom

In our charity shop it was £1 a ball used as well and none were full rolls :eek:

Sharon_1970_2

I was bought a lovely book for Christmas by Debbie Abrahams - More Blankets and Throws. I want to knit one for a Christmas preesent next Christmas. However, the wool they recommend is so expensive. One blanket would cost £232.50 :eek: Can anyone recommend substitutes for the Rowan yarns please?

LolaLemon

best thing i do, is go to the wool shop with the pattern and ask instore for a good substitute

thier was a lovely crochet blanket in one of the knitting magazines adn i had my heart set on copying it exact, but like you, if i had bought the recommended wool, it would ahve cost around £300, so ive stored it for future to make, but i wont use the recommended wool.

have u checked places like hempswool.com/co.uk? normally really good for wool.

Savannah02K

You can join ravelry (from memory www.ravelry.com but just google it in case I've got that wrong). It's a really good knitting website. They have a section on wool substitution. You can key in the name of the wool you are supposed to use and it will give you all the details re how many stitches/rows on a tension square. That will then help you when you look for cheaper subs, you're basically just looking for something that will produce the same number of rows/stitches. You might have to drop a needle size to get the exact match but most knitters do that anyway as the tension squares in the patterns aren't set in stone.

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

wool is very expensive so its worthwhile stashing what you can find cheap in charity shops and the like. Keep an eye on ebay but even this can get expensive with p&p charges. Kemps wools online is a good start and if you go up to yorkshire there is a wool mill called coldspring mill which does debbie bliss, rowan, louisa harding etc wools cheap. Its in cullingworth near bradford, there is a coffee shop too so you can make a day of it.
Texere yarns in Bradford is meant to be good but I've never been, you can order online too.

boogiequeenie

anyone have any idea where you could get cheap wool from?

meritaten

if you are buying in bulk - then you may find that ordering your wool direct from the mill will save a considerable amount. or look on ebay as I have seen bulk amounts of wool on there.
look on mill shop sites for discontinued lines which give the same effect and will knit the same as the one specified.
I like to knit the middle of blankets and crochet the rest of it (mainly because I cant work out how to do rectangles in crochet) but use wool (double knit) bought in charity shops or given to me or even bought from Shaws.

ChocClare

The reason designers such as Debbie Abrahams love Rowan is because of the choice of colours.

I have got that blanket and throw book, and I have substituted ANY cotton yarn. You could make a choice to do the one you like in acrylic, which would be cheaper, though not as warm, obviously.

Basically, I made up my mind that yellow cotton yarn which cost £1.50 per ball and was a SLIGHTLY less pleasing shade than the one in the picture was preferable to the original at £4 per ball.

You can buy directly from the various mills or BG Payne is very good. If you go on the knitting thread and ask you will be inundated with names of online cheapo places. I daren't memorise them any more as I have yarn flowing out of every available open door in the house and I CAN'T JUSTIFY BUYING ANY MORE :(:rotfl:

foxgloves

I often substitute yarns as you are so right, the Rowan ones can cost an absolute fortune. I just look at the needles size and type of wool and see what a tension square knits up like using something else. The only time I really use the expensive yarns is if I have been brought them as a present. I did once buy a single ball of Noro Silk garden to knit someone a present though as I found a pattern for a shawl that only needed one ball. It was £11 a ball!!! But it made a lovely silk shawl for just the one ball, so didn't work out too expensive for a special present. Imagine knitting a cardigan in it though?! You'd need a 2nd mortgage!!