How do I choose/substitute yarn?

The beauty of my amigurumi patterns is that (with the exception of the Fuzzy Friends patterns – and yarn substitution guidance is provided with each of those patterns), you can substitute any yarns that are conveniently available to you.

To make a good yarn substitution:

1. Look for a yarn that’s conveniently available to you and has an appropriate colour for the design you want to make.
2. If the pattern uses more than one colour, use the same weight (thickness) of yarn for each colour within a piece. (A cautionary note: see my worsted weight yarn comparison for details of how much variance you can get, even within yarns all marked as ‘worsted weight’, so do try to find similar yarns for each colour.)
3. Use an appropriately sized hook for the yarn you’re using and how tightly you crochet (too small and you’ll split the yarn or find your stitches too difficult to work back into; too large and your amigurumi will have large holes between the stitches where the stuffing shows through).
4. You can even substitute yarn of a different weight, provided you use an appropriately-sized hook (see point 2, above) and understand that you will end up with a correspondingly larger or smaller result. See my Resizing Amigurumi article for more information and examples on scaling an amigurumi pattern to be larger or smaller.

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Related Questions:

• What is ‘worsted weight’ yarn and do I have to use it?
• Which yarns do you use for your amigurumi?
• Where can I find the yarn that you used in your pattern sample?
• Can I use this specific yarn/technique/modification with this pattern?
• Which is the best type of crochet hook for amigurumi?

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