Changing the Weight of the Yarn

by Carol Geiger

I would like to make a baby blanket using a 3 light but the pattern calls for 4 medium yarn.

The pattern for the 4 calls for size 9 needle.

Would I use a smaller needle? Or, should I double strand the 3 light and use the 9 needle?

YOUR ANSWER

to be honest I had to do a google search to find these wool weights as I am not familar with them.

The 3 Light equates to an 8 ply here in Australia and the 4 Medium equates to a yarn between 10 - 12 ply.

If you intend to use the 3 Light with a pattern that specifies 4 medium you would normally need to use bigger needles, especially if you wanted to match the size of your finished item to the item in the pattern.

Using smaller needles would make the blanket much smaller than one made with the specified weight of yarn. You can compensate by adding extra rows but the width of your blanket will be much narrower than intended by the person who designed the pattern.

To make it the correct width you would have to add more stitches and adjust any stitch patterns used to incorporate the new (additional) stitches into the pattern(s) on the blanket.