Have you ever found an amazing pattern and then gone on to find out that it calls for some obscure brand of yarn that has since been discontinued? What’s a knitter to do?

Here’s how to use ravelry’s search function to find a substitute yarn for your project so you can still knit that perfect sweater.

How It Works

1. Start by heading over to www.ravelry.com and sign into your account. If you don’t have an account go ahead and make one (it’s free).

2. Once you’re signed in, click on the “yarns” tab.

3. Under the main search bar there will be a small link that says “advanced search”. Click on that link.

4. On the left side of the page there will be boxes for the different search options. Begin by selecting how many fiber types are in the yarn that you’re trying to match. Then choose which types of fiber are in the yarn.

If you’re not sure which types of fiber are in your yarn, check out your ball band. The fiber content should be listed prominently (usually on the front but sometimes smaller and on the back).

In this example I have specified a blend of alpaca and wool.

NOTE: If you don’t care about matching the fiber content you can skip this step. However you should note that different fiber types behave differently so when substituting yarn its best to choose a yarn with similar fiber content.

5. Continuing down the panel on the left side of the page, select the weight of yarn you’re looking to match. Make sure that “no” is selected under the “Discontinued” tab

This is really all the information you’ll need for the search but if you’d like to narrow down your search results you can fill out any additional information you have on hand.

6. The main screen should now should show all of the yarns which match your search criteria. These yarns should be a great place to find your replacement yarn!