If you are in the knitting or crochet world, you have probably heard the recommendation that you can change the yarn weight and needle/hook size to get differently-sized finished products. I was recently asked by one of my babysitting children if I could make her the same pencil case that I use! Unfortunately, I didn’t have any worsted weight yarn in the right colours, so I had to improvise.

• Ruler
• Calculator (Optional)

Whenever you choose to use a different weight yarn than the pattern suggests, you will also have to adapt the number of stitches you need to cover the same surface area. If you use a heavier weight yarn and larger needles/hooks, you will need fewer stitches, and if you use a lighter weight yarn and smaller needles/hooks, you will need more stitches. To figure out the exact number of stitches to add or remove, you can use a ruler and calculate the difference in stitches to cover the area. Typically, gauge is measured in a 10cm x 10cm square, but I often cheat and count for a much smaller area. For this rendition of the pencil case, I ended up using DK weight yarns, so I knew that I would need more stitches than the number I used on my worsted weight version.

As you can tell between the two pencils, the stitches are more dense in the DK version than worsted version, even though both cases are holding the same amount of pens. If you recall, I actually adapted the pattern for my worsted weight version, and then had to re-adapt my adaptation for this new yarn. For the lighter weight yarn, I ended up working 30 stitches per round for the majority of the pencil, and ended up doing additional rows for each colour too. For reference, I worked 6 rows in red, 3 rows in silver, and 22 rows in yellow before the pencil tip lid. The pencil tip was started with 6 single crochets and 24 chain stitches, and then followed the written instructions from Round 38.

It’s so interesting to me how a change in yarn weight can affect the appearance of the finished object. Due to the denser stitches, the DK version feels more solid, whereas the worsted weight version feels more flexible. I’m sorry that I can’t show you the exact calculations for adapting yarn weights for this particular project, but sometimes you just have to guess and check to find out the best adaptations.

Until next time, happy crafting!