Sweater Design - Choosing The Yarn

Choosing The Yarn

The choice of yarn affects the comfort of the sweater, since it affects its warmth, weight and ability to "breathe" (air exchange). Some yarns will also produce itching or even allergic reactions in some wearers.

The yarn affects the bulk and drape of the knitted fabric, as well as the visibility of stitches. Complicated stitch patterns are best seen with a smooth, highly spun yarn and may be invisible with "furry" yarns such as mohair or novelty yarns.

The washability of yarn affects its practicability. Thus, sweaters knitted for young children are usually knitted in acrylics, which are light in weight and washable.

The yarn will also determine the lifetime of the sweater (in general, highly spun yarns suffer less wear with time) and how well it will retain its shape (elastic yarns like wool are better than non-elastic yarns like cotton or silk).