TO TARN, OR NOT TO…….. by Talitha Kuomi

Tarn on the whole is, as they say, a horse of a different color.  Or perhaps to say ‘of a different texture’ is more accurate.  Tarn is somehow stiffer than you’d expect something to be that’s been made from soft cotton t-shirts.  This stiffness means that worsted weight tarn knits up more like a much heavier weight regular yarn would, so you can’t just substitute another worsted weight yarn and get the same result.

Smurfy Tarn

Now some people don’t like tarn, or they don’t have a good place to buy it and they don’t choose to make it themselves.  If one of these scenarios applies to you, this doesn’t mean that knitting a pattern written for tarn is out of the question.  You just have to choose a yarn to use instead and swatch until you get the required gauge.  I know, though, that the idea of endlessly swatching can be quite daunting, so read on.

In case you’d like to knit Acacia, from the Fall 2010 Issue of Tangled, my friend and I have done a bit of the legwork (or should I say fingerwork) for you.

Acacia hat, knit with tarn

For this pattern I took an educated guess that bulky or chunky weight ‘regular’ yarn knit up on the same size needles that the pattern calls for would produce the same size finished hats listed in the pattern.  You’d still have to swatch to be safe, but now you know that starting with a bulky weight yarn and adjusting your needle size to get gauge will work.

Acacia stitch detail

Before telling you all here that bulky weight yarn would work, I wanted to be absolutely sure that my estimating was right.  My friend Jean generously offered to knit up an Acacia with Araucania Nature Wool Chunky to see how it went.  Her lovely version is shown in these photos which were taken by Carolina of TripleC Photography in Brooklyn.

Acacia by the sea

Turns out that the stitch pattern in the hat helps it to hold its shape well (even though the Nature Wool Chunky is not at all a stiff yarn) and it fits perfectly.  Knit happy!

Acacia knit in Nature Wool

Talitha Kuomi blogs at www.talithakuomi.com.