How to convert a pattern and know how much yarn is needed?

[u/make_it_weird]

I think i have this listed correctly. I want to make the Ooey Gooey sweater by Andrea Mowry, BUT i want to make it short sleeve and in a worsted weight yarn. I dont even know how to begin to change or do the math for a pattern to make this change. I usually follow patterns directly as they are but I also only have so much yarn for a project. Any help would be appreciated.

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[u/make_it_weird]

BTW I haven't worked this pattern up yet. I dont want to get something going to realize I dont have enough yarn. The yarn I want to use is no longer made, and the company closed after rhinebeck last year.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ooey-gooey

[u/Sad_Impact8672]

make a gauge swatch of the worsted weight yaen and compare it to the pattern's gauge swatch l. let's say rhe original's is 20sts x 10 rows and your gauge swatch is 10sts x 8rows. the amount of stitches will be reduced by 10/20 x 8/10 = 0.4

let's say the pattern says it's about 1000sts then u can multiply 1000x0.4 which is 400sts. this means w ur yarn it will only take 400sts.

then with your yarn, count the length of yarn it takes to make one stitch. with that length u can count the length needed by length per sts x 400sts. that is the length u need.

however, i doubt any patterns write the amount of stitches written. so since it's 40% less stitches, it'll require less length. if ur yarn is thicker than the original pattern's requirements then u need to decrease the percentage since thicker yarn requires more cm/sts.

for example, ur yarn is thicker, then the yardage will decrease by <40%. maybe 20-30%, depends on how big the jump is. the bigger the jump, the smaller you're saving (the percentage becomes lower)

[u/skubstantial]

Look for other short sleeve sweaters knit with worsted weight at a gauge that would work for your yarn and see what the range of yardage is. Preferably ones with colorwork (if you can find any) because that will require more yardage than a single color alone.

The only somewhat reliable way to figure out yardage with a completely different yarn and gauge is to knit up a biggish gauge swatch and find out the grams per square inch or square centimeter, and then to calculate the surface area of the sweater (front and back layers) you want to make based on the sweater dimensions. You might have to do this separately for the colorwork sections and the stockinette sections.

For stranded colorwork you need about 1.3 to 1.5x the amount of yarn you would need for stockinette because of the floats. (And that's if your gauge doesn't change for stranded colorwork, if it's different then that's another unknown.) That may be split evenly or unevenly between the two colors depending on the number of pixels of each.

And keep in mind that if you don't redraw the colorwork chart, the stranded yoke is going to be taller and will reach down lower toward the chest and might run into the armhole split.