Very basic knitting question

[everythingcrossed]

I'm not a knitter but my friend is and it's her birthday soon. She is going on holiday to a country that has very distinctive knitting style (Finland) and I thought a thoughtful present would be a Finnish knitting design and some wool but I have become completely confused about what I should be buying from looking at the pattern I've chosen. It's for mittens and I've seen some lovely hand-dyed sock yarn and I want to buy some plain yarn as a contrast colour but is all sock yarn the same thickness, The only thing I can see specified is 4-ply but nearly all yarn seems to be that. I'd like to get her something slightly luxurious such as merino but is that suitable? Can you mix that with other yarns on the same piece? I just wanted to get her something nice but it is all becoming waaaay too technical for me .

The pattern should have a ‘Wool type’ on it ie 4ply, Dk, Aran. You need to make sure you use the same yarn thickness (unless the pattern specifies 2 types) otherwise the thickness will vary and they won’t be able to follow the pattern.

Very experienced knitters (which I am not) might be able to adjust or tell what thickness the sock yarn is, but thats something they have to do in person.

If you’re not sure why not just buy the lovely yarn and she can knit what she likes ?

All 4-ply yarn should be roughly the same thickness, as long as its made from the same fibre. 4 ply yarn which is specifically described as sock yarn might not be pure merino for example, since it will probably have some nylon added for strength or to make it suitable for machine washing. Pure merino would be lovely for soft mittens though. If you're buying two contrasting coloured yarns to use in the same pattern, its best to buy them both from the same brand/range. Hope this helps - it sounds like a lovely thoughtful present, and something that any knitter would be delighted to receive!

What does the pattern specify? It is not a good idea to mix different weight of wool unless the pattern states that. Even different brands of the same wool can be very different when they are knitted up.

Deramores have a good range of wool, I believe they do vouchers too.

Not a knitter, a crocheter. I wouldn't recommend different weights of yarns in the same item, they come together, may use different size needles and possibly wash differently.
The pattern will specify a yarn weight and a needle size to gauge the finished size of the piece. Alter either and the sizing becomes different.
There are basically 8 yarn weights. On the banding of the yarn it will tell you its weight and the suggested needle size.
I would suggest you find a proper wool shop and talk to them. They are usually really helpful and be able to show you yarns that will fit together and stop you going off with a mix 4 ply and chunky.
Good luck

OP if Finland is anything like Norway they have oodles of knitting and wool shops, vastly more colours and wool choice than here, I wouldn’t bother myself buying UK

The recommended needle size might help you. If you look on the yarn listing you should see something like 2.5-3.5mm - if you pick yarns that use the same sizes of needle, they ought to be the same thickness.

You need to pick the same fibre too - ie. pure wool or the same mixture (60% wool 40% nylon, for example).

Wow, thanks for all the replies and generous advice - I'm now going to be a CFer and get very specific . This is the pattern I was looking at, it seems quite sparse on actual instructions but does specify 2.5mm needles. Here is the sock yarn I liked - I thought it would give a nice variegated effect but it looks like it is really thin strands. I was thinking about this merino wool for the contrast yarn. Is this a very poor combination?

2.5mm is very thin and you would need 2ply or 3 ply wool. For gloves I would think 3ply as 2 ply is very fine(thin) . It would make things like gossamer shawls with it.

The pattern is lovely.

Those 2 yarns should work fine together.

2.5mm is typical size for sock and glove knitting with 4ply.

Are you going to buy her some needles too? KnitPro Symphonie double pointed needles are lovely.

Not sure if this is too late, but adding that "sock weight" yarn and 4ply are equivalent - the former used more in the US, and yarn can be described as sock weight without actually being sock yarn (which usually has some nylon content for strength, and a high twist). There would be no reason not to use actual sock yarn for mittens, and the two yarns you linked would probably work fine together for the pattern you linked. The tension is very tight (34 stitches to 10cm) which would create a dense fabric - this is why the suggested needle size is smaller than you might typically see.

It's a lovely, thoughtful idea but I would caution that unless you know what sort of things your friend likes knitting, it may not be the right sort of thing. Do they knit a lot of stranded/fair isle things? Do they have a swift and ball winder to wind the skein of hand dyed yarn? (Can be done by hand if not, but that's a bit of a faff).

There is some lovely Finnish wool called tukuwool, available in the UK from a couple of places, which would work perfectly, however is probably much cheaper to buy in Finland!