What two strands add up to
Two strands knit together behave roughly like a yarn two steps up the weight scale, a little less because the strands do not fully fill each other's gaps.
| Held together | Knits about like | Needle |
|---|---|---|
| Lace + lace | Fingering to sport | US 3–5 |
| Lace + fingering | Sport to DK | US 4–6 |
| Fingering + fingering | DK to light worsted | US 6–7 |
| Mohair-silk lace + fingering | DK to light worsted, with halo | US 6–8 |
| Mohair-silk lace + DK | Worsted, with halo | US 7–9 |
| Mohair-silk lace + worsted | Aran, with halo | US 9–10 |
| DK + DK | Worsted to aran | US 8–9 |
| Worsted + worsted | Chunky to bulky | US 10½–11 |
| Worsted + lace (non-mohair) | Aran | US 9 |
A mohair-silk lace adds halo and warmth and very little thickness, which is why it is held with almost anything; a plain lace or fingering strand adds thickness. Swatch the pair — the gauge swatch guide — because the table is a starting needle, not a gauge.
The mohair halo
The most common pairing today: a kid mohair and silk lace held with a fingering or DK merino, for a sweater that is soft, hazy and warmer than its weight. The merino gives the body and the stitch; the mohair gives the cloud. Any of the mohair-silk laces we stock does it — Dream in Color Billy Kid Silk, Berroco Aerial, Schoppel Silky Cat, Artyarns Silk Mohair Glitter for a sparkle — and for a wool-free halo, Blue Sky Prairie or Plymouth Suri Stratus, which are brushed suri alpaca. Pair a mohair in the same color for depth, a lighter shade for a frost, a contrasting one for a tweedy haze. The Color Board shows two colorways side by side before you commit.
The merino underneath: Malabrigo Arroyo or Zitron Feinheit at fingering, Rios or Plymouth Worsted Merino Superwash at worsted, Blue Sky Woolstok Light for a woolier fabric. Remember that a mohair halo cannot be ripped back cleanly and does not go in a machine, whatever the merino says.
Marls and doubled solids
Two strands of the same weight in different colors make a marl — a flecked, two-tone fabric that hides uneven tension and makes a plain stockinette look designed. Two fingering solids held for a DK sweater is a classic (Woolstok Light with itself, Feinheit in two shades); two worsteds for a chunky hat; a fingering sock yarn with a solid to calm a variegated. The same yarn in the same color held double is simply a way to use a fingering you love at worsted gauge.
How much yarn
Each strand runs the whole length of the project, so you need the full yardage of each. A sweater at 1,200 yards held double is 1,200 yards of the merino and 1,200 of the mohair — six skeins of a 210-yard worsted and five balls of a 225-yard lace, say. The calculator on each yarn page does the sum for each strand; buy the extra skein of the one you cannot buy again.
Working with two strands
Wind nothing together — knit from two separate balls, one in each hand or both over one finger, and treat the two as one stitch every time; a strand missed is a dropped stitch. Keep the tension even between them and the fabric comes out as one yarn. A mohair strand catches on sharp needle tips; bamboo or addi Turbo rounded tips are kinder than lace tips for held work.
Substituting with held strands
Holding two strands is also the way to knit a worsted pattern from a fingering you already own, or to use a lace weight stash. The substitution guide has the check; match the pattern's gauge with the pair, and the enough-yarn guide says whether the stash will cover it.