From America

I’ve bought a couple of American knitting books packed with mouth watering patterns, but there are a couple I want to knit that have yarns called worsted and sport. The brands aren’t available in the UK, so I can’t see how thick they actually are.
Nicola Ford, Crawley

There are some fabulous books and patterns from the US, and they occasionally use yarns we can get hold of, as they love Rowan and Colinette. However, they do have a lot of choice and many of the brands are difficult to track down. Translating yarn types can be tricky, but there are some tips that can help. For example, in the US, worsted falls between what we call a DK or aran yarn in the UK, and sport is a tad finer than a standard DK. Look at the tension and the needle size used to come up with a fairly safe bet on which yarn to choose.