Can I mix these yarns

[milkyway]

I am making an afghan for my nephew and his bride to be. I am doing it in Red Heart Shimmer in Peacock. I need 2 contrasting colors, so I was going to use the teal and royal or teal and purple. I can't get royal as it's discontinued. So I was wondering if I could use Caron Simply Soft instead. I think it would be a good match. What do you ladies think?

[Avon Lady]

I'm not familiar with the Shimmer yarn, but if it has the same feel and is the same weight as the Simply Soft, I think it would work very well!  The colors teal and purple would be beautiful!

[nancybanta]

Simply soft is thinner than the red heart yarn.  Do the wrap test.  Take each yarn and loosely wrap one color at a time around a ruler until you have an inch worth of yarn. count how many times each one goes around the ruler.  If it's just one wrap difference, it'll be ok to use both yarns, if it's more than 2, you might have an issue with the guage.

[RoseRed]

I haven't worked with shimmer so I have no idea.

 

One thing you could do - after swatching- is to go up or down a hook size for each different yarn so that the gauge remains the same.  I've done it but it was a royal pain to have to remember to keep switching hooks every time I switched yarns.

[Ellie 13]

Make swatches. If they're the same, O.K., if not you could change the hook size (as RoseRed said) or if it's a big difference, up to 1/2 size, then use 2 strands together (swatch). As long as the content is the same (acrylic, wool, etc.) it should work.

Ellie 13

[RoseRed]

Just make sure that the different brands of yarn have the same washing instructions.

[milkyway]

Thanks for the help. They turned out to be fine together. I'm doing A Drop In The Pond pattern, but am adding an extra diamond, on each side of the center. I'll post pictures later. Thanks for your help