Most knitters have yarn sitting at home that they would like to use. The hard part is working out which patterns it can actually be used for. You have to find the yardage, yarn weight, and fibre content, hold it up against the pattern, and work out whether you have enough for your size.
Nysta does that work for you. Here is how it works.
You have yarn for more projects than you think
Normally you go from pattern to yarn: you find something you want to knit, and buy yarn for it. Nysta turns it around. Once we know your yarn stash, you get the list of patterns you can knit.
Leftover yarn counts. Small amounts are hard to keep track of, but once they are in your stash with a weight and the yarn details, we can include them.
You do not have to guess whether the yarn will work
You have found a pattern you want to knit, and you want to know whether you can get started.
Instead of comparing the ball band and the pattern yourself, you can see it straight away in Nysta: whether your yarn works for the pattern, and whether your stash is enough for the size you want to knit. If the pattern is written for two strands held together and you only have one of them, Nysta tells you.
When you want to replace the yarn a pattern calls for
Two yarns with the same yardage can still be very different. Alpaca has less elasticity than wool, so ribbing and textured stitches can behave differently. Spinning, construction and treatment also affect the finished fabric, even when yardage and gauge are the same.
Those are the differences that affect how a substitute yarn will behave. We assess fibre, spinning, construction and gauge, and tell you what to watch out for if you want to replace one yarn with another.
Nysta lists the yarns that come closest to the original. For each one you can see what they have in common and where they differ. You can ask to see only yarn you already own, if you want to use up your stash, or only certain brands if you are looking for something to buy.
Getting started
The best first step is not to put your whole stash into Nysta at once. Start with the yarn you would like to use, and weigh it. If you have the ball band in your hand, you can scan it instead of typing, and we will find the yarn in the catalogue for you. If your yarn is missing, you can add it yourself.
Nysta is available for iPhone and is coming to Android soon. You can try it free for 7 days. After that it renews yearly. You get a reminder 2 days before the trial ends, and you can cancel anytime.