US yarn in the UK
Caron Big Cakes in the UK: closest UK yarns
Caron Big Cakes looks to be on its way out: on 6 October 2026 Yarnspirations had none of the 18 shades on its main page in stock and only a few left on a discontinued-shades clearance page, and LoveCrafts UK had none of its 20 shades in stock. The closest UK swap in the yarns we track is Paintbox Simply Aran: 100% acrylic, 184m per 100g against 183.7m, and 18 knitted stitches to 10cm on its ball band against 17 on the maker’s.
Caron Big Cakes is a self-striping cake with long colour changes and Paintbox Simply Aran is a plain colour, so this swap gets the size right but not the stripes: change colours yourself every few rows, or look for a yarn cake of the same weight.
Best UK swap: Paintbox Simply Aran · 53 shades in stock · from £1.69 a ball
See Paintbox Simply Aran shades at LoveCrafts ↗More choice: search Amazon UK for aran yarn cake ↗
Ad · paid links. Price and stock at LoveCrafts checked 6 October 2026.
How many balls to buy
Buy by length, not by ball: a ball of Caron Big Cakes holds 551m and a ball of Paintbox Simply Aran holds 184m.
- 1 ball of Caron Big Cakes (551m) → 3 of Paintbox Simply Aran
- 3 balls of Caron Big Cakes (1653m) → 9 of Paintbox Simply Aran
- 5 balls of Caron Big Cakes (2755m) → 15 of Paintbox Simply Aran
- 10 balls of Caron Big Cakes (5510m) → 30 of Paintbox Simply Aran
For any pattern, our yarn substitution calculator does the sum, and the pattern reader pulls the yarn list out of a pasted pattern.
UK yarns compared
| UK yarn | UK weight | Fibre | Metres per 100g | Knit tension (10cm) | UK balls per Caron Big Cakes ball | Shades in stock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paintbox Simply Aran best match | Aran | 100% acrylic | 184m (+0%) | 18 sts (+6%) | 2.99 | 53 of 65, from £1.69 |
| Paintbox Wool Mix Aran | Aran | 50% wool, 50% acrylic | 180m (-2%) | 18 sts (+6%) | 3.06 | 37 of 60, from £4.55 |
| Stylecraft Special Aran | Aran | 100% acrylic | 196m (+7%) | 18 sts (+6%) | 2.81 | 3 of 50, from £2.35 |
Caron Big Cakes: the maker’s specs
| Weight | #4 Worsted (Medium) |
|---|---|
| Fibre | 100% acrylic |
| Ball | 300g (10.5 oz), 551m (603 yd) |
| Metres per 100g | 183.7m |
| Hook | 5 mm (US H/8) |
| Needles | 5 mm (US 8) |
| Tension | Crochet: 13 sc x 14 r = 4" (10 cm) on 5 mm (US H/8); Knit: 17 sts x 23 r = 4" (10 cm) on 5 mm (US 8) |
Before you swap
US “worsted” (weight 4) sits between UK DK and aran; most worsted patterns work in a UK aran, but a lighter worsted can be closer to a heavy DK. Make a 10cm swatch in your swap yarn with the pattern’s hook or needles and compare it with the tension above. If your square is bigger, go down a size; if it’s smaller, go up. Swapping fibre changes the feel and the wash: acrylic for acrylic, cotton for cotton keeps a pattern behaving as written.
Sources: Caron product page, Paintbox Simply Aran. How we rank swaps: one combined score for closeness in metres per 100g, knitted tension on the ball band and fibre, with a small penalty for yarns with fewer than 10 shades in stock and for a chunky standing in for a worsted. See also UK yarn weights explained.