US yarn in the UK
Lion Brand Mandala in the UK: closest UK yarns
You can buy it in the UK: LoveCrafts had 12 of its 44 shades in stock on 6 October 2026. If your shade has gone, these are the closest UK yarns. The closest UK swap in the yarns we track is Stylecraft Special DK: 100% acrylic, 295m per 100g against 360m, and the same knitted tension as the maker’s: 22 stitches to 10cm.
Lion Brand Mandala is a self-striping cake with long colour changes and Stylecraft Special DK 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: Stylecraft Special DK · 63 shades in stock · from £2.35 a ball
See Stylecraft Special DK shades at LoveCrafts ↗More choice: search Amazon UK for dk 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 Lion Brand Mandala holds 540m and a ball of Stylecraft Special DK holds 295m.
- 1 ball of Lion Brand Mandala (540m) → 2 of Stylecraft Special DK
- 3 balls of Lion Brand Mandala (1620m) → 6 of Stylecraft Special DK
- 5 balls of Lion Brand Mandala (2700m) → 10 of Stylecraft Special DK
- 10 balls of Lion Brand Mandala (5400m) → 19 of Stylecraft Special DK
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 Lion Brand Mandala ball | Shades in stock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stylecraft Special DK best match | DK | 100% acrylic | 295m (-18%) | 22 sts (0%) | 1.83 | 63 of 115, from £2.35 |
| Hayfield Bonus DK | DK | 100% acrylic | 280m (-22%) | 22 sts (0%) | 1.93 | 71 of 146, from £2.39 |
| Stylecraft Life DK | DK | 75% acrylic, 25% wool | 298m (-17%) | 22 sts (0%) | 1.81 | 31 of 56, from £3.10 |
Lion Brand Mandala: the maker’s specs
| Weight | 3 Light / DK |
|---|---|
| Fibre | 100% acrylic |
| Ball | 150g (5.3 oz), 540m (590 yd) |
| Metres per 100g | 360m |
| Hook | H-8 (5 mm) |
| Needles | #5 (3.75 mm) |
| Tension | Crochet: 16 sc x 20 r = 4 in on H-8 (5 mm); Knit: 22 sts x 30 r = 4 in on #5 (3.75 mm) |
Before you swap
US weight 3 (light, or “DK”) lines up with UK 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: Lion Brand product page, Stylecraft Special DK. 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.