Choosing the right yarn for a project

Hello, I hope you’re all having a wonderful week so far. Living in the Peak District has meant being harrassed daily by snow, hail, sleet, torrential rain with smatterings of sunshine, so a little varied to say the least!

This post is, as I’m sure you’ll see from the title, is all about choosing the right yarn for a project. Time and time again I’ve seen finished items which end up looking a little tacky, in my opinion anyway, and this could easily have been avoided by simply choosing a different yarn. For example, using easy-to-fray aran weight yarn for something like coasters, bookmarks, keychains etc things that will get a lot of handling and general wear and start to go all bobbly and messy. In my very humble and honest opinion I think you should use more durable yarns such as rico cotton for pieces which are intended to get a lot of use and handling to avoid this.

I often see people choosing those sparkly yarns for things such as baby blankets and what they seem to be doing is choosing ‘look’ over ‘texture’. What they don’t think of is how scratchy and itchy that sparkly yarn will feel to a baby and I can tell you I wouldn’t like to snuggle with that blankie so why would I make them? The pretty sparkles are actually strands of plastic woven through the wool and while they look lovely, they’re not something I’d want for myself or a baby.

Tips to choose the right yarn for a project:

Swatch it first.

Make up a little swatch using the stitch and yarn you intend to make – if you’re not familiar with this see my post Swatch and learn – Stitch swatches.  This means you can get a little sneak peek of what your project will look like and how the yarn will work up, lay and feel. I’ve heard some say that a sparkly feels soft as when it’s all balled up but then they started to work with it and gradually found that to their horror it’s scratchy as hell.

Buy yarn you’ve been able to squish.

If you’re new here, you’ll soon find that squishing yarn is quite literally as good, if not better, than working with it, I have a special box of my very favourite yarns just so I can take them out sometimes and squish them, do with that statement what you will – HA!  The initial squishing of a yarn lets a person know how soft it is and whether or not they can use it for their intended project… or just buy it and squish it at their leasure, basically there’s a lot of squishing involved, I hope you’ve noticed.

Only buy yarn online that you’ve been able to squish in person

In the modern age, it’s so convenient to buy online, I completely get it. Personally for me though, I’ve never bought yarn online that I’ve never heard of. For example, Stylecraft yarn I know is lovely and soft and works well for any project so I don’t mind buying online. I bought some Woolcraft Pebble chunky yarn from my local supplier and loved it so I will happily buy it online. And the same goes for the James C. Brett Marble chunky wool I bought from Hobbycraft.

James C. Brett Marble chunky

Woolcraft Pebble chunky wool

Look carefully at any yarn you have to buy online

If you simply can’t avoid buying online, (which just for the record is absolutely great, I love online shopping all I’m saying is to just be cautious to avoid disappointment) it helps to look at the item description and details, the material the yarn is made of should be listed here to give you a better idea of what it will feel like.  And finally, just look at the image, does it look like there’s any scratchy material in the yarn? If so, take that into account when you buy.

If I hadn’t already squished woolcouture’s Fatt yarn (below), I’d know immediately from looking at the image that it’s sooo soft and would therefore be great for a blanket or children’s amigurumi project.

Image from http://www.woolcouturecompany.com

Finally, I do not profess to know absolutely everything about yarn and which would be the best for absolutely any project, all I have is my own general knowledge and tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the course of my crochet journey and this is what I am very humbly offering here :).

I hope it’s been helpful to you in some way, I’ll see you all next time!

Toodles!

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