2KCBWDAY1 Hello, and welcome to the first day of Crochet and Knitting Blog Week! Yes I know that's not the "official" title, and I certainly am non-discriminatory regarding the fiber arts, but crochet just has to get first billing here lol. ANYWAY--if you're interested in knowing more about the idea behind CKBW, you can read all about it here. I, and hundreds of other fiber bloggers, will be posting each day about a designated topic. So please--settle in and just come along for the ride!
Day One: 28th March. A Tale of Two Yarns.
Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.
I'll tell you right up front, I am NOT an exotic yarn kind of person. For one thing, I can't stand any wool next to my skin, except maybe 100% merino. And once we start getting into the really nice fibers, the price goes up beyond what I can justify. But the main reason I stick with "workhorse" acrylic yarns is that nearly everything I crochet is for charity, so I definitely want to get the most yarn for the best price!
So when we talk about "workhorse" yarns, two come to mind right away: Red Heart Super Saver and Caron Simply Soft. Just for grins, I looked these two up on Ravelry to check out the number of projects (the following are screen shots from the Rav page):
That's right, over 55 THOUSAND projects on Rav using this yarn. And then there's Simply Soft:
Again, well over 50 thousand projects. Someone sure is using these yarns!
But not me. The thing is, I don't really like either one of them. Red Heart Super Saver I find not to be soft enough to my liking. And Simply Soft has a nice soft feel, but the yarn splits like mad when I crochet with it. Drives me nuts! Alot of people seem to have this same problem with Simply Soft, but others like it just fine. So as much as I want to use inexpensive yarns, the Big Two just don't do it for me. What's a crocheter to do?
Enter: HOBBY LOBBY. Oh, my! I had heard from friends what a great store this is, and last fall we got the first Hobby Lobby close to me--I was there the day they opened! And Hobby Lobby has their own line of yarn called "I Love This Yarn". And you know what--I do love it! It's soft, it doesn't split when I work with it, and they have a big range of nice colors and weights. What does Rav say about it?
Looks like it's got quite a way to go to catch up to Super Saver and Simply Soft. But I will definitely be helping it to increase the number of projects. Oh, and if you like cotton, I Love This Yarn cotton is the softest 100% cotton I've tried!
OK, this was more than 2 yarns lol. I always tend to overachieve.
Please come back again tomorrow for Day 2 of Crochet and Knitting Blog Week!
2 comments:
HA - you are right - our blogs sound a lot alike :) I forgot about the Caron soft. I have used it and not quite as much as I'd like. I don't know why but my hand is a magnent to ILTY hehehe I have a couple projects on hook using Caron Soft right now. What did you think of the BIG skeins of it at Walmart that have seemed to have disappeared less than a month after they showed up?
Being from Canada, I don't have Hobby Lobby, but have heard rave reviews for ILTY and I am dying to try it!!! Great post, looking forward to your week's posts
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