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Learning to Knit: Supplies 3 (Yarn)
First of all I wanted to apologize for the wait; it is the end of the semester and it has been really busy on the school front.
Yarn is really fun to shop for! There are so much to choose from it can be overwhelming at times if you don’t know the basics of yarn. Yarn is pretty complex. There is it’s weight, length, the fibers it is made of, color(s), etc. To go over in detail everything would take a LONG time and a lot of space. So today I will be telling you the basics of yarn!
Packaging:
There are four main ways that yarn can be packaged.
~Ball (the yarn is pulled from the center)
~Cone (commercial use, normally one pound or more)
~Hank (needs to be untwisted and wound into a ball)
~Skein (the yarn is also pulled from the center)
At most stores yarn is sold in skeins or balls. If you go to some smaller yarn stores or yarn boutiques, yarn will also be sold in hanks. Luckily someone at the store can wind it into a ball for you for easier use. A hank can get tangled very easily so a ball winder (or you can do it by hand) is used to make it into a ball. Not a lot of people buy yarn in cones; but if you are making a large project and want to make sure that the yarn is all the same color (read about dye-lots further down the page) it is practical to buy a cone. Also, you can save money that way!
Weight:
Weight isn’t how much the yarn weighs really; its more the thickness of the yarn. There are several names for the different thicknesses but the weight of yarn is more descriptive than precise. There are not many people that agree with what the precise relationship between the weights and the actually thicknesses of the yarn. It is a good guideline to use when picking out yarn for certain patterns though. (When it says “used to make” it doesn’t mean that you can only make those things with that weight of yarn. The great thing about yarn is you can make anything with pretty much any weight, these are just what are “normally” made with these weights)
~Lace (the thinnest used to make lace items)
~Baby/Fingering (still pretty thin; used to make baby clothes, socks, gloves, shawls, etc.)
~Sock (used to make socks, gloves, etc.)
~Sport (twice as thick as fingering; used to make light sweaters, socks, etc.)
~Double-Knitted (baby clothes, light sweaters, etc.)
~Worstend (the most versatile and popular of weights; used to make afghans, sweaters, mittens, etc.)
~Chunky (cold weather items)
~Bulky (thickest; chunky sweaters, coats, etc.)
Fibers:
Fibers are what yarn is made of. Most yarn is made by spinning fibers together so that the yarn resists breaking under tension. There are three kinds of fibers: animal, plant and synthetic. It is common to blend two or more fibers to make yarn. It is important though to get a yarn type that will work best with the pattern you are working with. If there is a complicated pattern, get a smooth yarn that will show off the pattern; otherwise your pattern will not be able to be seen well if at all.
~Animal (silk, sheep (wool), goat (angora/cashmere), rabbit (angora), llama, alpaca, dog, cat, camel, yak)
Some animal yarns have long hairs on them. These are fuzzy and are normally made of mohair, angora or cashmere. They are really pretty, but can be expensive. Wool is the most popular and durable yarn. It is best used for cold weather items.
~Plant (cotton, flax (linen), bamboo, ramie, hemp, raffia, soy, corn, rayon)
Cotton wears well and washes well (won’t felt). The drawbacks are that is stretches easily and the colors can fade in the wash.
~Synthetic (acrylics, polyesters, nylon, metallic)
Most synthetic yarns are considered to be novelty yarns. They are cheap in price, very colorful, don’t need to do much to care for them and for the most part wash well. The only problem is, is that they can look cheap.
Color:
My favorite part about picking out yarn is finding the perfect color! Most yarn is dyed, though there are some that are not. When dying yarns, natural or artificial dyes are used. Natural dyes normally are not as bright as artificial ones. Most yarns are dyed industrially; but you can dye yarn by hand or hand paint it as well. Groups of skeins that are dyed together have the exact same shade(this is called a dye-lot). When making a larger project make sure that the yarn is all from the same dye-lot. The colors may look the same but if from different dye-lots they can be different shades thus making a visible stripe in your work. Most yarns have a single color but there are a lot which don’t. These multicolored yarns can be really fun and make some visually pleasing projects.
~Single Hue (all one color)
~Tweed (there are flecks of a different color in the yarn)
~Ombre (a single color with dark and light shades in it)
~Multi-Colored (two or more distinct colors)
~Self-Striping (when knitted it automatically creates stripes)
~Marled (made of strands of different colored yarns twisted together.
So now that you know more about yarn I will go over how to read a yarn label, next time.
