As a yarn stockist, we get to handle ALOT of yarn in our day-to-day lives.
Many people make the mistake of believing all wool yarns are the same; they assume that any product marked as 'pure wool' will give the same results, but consistently find their wool garments are scratchy, stiff and uncomfortable. Many end up blaming wool as a fibre, or even abandon natural fibres altogether, and instead move onto working with manmade fibres, which produce inferior-looking and often less hard-wearing (but less itchy) results.
Softness of handle is the key difference between a budget pure wool product and a premium one, and it's impossible to convey this difference in an image; you need to feel the difference for yourself. At Knitting Yarns by Mail, we invite you to ask for a sample card and feel the texture and handle of the yarn you're looking at before you buy. Budget wools are fine for projects such as toys and some homewares, but if you're planning to wear the yarn against your skin - once you've tried a premium wool yarn such as Patons Dreamtime or Heirloom Bliss, you'll never look back!
The difference in handle has little to do with processing or chemicals; it's simply a matter of the age and quality of the animal the wool grew on. Younger sheep produce a more valuable softer, finer fleece, suitable for premium wool yarns; as the animal grows older the fleece becomes coarser and consequently fetches a lower price. Sheep, as with angora goats (who produce mohair) are bred with optimising the quality of the fleece in mind, and this also affects the quality of the eventual yarn. A third factor is the area of the sheep the wool came from: wool from the neck, belly and skirtings are separated from the rest of the fleece, as this wool tends to be stained and contains more vegetable matter, whilst also being of uneven length.
Without touching the yarn yourself it can be very difficult to compare yarns, as the packaging merely states a product is 'pure wool' or '!00% wool', perhaps with 'premium' added as a descriptor. The best guide to quality available to our customers without handling actual samples is recommended retail price (RRP). Whilst price may not always be a great indicator of quality, before we add any new yarn to our range, we compare the product to other similarly priced yarns to ensure it represents excellent value for money to our customers. We have pure wool yarns to meet a range of needs, from the coarser budget yarns such as Panda Feltable Wool and Shepherd Very Crafty, through the middle ground of Heirloom Easy Care or Merino Magic, up to the premium pure wool products including Patons Dreamtime and Heirloom Bliss, which represent the very best pure wool yarns money can buy. From time to time you may see premium yarns at a discounted price; and you may be able to buy a top of the range pure wool yarn for the same price as a middle of the range product. So long as you are aware of the RRP of each product, you can shop smart and snag yourself a bargain!
Posts
