Tips for Choosing the Best Knitting Yarn for Beginners: Always Select Top-Quality Brands
Knitting projects (blankets, sweaters, scarves or blouses) take patience, time and dedication. If you are new to the whole knitting thing and are just learning how it's done, you already know that every project seeks a different type of yarn. If you have given a chance to various types of yarns, you can easily say that not every wool is the same, just as not every brand is the same. When choosing your yarn it's essential to purchase from brands that are working dedicatedly to select and create a yarn that is of top quality.
Anything else is just a waste of time and money. One of those high-quality brands is Julie Asselin. Created by Julie and Jean-François, two craftspeople who wanted to offer original yarns that will help you become more creative, made the concept of their business.Their mission is to reach and bring together all fibre-art enthusiasts. Founded in 2011 in Quebeck, Canada, today, Julie Asselin is a world-known brand and one of the favourites in the knitting community.
Yarn Materials
Cashmere
Cashmere is one of the softest wool and yarn types and as the name suggests it comes from the Cashmere Goats and several other breeds of goats. The word Cashmere is the old spelling of the old State of Kashmir in South Asia. Cashmere is a luxury yarn and makes a perfect choice if you want to knit sweaters or scarves. It's not very affordable, so if you are including this yarn in your collection, you should know the final project will be very worthy.The high price of Cashmere yarn is because Cashmere goats shed their undercoat once a year; this undercoat is closer to the skin and must be separate from the outer hair (it comes from goats' mid-side and back, not their stomachs).It takes dedication and labour to do this, which is why the yarn is quite pricy
Alpaca
This yarn is warm and ideal for sweaters. Alpaca's natural wool comes from the South-American Alpacas; there are two types Huacaya and Suri. Besides its softness and silkiness, the yarn won't keep the shape the same as wool does. It's, however, more expensive than regular wool.If you're a beginner, perhaps it's much easier and better to work with an alpaca blend, instead of pure alpaca yarn.
Merino
This wool type is very popular in extreme knitting and ideal for big chunky items. It comes from sheep, from a specific breed, known as Merino Sheep. What makes this wool unique is its softness and the fact that it doesn't cause allergies. The Merino Wool knitted fabric keeps its shape and makes little fuzz balls known as 'pilling' which might be a bit annoying.
Where to Buy Your Wool
There are many stores you can purchase your wool. It's essential to get wool made from trusted brands and sellers, no matter if you're a beginner or advanced knitter. Why is this important? For instance, if you're investing your money in a top-quality yarn brand such as Julie Asselin, you know that you're getting a final product that was carefully selected and made to help you finish your product without problems. Julie Asselin yarn is made of natural fine wool and carefully dyed to get you any colour you want and need. Any yarn this brand creates is carefully researched and developed (with the help of other small businesses).
How to Choose the Right Yarn?
Weight
If you're new to knitting, it's important to point out that when choosing your yarn, you should check its weight. The weight must suit your project. If you're knitting a sweater, you don't want a lightweight yarn. You will need something chunky and heavier that will keep you warm. A summer scarf for instance should be knitted with cotton yarn, which is light and will not make you feel hot. Keep in mind that the thickness of the yarn affects the looks of your final project.
Ply
When you see the terms such as 2 ply, 4 ply, 8 ply, etc., it refers to two or more single strands twisted together. Individual singles are spun together with the twist worked in the other direction from how the singles were spun; this is how yarn is plied. This is why not knitting patterns don't look the same; some are better with a specific type of yarn.
Plies are individual strands twisted to make the yarn look more textured and with a defined appearance. If you're a beginner choose worsted-weight yarn, which has a medium-thickness that makes it easy to see individual stitches. In case you want your garment or item to have a softer look, choose a single-ply yarn.
Chunky Yarn
Chunky yarn is becoming more and more popular lately after the super-sized yarn trend took off. It's ideal for large blankets, scarves and sweaters. It's machine washable and won't feel because every hair of the wool is made up of scales. Chunky wool is 'protected' since the superwash process keeps the scales from binding in one of two ways.
