Colour Crafter: Acrylic Yarn With The Story

Are you fond of acrylic yarns? I cannot say I am the fan of acrylic. And you have probably noticed already that I usually prefer cotton and mix wool yarns for my projects. Yes, I am a kind of conservative person. And I like the touch and look of natural fibres. But my craft life is playing an interesting game with me. And this time I was challenged to try Colour Crafter* – a 100% premium acrylic yarn by Scheepjes which was released a couple months ago. Well… Maybe I should change my point of view about acrylic yarns, as they (modern) can be really different from what we are used to?

As with all yarns produced by Scheepjes you will not be bored with Colour Crafter as it has a nice story behind. All 93 (!) shades are called after different cities in the Netherlands. So if you have never been there (I haven’t) you will get a chance to make a virtual tour around this country. Don’t forget to check the map while choosing your shades ;-)

Colour Crafter is a premium acrylic DK yarn, and it means that it feels totally different from other acrylic yarns I used to work with. It is very soft in touch, not scratchy and not irritant for skin. Acrylic fibre is in general known to be hypoallergenic and thus the best choice for kids clothes and for people who suffer from allergy to natural fibres. It is relatively cheap (check it on Wool Warehouse* or Paradise Fibers* (US)) and it comes in balls of 100g/3.35 ounces and 300m/328 yards and this yardage is perfect for larger projects, such as blankets.

By the way, one wonderful blanket design (Summer in Swanage by Dedri Uys) made me to try this yarn. I chose different color palette as I am going to tell you a story about the Northern sea and my relations with it… I will post progress pictures and my own yardages in next posts, so don’t miss anything!

My blanket is finished already, it is huge and I spent many hours with Color Crafter, and I am ready to give you my feedback about this yarn.

I enjoyed working with this yarn. Really. It is sliding on the hook very well, and it doesn’t split at all. I was crocheting for hours and my skin was not irritated. This yarn is good both one- and double-stranded. I chose 4mm hook for one strand and 5.5mm hook for two strands. The fabric is not stiff and drapes very well. And another surprising fact for me was that projects made with Colour Crafter are blocked very well. You just pin it to the blocking board, spay the water over it and leave it to dry. Blocked fabric is nicely soft and keeps its size and shape very well.

I have been actively using my blanket for 2 weeks already and there is no sign of pilling appeared on its surface. It looks just the same like after I finished it and wove all yarn tails in. And I bet it will be very easy to take care of it. Colour Crafter is machine washable at 40 degrees, but I will probably use a delicate program with cool water. And dry flat.

I’ve noticed only two small issues about this yarn:

• Many yarns produced by Scheepjes have a small label “Easy Start” which marks the yarn tail inside the ball. This label makes it easy to find the hidden tail, and you can work with 2 strands at once. Unfortunately Colour Crafter doesn’t have such a label. And if you want to crochet with 2 strands you should either take 2 skeins or make 2 yarn cakes from one skein. But many-many other yarns out there don’t have such a label so this is not an issue at all. It is just me who is a little bit spoiled by Scheepjes and their wonderful label. :)

• And another thing I noticed is that yarns of different shades drape differently. All skeins of course have the same weight but yarns of some shades feel to be a bit thicker. Especially it feels when you work with 2 strands. It doesn’t have a huge influence on the finished project, you will not even notice this. It only feels in the process of crochet as there is a tiny change of gauge. I experienced the same effect using yarns of other brands. And I think it’s probably paint which makes some shades feel a bit thicker and less draping… 

In conclusion I should say that I have to change my views about acrylic yarns. And Colour Crafter helped me in this. I am enjoying my blanket every day. It is large and warm, but at the same time not very heavy. I guess it would be much heavier if made with cotton yarn. And this is actually another reason why to choose acrylic.

 
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