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Lies Your Yarn Ball Band is Telling You

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ball band liesI absolutely love this post from Gwen Bortner at Two Sides of the Same Stitch about the top five yarn label lies. Go read it, right now, I’ll wait for you.

These are things that I already know after years in the industry but I think a lot of knitters take the ball band as gospel and they need to know that they may never achieve the gauge that that little band calls for (I think I’ve done it once in all the yarn reviews I’ve ever done at About; it was Vanna’s Choice) and they may not even like the fabric that results when using the recommended needle. I had that issue over the weekend when I was swatching for a cardigan and felt like the suggested needle was too big to make the kind of fabric I wanted.

Ball bands mean well, but they lie because of a lack of standards, or because no one is going to take the time to actually measure the yardage of every ball of yarn as its produced. That’s just the way it is. And that’s not to say you should ignore the ball band entirely, just know that it isn’t always as simple as those little words and symbols would have you believe.

Have you run into any of these yarn label lies in your life? I’d love to hear about it.

Comments

  1. I ran into this problem shortly after I started knitting. I bought some Naturally Caron Country for a pattern that required bulky yarn. The label on the yarn matched the gauge my pattern needed and suggested a #10 needle. I started out with the needle suggested – ugh, what a mess! My stitches were so loose you could barely see the design in what I was knitting. Later, I was comforted to see that Ravelry had listed this yarn as more of a dk/worsted weight and a #7 needle is a better choice 🙂 Now, I don’t assume the label is correct.

  2. Woah, I wonder if that was a mistake on the ball band, because there’s no way that stuff is bulky. I can imagine the strange fabric it made…thanks for sharing!

Have you read?

Knit a Classic Aran Cardigan with this Free Knitting Pattern

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time. 

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring. 

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. 

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row. 

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves. 

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body. 

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy. 

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn. 

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]