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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?

Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork. 

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn. 

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look. 

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me. 

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. 

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.