Choosing the Right Yarn for the Job: Suggestions Based on Project Type

When you are new to knitting or crocheting, it can be intimidating to walk into a yarn store. All this yarn, piled maze like around you, can make you feel like you've dropped down a rabbit hole to the best kind of wonderland. But it can also be pretty difficult to know where to start.

The best plan of action is to keep one thing in mind: what are you making? All yarn varieties are best suited to different projects and it will simplify the process of choosing yarn if you make yourself a short checklist. Ask, will this be worn indoors, or should it be as warm as winter outerwear? Is it meant for a warm weather place or summer wear? Will it get dirty and need to be laundered often? The answers to these questions can easily lead you to exactly the yarn you need. All you need to know is how different kinds of yarn can fill the requirements of your project.

Cotton is light weight and breathes easily. It is great for spring and summer weight sweaters. It's also good for home décor projects as it's sturdy and relatively easy to wash. It is not very elastic however, so can lead to stretched out hems and cuffs, even to the point of a sweater that ends up much longer than intended. For this reason, it's not the best choice for oversized sweaters or things that must stretch but return easily to shape. Cotton blends can offer the best of two worlds, the breathability of cotton, but the memory of a fiber like Lycra or synthetic.

Wool and other similar animal fibers are quite warm. Wool is a good insulator and offers a good memory when returning to the correct shape. It must be laundered by hand with no sharp changes in temperature, or it can felt, which means the individual fibers will mat together resulting in a much smaller and thicker fabric. Wool is available in some varieties called super wash, which means that it has been treated to allow it to be washed in a machine. Angora fibers and alpaca yarns are even warmer than wool, and soft and lightweight, but they may be too warm for a full sized sweater meant to be worn indoors. A vest is a good choice for these yarns, also gloves and hats and anything meant to keep the wearer very warm. Wool and nylon blends are great for socks, the wool offering warmth and the nylon lending strength and endurance.

Synthetic yarns made of acrylic are generally warmer than cotton, but because they are basically plastic can be much more uncomfortable to wear than wool. They have little absorbency, so perspiration stays on the skin and isn't wicked away as it would be with a natural fiber. There are very good points to acrylics as well though. They generally don't shrink, they hold their colors very well, and come in very bright colors. They're also relatively easy to care for, being machine washable and dryable.

These are just a few of the varieties of fiber you'll run across in a yarn store, but it is a good representation of the bulk of what's available. Remember that blended yarns usually offer the best qualities of each fiber in the blend and that if it feels good to your hands in the skein it will most likely be appealing in its finished form.