Recommendations for wool/yarn for crocheting.

[DaffadownDilly]

Pretty much says it all! I am a starter, I have a few projects I would like to try (children's cushions and clothing mainly).

Is there anywhere you would recommend for buying reasonable priced materials? Is there anything specific I need or will anything I like the look of do?

Bump..

Wool is so expensive. Check out ebay where you can get mixed wool for a reasonable price. I crotchet blankets for a hospice and found it really expensive buying from John Lewis, who are my nearest wool shop. I check charity shops(not much luck) I tend to use colour themes- shades of blue etc so am happy with most colours and ply. Also ask around- a lot of people have unwanted stashes. :)

Yes ask around fellow knitters/ crocheters. They usually have loads of spare; it becomes an addiction!!

Thank you! I only know one lady that is going to help me crochet. I daren't ask her for wool too...

For one project ( a floor cushion someone linked to on here) I need eleven balls in one colour and two in two different colours, so quite an amount.

I will look at ebay for bargains

There are some quite reasonably priced yarns here. Some of the balls are 100g so you would need half as many for the floor cushion provided the yarn requirement in the pattern is for 50g balls. I took a quick look and some DK was £4 for 100g. Is it the tortoise floor cushion?

Yes it is, the seller had a ladybird too - was it you I stole the idea from?

No not me - I did toy with the idea of getting one but have just finished a knitting marathon for hundreds of new babies (OK 5 babies! - but they did have 4 cardis and hats each). So I'm taking a little break from the needles and feeding my MN habit instead. Its cheaper too. You have however reminded me that I haven't crocheted for ages and I must make something nice for my new niece.

Ahh lovely

I thought it would be a consuming and cheap hobby, but it's not turning out that way!

If the pattern says sirdar chunky, is any chunky OK?

Take a look at the ball band on the wool you want to buy compared to the sirdar wool. If it works to the same tension then it's OK to use. It doesn't matter if it doesn't have a crochet version of the tension - you can compare the knitting tension of the sirdar wool with the knitting tension of the wool you are going to use. If it's the same then go ahead and follow the pattern using the same size hook.

If you buy wool in person it's easy to check the ball bands. Stylecraft and Robin are less expensive brands than sirdar and have a similar feel when knitted/crocheted.

Depending on where you live you may find that you have a market with a wool stall - usually cheaper than a shop.

I live in back end of Ireland! Have a N.I address I can get things delivered to, so was hoping to find suitable materials online.

I will investigate, thank you so much for info. I can do basic knitting, so will try and work from that end. There are so many things I want to crochet, but at this stage it is all a little overwhelming!

I tend to pick up alot of my wool in charity shops. Most of the time its not on display so always ask.

Other places you can look out for wool in are £stretcher, 99p shop, Lidl etc (do they have these in ireland?)

Obviously they will not have a huge range and may only have DK but I have been using all sorts as I have mainly been making toys for the kids.

Let me know how you get on with the tortoise as I have been sent the pattern by the original OP so can help if you get stuck

One of the best places for cheap, decent quality yarn on the net is Kemps. It can be a bit addictive, mind! :o

I ordered the wool for my first tortoise from Ebay, thank you for the suggestions. ouryve, that shop looks great, it would have been cheaper than Ebay, but I saw it too late!

I taught myself today and managed to do this Hexagon (stolen from another link on here )

Mine is nowhere as neat as that one and probably about as big as my hand - would that be tension? (unless that lady has giant hands?). I was very pleased with myself though. I guess it will improve with practice.

Frazzledblob, I will start the tortoise when the yarn arrives, I really would appreciate it if you could help when if I get stuck?

ouryve thanks for the link

Daffadowndilly ask away what wool did you go for

I am still at the browsing stage for the official tortoise but I have been practising with scraps for a technicolour one for DD.

will post a link later of some pictures so far - no sniggering though!

DD and DS want one each - I went for a bright purple as the base colour for DD's and then two different shades of pink for the shell bits. It will probably look very garish but DD will love it.

DS wants blue, so I thought I would use a navy and two lighter shades (or maybe a green) - it might keep more with the retro look? All sirdar chunky.

I have made several more hexagons and they are vastly improved!

Can you use wool on cones (4 ply) for crochet? It would be just the same as 4 ply wool in a ball wouldn't it?

Just another question - if a pattern recommends a certain hook size, can you go up or down, or does it ruin the pattern?

I bought some cones of wool from eBay, so hopefully they will be OK for bits and pieces. I am so loving crocheting.

TIA

Bit late for your original question, but is there a market anywhere nearby? I can get balls of bog standard acrylic for 85p and they usually have a good selection of fancy stuff and bags of bargains.

I tend to vary hook size and wool type from the patterns, depends what I'm making really.
If, for example you're using acrylic and go down a hook size you get a smaller more dense item. I do this when I'm making blankets.

I use whatever I have to hand. You can always rattle off a small square and see how it looks before you start on your main project. If it looks crap pull it back and start again.