B is for Bulky #atozchallenge

In which I discover that bulky can be bulky or BULKY.

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When a pattern calls for bulky yarn I’ve usually just grabbed whatever is handy from my stash. I am partial to Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick and Quick if only because this is the brand which I am most familiar with. However, when I was working up Claire’s Cowl I realized that not all bulky yarns are equal.

Note: While I am sure there are others to try, my experiences so far are with the yarns I share below. Please share any yarns that I may have missed!

I started the cowl with Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick and Quick but switched to Bernat Mega Bulky. As I was frogging the yarn, I compared the two and realized that a single strand of Bernat’s yarn was equal to doubled Lion Brand!

Both are labeled “6” which, according to the Craft Yarn Council, are super bulky. (There has been the addition of a size “7” weight which is listed as Jumbo…tee hee…jumbo.)

Going through my stash, I looked for other yarns labeled bulky to see what the differences are. 

The Issac Mizrahi yarn, found exclusively at Michaels Stores (use my affiliate link to Shop Michaels Online), is an acrylic wool blend and this is very soft and when I used this yarn to make a hat and cowl, I found it to be thick but not too heavy.

I am not a huge fan of Lion Brand Heartland Thick and Quick. I will totally own my mistakes with it; I used it to make a cowl and the cowl was just too floppy and loose for my preference. The yarn is a bit too soft and did not retain it’s shape as I would have liked. It does work up nicely for hats and I used some of the scraps for an afghan but this yarn feels more “chunky” than bulky.

Looking online, I realize there are many more bulky weights to try. I’d love to try Malabrigo and once I have worked through my stash will totally do so.

Join me each day (ish) for the A to Z Blogging Challenge! Each day I will share a post inspired a letter of the alphabet.