yarn! glorious yarn!

Once again, I was gifted a brand new yarn and get to chat with you about it. Seriously, pinch me. How is this even real life?
As of Monday, August 2nd, King Cole’s Homespun double knitting is available. Ya’ll! I told you it was brand new. Like, never-before-seen-NEW.

And let me tell ya, it is l-o-v-e-l-y. These tweedy flecks are everything.

King Cole Homespun Dk Yarn Review

My friends, I know. This picture above is probably not the yarn that comes to mind when you hear the word “homespun”.

^^^ This is what you immediately envisioned, right? Lion Brand Yarns has had a yarn with the name Homespun for quite some time and it is widely available, so even if you haven’t used it, I bet you’ve seen it on shelves. And it is fabulous and wonderful with a wide variety of solids, heathers and self-striping colorways. It is a #5 Bulky weight, heavily textured acrylic.

So, same name but as you can see, these are very, very different yarns.

The details

King Cole’s Homespun DK is 2 ply, 22% Fine Merino Superwash, 22% Alpaca, 23% Polyamide, 23% Acrylic, 10% Viscose 1.7 oz [50g] 191 yd [175 m], per ball.

Once again I have pulled out my fun yarn measuring stick. With a light wrap and gently placing the strands next to each other, I am getting a WPI of 13.
What this means is Wraps Per Inch. You literally count the number of wraps that line up within an inch. Knowing this number will help you determine the weight of a yarn.
13 WPI is a DK weight, just as the company/yarn label advertises (this is not always the case).
When reading a yarn label, DK weight is the same as #3 light.

With the yarn in hand, it is very tempting to disagree and use it as a fingering weight… That is where a few years of experience (*cough, we’ll not say just how many, *cough) and this little gadget come in handy. As you’re wrapping the yarn, you are almost forced to acknowledge the halo.
The slight fuzz from the alpaca requires a little extra space. If a smaller hook/needles are used, those special fibers will be crushed and not allowed to bloom and give your project the “glow” that you can achieve with alpaca and mohair yarns.

Pricepoint: Currently –but first, are you sitting down? Also, swallow your coffee, This ridiculously beautiful and smooshy ball is £2.59. That is the equivalent (at the time of this writing) to $3.60.
You were warned. I can not be held responsible for laptop damage due to disbelief-spitting of the coffee.

So, why am I giving you the price in British pounds? Well, that’s because this yarn is so new, it is not even listed on LoveCrafts yet.

But do not despair, my lovely. All 10 colors of Homespun are available at this fabulous shop in the UK called Deramores. Yes, they ship internationally.

Now, I can only tell you my experience, which is this: When I order yarn from across the pond, I always choose DHL as the shipping method. The rates are decent, normal even and so far, I have never had a package go missing. They offer online tracking and send text updates. My packages usually arrive within a week. Keep in mind though, that I live in a major city, so those of you in smaller towns might have an extra day or so in transit.

But honestly, at under 4bucks for this yarn…. its really worth the little wait for arrival.

I’m going to do my best to update when the Homespun becomes available non-internationally (for us in the States). But just in case I miss the update, here is the link for LoveCrafts. They have loads of yarn and there’s always a sale of some kind going on there.

Love Crafts King Cole direct link

Love Crafts

my thoughts

Okay, so I just did the math.
To make a long sleeve, double crochet sweater to fit myself (I’m running about a 1X these days), will take around 1650yds (I’m being generous). At 191yd per ball, that is 9 balls, $3.60 each–
Ya’ll. $32.40 for a whole sweater.

I have to be honest and tell you, I’m wholly in love with this yarn. Really, really love it.

It is so very soft. Very. Absolutely a next-to-skin project yarn. In fact, I’ve made myself a little neck kerchief in the color Platinum. The pattern is not quite ready, but I’ll update here when it is, and if you’re signed up for the newsletter, you’ll get a notification in your email when it goes live. It will be called Tibbs, so watch my social media for more. So you don’t have to hunt around: my instagram.

Through the process of designing this teeny shawlette, there were a few times I had to undo (frog) my stitching and I was pretty worried about the little tweed bits falling off or getting ripped out of the yarn. Surprisingly, they really held on. I lost a few, but it wasn’t drastic. It was actually, just a few.

Let’s get back to those amazing specks of tweedy awesome.
There are 10 colorways to choose from, but the flecks remain the same across the palette.
So much perfection.

You can see in the project above that the flecks are not at all over-powering, especially in the grey (Platinum). In fact, I wish I would have chosen a stitch pattern thats shows them off a little more. I’m definitely going to knit a little stockinette… I bet they’ll really be a star in a more solid and plain fabric.

Oh. oh my. Maybe I’ll …… Tunisian. Eeep!
(And this, my friends, is how I have a pile of WIPs that will never end!!) Did I already walk across the room for my Tunisian hooks? Uhh, I think you know the answer to that. (and maybe I made a few stitches, too)

Sometimes its fun to get into the ‘knitty gritty’ and geekery info about yarn. (Lol. See that? Often, I think I’m funny 🤣 ) You can find more of posts about various yarns under YarnReview and other chats with YarnTalk

So, about this homespun…. what would you love to see? What do you envision being made with this yarn?
I kinda just want to make an every day, casual, fireside, cozy sweater… but I’m also dreaming of a huge shawl. That Peony color is calling out to me.
I would really love your thoughts. Let me know what you’re going to make with it, because don’t pretend you aren’t diving in, this yarn is just too good.

The legal thing: King Cole has gifted this yarn to me as a sample, but they are not paying me. Opinions are my own.