Every now and again in yarn circles, theres a little flutter of conversation about yarn snobbery. You see, there are people out there &#; knitters and designers alike &#; who are, to put it bluntly, judgemental as hell about the yarn people choose to knit with. And recently it occurred to me that, given how strongly I state my opinions, how regularly I work with hand-dyed yarn, and how little I&#;ve said on the topic, a person would be forgiven for thinking I&#;m one of those people.

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So I thought I should set that record straight. In the process, I&#;m also going to talk a little bit about how I choose yarn for a project &#; what the criteria are, why they matter to me, and how to work out if they matter to you or not.

Because that&#;s the key thing here. Ultimately, when you create something for yourself, it&#;s you that needs to be satisfied with it. Not the designer, not your friends, not your social media following. You. You&#;re the one who&#;s going to reach for it on a cold day, wrap it around your body, and take it with you into the world. Your opinion is the one that matters.

When I write a pattern, I&#;ll tell you exactly what I used &#; and, if there&#;s a specific reason why I used that yarn, I&#;ll tell you why I chose it, so you can make the most informed decision about what you&#;re going to use.

So. What criteria do I consider when choosing yarn?

Colour

I have to be totally honest: the thing that clinches a decision for me is usually the colour. If there&#;s a choice, I will almost always go for the one that comes in a deep, saturated jewel tone that I can feel myself sinking into. I know what I like, and when I see it, I can feel my mind calming and focusing just on the colour, its intensity, its shade, its tone.

In case you couldn&#;t tell, my favourite colour is blue.

Colour has practical points though, too. Texture is more visibly obvious on a lighter colour, for example; shining beads will show up with more contrast against a dark yarn.

If you&#;re doing colour work, or anything using more than one colour, how they work together comes into play. A great trick for colourwork is to take a photo of the yarns together and change it to black and white, to check that there&#;s enough tonal contrast.

Fibre & Ply

Like with colour, fibre has both practical and personal considerations.

Different fibres drape in different ways, so if you want something rigid you&#;ll need a different yarn than if you want something that moves.

Some yarns have really clear stitch definition; some have a fuzz around them, called a halo; some are stretchy and bouncy; some are firm and warm. Some feel soft as air against your skin; some make their presence known.

Zealana Air, a laceweight yarn made from cashmere, possum, and mulberry silk, which has a visible halo

Allergies are a factor; you&#;ll never see me work with alpaca, because it disagrees with me. Care requirements matter, too; I&#;m happy to hand wash my garments and accessories, but not my daughter&#;s clothes. And sometimes these things overlap: superwash treated yarn can make life much easier, but not if you&#;re one of the people who reacts to the treatment used.

How the yarn has been plied affects the yarn&#;s durability: a single-ply yarn will wear out and bobble much faster than plied yarn.

Left: Countess Ablaze Tia Merino Aran, a plied, superwash treated merino yarn.
Right: HeyJay Yarns Merino Chunky, a single ply, non-superwash merino yarn.
Use the slider to compare the two; on the left you can see multiple strands plied together, whereas on the right, one strand is twisted around itself.

There is a fantastic book on this subject called The Knitter&#;s Book of Yarn, by Clara Parkes. It&#;s really helped me make better decisions about what yarn to choose for each project, and I recommend it for all yarn enthusiasts.

Price

I am extremely fortunate to have a stash of hand-dyed yarn, collected during my working days when I had the disposable income to pay for it and not nearly enough time to knit it all. However I rarely bought sweater quantities of yarn as, being a fat person with a 50&#; bust, it&#;s a lot less fun to spend a yarn festival&#;s budget on one sweater quantity vs 10 different things. So, when I&#;ve wanted to make garments for myself, I&#;ve usually bought big box yarn. I also have a big crochet blanket on the go that uses big box yarn &#; because the size of the project makes buying that quantity of hand-dyed yarn cost prohibitive.

Crumb, by Andi Satterlund, knit in Drops Air Crumb, by Andi Satterlund, knit in Drops Air

Buy what you like within your own budget, and don&#;t let anyone else tell you it isn&#;t good enough.

Vendor

While it&#;s true that there&#;s no ethical consumption under capitalism, I try to be aware of where I&#;m spending my money, and make the best choices I can in any given situation. So it&#;s important to me to know that the people I&#;m buying from aren&#;t actively harmful. This is pretty easy to do in the hand-dyed yarn world &#; a quick follow on social media usually makes any problematic views abundantly clear &#; but can be harder for larger companies. If that&#;s your only option, remember that it&#;s not your responsibility to fix the world, just to do the best you can with the options you have.

&#;I need another hobby like I need a hole in the head,&#; I said with conviction, back in . The expression was in homage to my always-blunt Romanian grandmother, whom I can thank for my love of working with yarn. The conversation itself took place with a knitting-turned-close friend, and it focused on the theme of my learning to spin.

What I was actually thinking was, &#;That&#;s going to be expensive, and I simply can&#;t afford it.&#; A hole existed, alright &#; and it was in my bank account, if not in my head. But I couldn&#;t get the thought of learning to spin out of my mind, and I found myself wondering &#; How could a person with absolutely no wiggle room in her budget manage to gather the gear she&#;d need in order to learn to spin?

Enter the same good and generous friend, who loaned me two fateful drop spindles and a bit of Shetland wool. One of those spindles would go on to take me through more than a year and a half of non-stop spinning, right up until I was able to buy my own spindle(s) and then eventually, barter for my first wheel. Thanks to her, my initial costs were nothing but the price of fibre, and I fell deeply in love with hand spinning, from the ground up.

It&#;s an experience I wouldn&#;t trade for anything as it made me the spinner I am.

While you might not care to go the route of such intense minimalism, I&#;m here to tell anyone with a similar desire and living within even the strictest of budgets, that learning to spin need not be cost prohibitive. The key is knowing what&#;s essential (must have) and non-essential (nice to have) in terms of basic, beginner-friendly spinning gear &#; a tall order when you&#;re new to any hobby.

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That&#;s why I&#;m going to break it all down, below:

 

Must Have Tools

Look for one of good quality but moderate price (as low as $20 and up to $40, US). The whorl&#;s diameter doesn&#;t so much matter, but its weight certainly does. Stay just under, or barely over, one ounce. Call me old-fashioned, but opt for a wooden, notched whorl on your first spindle. As you&#;re able, branch out and try spindles from other makers. While only one spindle is essential to making perfectly beautiful, intentional yarn, it&#;s indeed easier and faster when you have a two or more.

Initially, most people find the fine to medium breeds to be readily available and easy to spin. BFL (Bluefaced Leicester), Merino, Targhee, Shetland, Corriedale, etc., they&#;re all good to use, whether they&#;re sold as combed top or carded into batts or roving. Believe it or not, one 4 oz bump of fibre can cost as much as your spindle, at anywhere from $20-$30 US. Don&#;t skimp on quality here, as the dyer&#;s product and experience in handling fibre can make or break your spinning success.

Yes, hank-winding hacks abound, but why bother with those when scoring an inexpensive, PVC niddy noddy is as easy as going online to Etsy (cost: $15-$20 US) and so much simpler.

I learned to spin by reading through issues of Spin Off magazine and some of the more classic and well-known, spinning-themed books. I also watched videos and DVDs &#; which are rapidly becoming, if they are not already, a thing of the past. Today, membership sites (including the School of SweetGeorgia) provide endless trustworthy, streamed content from qualified spinning instructors ($10-$25/month US).

 

Nice to Have Tools

Bracelet or ring distaff

This keeps your fibre supply neatly out of the way so it doesn&#;t accidentally get pulled into your drafting zone and/or ensnared in your spinning.

Upgraded spindles

Once you are invested in your spindling &#; and only if you can afford it &#; you may want to research top-tiered spindle makers and spend a little more money ($50-$100). Having even one of these spindles can pay for itself in terms of the meditative spinning experience it provides.

No doubt, you&#;re going to want to get a wheel, even if you do fall in love with spindling. So, which one to get? And how much should you spend on it?

The best beginner&#;s spinning wheel for you is the one you can afford. It&#;s really that simple. Whether you find a well-cared-for, used wheel for a couple hundred dollars or you buy yourself a new one, bear in mind that this is a learning tool and may very well not be the wheel you&#;ll be keeping for life. Think of it as a baseline for learning more about your likes and dislikes as a budding spinner. If it does that for you, then you will have gotten your money&#;s worth from the purchase.

Still, spinning wheels are, by their nature, expensive. Even a mid-range wheel from a reputable wheel maker, a good starting point for most of us, costs several hundred dollars (prices range dramatically depending on the maker and the function(s) of the wheel, but count on anywhere from $450-$850 &#; and that&#;s usually for your basic wheel and standard 3 bobbins). Fortunately, most proven brands do tend to hold their value and are easy to de-stash to the next eager spinner.

 

Must Have Accessories

Other must haves, along with your wheel (excluding the items already suggested to go along with the spindle, above):

You&#;ll need a lazy kate to hold your bobbins/keep them freely rotating while you&#;re plying. Due to their closeness to the fly wheel itself, onboard kates are better for bobbin storage than they are for helping with plying, since all that twist energy is awkward to manage, especially when you&#;re learning. You can make a DIY kate for pennies or even for free out of items you likely have at home. (I still use my own, which I made from a plastic storage basket and 3 knitting needles.)

Orifice hook (if not included with your wheel)

You may be able to guide your yarn through the orifice using a small crochet hook or even an unbent paperclip, but these hooks are inexpensive and range in price depending on their materials ($10-$20 US).

Spinning wheel oil (as recommended by the manufacturer)

Do a little sleuthing to find the best price and shipping rates. You don&#;t want to pay more to get the item than its value ($10-$15 US).

 

Nice to Have Accessories

• Extra bobbins
• Specialty flyer(s) and related bobbins, if available
• Whorls in varying sizes (where available)
• Maintenance kit containing extra drive band(s) and brake bands (where used)

Since no two people live the same lives nor share the same experiences, it&#;s possible that you&#;d like to learn to spin and that your own ability to spend is far greater. What then?

In that case, I would honestly recommend that you follow the very same advice. It&#;s just unrealistic to think that, starting out, you already know the destination of your hand spinning journey.

Learning to spin can be frustrating. It is rarely instantaneous. It is also magical and healing, and seeing its many obstacles through to fruition can illuminate a side of yourself that you may never have otherwise known existed within you.

As my friend used to say to me, beaming with pride, as we spun next to one another, &#;It&#;s not the wheel that makes the handspun; it&#;s the spinner behind it.&#;

Go forth and learn.

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