What yarn is most popular in your country?

Last week I did a blog post on a poll I ran in a large Facebook Group for crocheters that I belong to. I was attempting to prove that what hook you learn with is the style or brand of hook you tend to lean towards. Spoiler alert for those of you who haven’t read it: I was proved wrong!

This week however I wanted to see if people were more likely to lean towards a specific brand of yarn because it was more readily available to them in brick and mortar locations. This stemmed from me being a country bumpkin and learning that StyleCraft Special DK wasn’t as expensive as I thought it was going to be. I had always thought it a “luxury brand” of yarn because we don’t have it here in the United States. When I went to purchase it for the first time I realized it’s actually cheaper than what we Americans call “cheap yarn.” It got me thinking, is StyleCraft Europe’s Red Heart? Do other geographical areas have their own Red Hearts too?

So I asked, 65,000 people in the Facebook Group to weigh in. My question was, “If you were going to make an afghan what is your go to yarn.” Over 600 people from 31 countries responded in about 19 hours. I figured that was enough time to get good input from around the world. So here is what I learned:

First I’ll give you the top ten globally preferred yarns:

#1 StyleCraft – 28.25%
#2 Red Heart – 14.76%
#3 I Love This (Yarn, Cotton, etc) – 13%
#4 Caron – 12.5%
#5 Scheepjes – 5.77%
#6 Loops and Threads & Lion Brand – 2.08%
#7 Bernat – 1.92%
#8 Paintbox – 1.6%
#9 Alize, Cascade & Elle – .9%
#10 Bendigo – .8%

As you can see, StyleCraft is absolutely dominating the global market despite it not being in brick and mortar locations worldwide! But, how do the numbers look region by region? Lets find out!

Australia:
StyleCraft – 26.47%
Bendigo – 14.7%
Marvel – 11.76%
Cascade – 8.82%
Caron, Ice & Paintbox – 5.88%

Canada:
Red Heart – 30%
Caron – 26.66%
StyleCraft – 16.66%
Scheepjes – 10%
Bernat & Willow – 6.66%

Netherlands:
StyleCraft – 61.76%
Scheepjes – 26.47%

South Africa:
Elle – 27.27%
StyleCraft – 18.18%
Nurturing Fibres – 13.63%
Vinnis & Moya – 9.09%

UK:
StyleCraft – 80.76%
Scheepjes & Paintbox – 3.84%
Caron – 2.88%

United States:
Red Heart & I Love This (Yarn, Cotton, Etc) – 23.61%
Caron – 19.24%
StyleCraft – 11.95%
Loops and Threads & Bernat – 3.20%
Scheepjes – 2.62%

Conclusion:

It would seem that the vast majority of folks prefer yarns that are more local to them looking at the top six countries of responses, with the exception of Australia. There are only three brick and mortar locations in Australia listed on the Stylecraft website so this data boggles me a bit. Perhaps some of our Australian friends can weigh in on their reasoning of purchasing online verses in a brick and mortar.

(The Australians did in fact weigh in and it appears that there aren’t many retailers period in Australia for yarn. The ones they do have carry a very limited selection and the yarn made in their country is rather expensive. Also, their postage is apparently outrageous and since they have to order their yarns due to limited selection anyway, almost all of them reported that they ordered from Wool Warehouse because it turned out to be far cheaper for them.)

In regards to Canada and the Netherlands I feel like I should point out that even though their number one positions are taken by brands that are not based in their country they still do have a great number of brick and mortar locations carrying the brand.

This was a rather interesting poll to collect the data from. I learned about a lot of brands I’d never heard of and had to do a ton of Googling to figure out which was what. One thing is clear though and I feel confident in saying this: StyleCraft would blow other yarn companies out of the water if they found a way to get into major brick and mortars globally. They came in at the top of the charts globally and most can only purchase their products online.

Just for funsies I am going to throw in some honorable mentions because they stood out to me:

Alize seems to be rather popular in Europe but no where else in the world.

Sweden, as normal is neutral in it’s love between StyleCraft and Scheepjes.

United Arab Emirates are loving “Nature’s Cotton” and it makes me curious to try it.

I have no idea where Paintbox Yarns are made because there is no information on their website nor can I find any images of their packaging that show where their yarn is produced. This will keep me awake at night if I don’t find the answer. I find it interesting that an “Indy” brand found a place in the top ten globally even if it didn’t make the top percentages for the six countries listed. It’s a clear indication that the little guys can have a presence too thanks to social media.

(Again group members helped here. Paintbox Yarns are made in various places apparently. Two that could be confirmed were their Simply Dk made in Turkey and their Cotton DK made in Bulgaria.)

The country of Turkey produces more of the top yarn brands from this polling than any other country followed by the United States.

Something else that I found rather interesting after reading and responding to comments is that apparently in England it is actually cheaper to order StyleCraft yarn through Wool Warehouse and have it delivered (most reported 1 to 2 day delivery) than it was to walk into a shop down the street from them and purchase.

Because we’re on numbers here and in case there are any other ignorant Americans reading my blog who might also believe that StyleCraft is too fancy for us to afford:

Red Heart Super Saver at Walmart is $3.72 USD for 364 Yards of fiber and Stylecraft Special DK (most popular from the polling) from Wool Warehouse is $2.07 USD for 322 yards. They also have free shipping over a certain dollar amount. So, even if you’re on a budget the most popular yarn (from this polling anyway) is obtainable on a budget if you’re willing to wait for delivery.

 

Disclaimer: None of these links are affiliate links. I just wanted to make it easier for you to find the brands we’ve spoken about.