You guys… Have you ever felt Scheepjes Whirls? Lord have mercy. It’s like a marshmallow! By now I’m sure you all know my dislike for variegated yarns. I am just not a fan. I have used them, heck I am using one now but I am only using it because I feel like I can’t get an effect I’d like without it. Other than that I don’t dig them nor use them as a general rule.
I am using Lion Brand’s Mandala for my group project but in truth the only reason I selected it was to give it a go because all the Facebook groups have been raving about it. As I suspected I don’t like the abrupt color changes in it but I’d mentally prepared myself for it so it hasn’t been too hard on my OCD thus far. This whirl though…
The color change in it takes so long that you don’t even realize it’s happening until it’s already happened. It’s just beautiful. I still haven’t decided what I am going to make with it so it’s been sitting on my work station. I walk past it every night and caress it like a crazy person before bed. No really, I do.
I purchased this cake from Deramores because they were having a sale. The price of it normally makes me cringe, even if you do get a whole lot of yarn for your money. The normal price of this on the Deramore’s site is $27.09 per cake. Dats ah-spensive huh? Well, not so much when you break it down.
You’re getting 1000 meters or 1093 yards of fiber here. That’s $.02 per yard. Granted you could get three skeins of Red Heart Super Saver (about $9) or two cakes of Lion Brand Mandala (about $10) but this is 60% Cotton and 40% Acrylic and the other two brands mentioned are 100% acrylic. I haven’t been able to find a comparable version of Lion Brand or Red Heart percentage wise but Red Heart makes a 100% cotton yarn called Creme de la Creme that is $3.49 a skein for 125 yards. You’d need nine of those to get the same yardage and it would cost $31.41. Might not be apples to apples but they are both still fruit.
The above picture is my Deramores haul. They were having a 20% off sale and I couldn’t pass it up. I also thought that it would be a great time to suck it up and spend money on a whirl but I didn’t want to buy just a cake.. okay I can’t even finish typing that. In truth I’d of spent my entire budget for the sale on whirls but by the time I got paid they were sold out of most colors. I am lucky I got the one I did because most of what was left was crazy colors. Since I could only get one of this color I decided to spend the rest on StyleCraft Special DK which I plan to make a Demelza out of. One of these days. Maybe…
It’s beautiful though isn’t it? I wanted to lay in it all night. I did however have an issue. I ordered on September 15th. My order shipped on September 18th. My package arrived October 3rd. 15 days 18 in total from ordering to arrival. They don’t offer any kind of tracking so there was no way to know where the package was, how it was doing, if it was missing it’s mother… nothing. I wasn’t prepared for such a long wait. Now this might be because I’ve been spoiled by Amazon Prime. I’ve subscribed to it since it’s inception and have gotten rather used to two day shipping but I did realize this wasn’t going to take two days. I really don’t like not having tracking on my packages.
All said, I think in the future if they have a sale I’d purchase from them again and would have a better experience knowing that the rapture might come before I get to hold my yarn. I’d never use them if I needed the materials in a timely fashion for a project that had a deadline however. Which, less face it, is the reason (I say it again) that I use Red Heart so much. I live in the middle of no where, literally.
I should mention that the Stylecraft is super squishy. It feels quite lovely. It’s 100% acrylic and $2.49 per skein for 295 meters or 322 yards. Compared to Red Heart Super Saver at $2.94 per skein for 364 yards. I’d say they are comparable price wise. As I’ve mentioned some Red Heart yarns can be rather stiff or scratchy before they are washed but all of these colors for Stylecraft are wonderfully soft already. If I lived in Europe I’d probably use Stylecraft as much as possible but I don’t. So, Red Heart it will be unless it’s something special.
Also worth mentioning, Stylecraft headquarters is based in England but the yarn is made in Turkey. Scheepjes is a Dutch brand and is made in the Netherlands. Red Heart Yarns are made in the United States. Lion Brand’s headquarters are in the United States but the Mandala yarns are made in Turkey.
That’s all for tonight!
P.S. My space bar on my keyboard died in the middle of this post. I may go into mourning. I’ve had that keyboard for at least eight years and loved it. My luck they probably aren’t even producing that keyboard anymore. I’m too afraid to look.
Disclaimer: None of the links above are affiliate links. No one knows who I am so they certainly aren’t going to pay me for your clicks. Please feel free to explore and shop all you’d like!