At the end of 2017 I ran a polling to find out what the most popular Crochet A Longs (CALs) were. That polling has been the most popular and most frequently requested for updates of all the pollings that I’ve done. So many of you were requesting that I bring pollings back that I decided to run a massive one for the end of 2018 which encompassed a whole lot of questions. I had no idea it would take me a whole month to compile everything but it has. It’s also reminded me of why I had to stop doing them in the first place. The time it takes to sit down and compile all of this data isn’t something I have had for the vast majority of the year. But it is finally done and so here it is! My gift to all my fellow statistic nerds.
**Disclaimer** Through out this if there are missing percentages, because I know some of you are going to add up the numbers… it is the miscellaneous pile. The items that didn’t get enough mentions or didn’t rank close to the others were all grouped into “misc” and sometimes aren’t mentioned.
If you’d like to watch me announcing the best of 2018 you can see the LIVE recording I did here:
First lets talk about where the data came from! 16 different countries in total! I was so pleased by the amount of participants and from the wide spread of countries.
USA – 50.18%
UK – 12%
South Africa – 12%
Australia – 10.9%
Canada – 6.9%
Netherlands – 2.54%
New Zealand – 1.09%
Belgim, Germany, Iceland, Isreal, Mali, Norway, Spain,Swaziland, and Turkey – .36%
Now that we know what countries that data came from lets take a look at the questions that were asked and see how you all answered them.
What is your favorite Crochet Magazine?
I was rather shocked by the data this question produced. Turns out, hardly anyone is reading crochet magazines now a days. There was a time when magazines were all the rage. I understand times have changed but I didn’t realize just how much until now.
76.36% of you don’t read crochet magazines at all!
Miscellaneous Votes meaning one or two per magazine – 7.27%
Happily Hooked Magazine – 1.45%
Interweave Crochet Magazine – 1.81%
Crochet World Magazine – 3.63%
CrochetNow! Magazine – 4.36%
Simply Crochet Magazine – 5.09%
Who is your favorite Indy Dyer?
This one blew my mind! Nearly all of you that responded either said you’d never used indy dyed yarn or that you didn’t know what it was. For those of you who don’t.. it means yarn that is hand dyed or not mass produced. The data collected for this was so low I am just going to give you the top five indy dyers that were mentioned:
4 – Kristin Omdahl
3 – Expression Fiber Arts and ChemKnits
2 – Miss La Motte
1 – Fiberific
What is your favorite Online Retailer?
This one is a bit of a strange one for me. I don’t consider Big Box stores as “online” retailers but 23.27% of you do! Also, 21.81% of you have no favorite online retailer however…
6 – Yarnish / Herrschners – 1.09%
5 – KnitPicks – 1.45%
3 – Amazon – 5.45%
2 – LoveKnitting or LoveCrochet – 9.45%
1 – WoolWarehouse – 20%
Wondering where the other 3.27% went? Those folks don’t buy online at all! We have to keep an eye out for these folks if they ever do open that door. They are gonna need our support. And by support I mean… guidance… love… peer pressure!
What is your favorite hook brand?
This one wasn’t a shocker to me at all. Since I ran a polling on it about 14 months ago I didn’t think it would change much and it hasn’t. But, in case you missed that one:
21.45% of you don’t discriminate by hook brand and will crochet with anything!
Furls – 1.09%
Addi – 1.45%
KnitPro – 1.81%
Elle – 4%
Tulip – 5.09%
Susan Bates – 9.81%
Boye – 10.18%
Clover – 37.09%
And because I know you’re going to ask, of those who chose Clover as an option:
Soft Touch – 11.76%
Amour – 32.35%
55.88% of you simply stated “Clover”
Who is your favorite blogger?
This one wasn’t a surprise to me either as I am quite familiar with all the names that were given in the results. Here are the top five results:
Who was your favorite YouTuber?
First, you guys.. while I am very thankful for all of your votes the whole point of this was to find NEW faces for everyone. You all already know about me! But seriously, thank you to all the people who persisted and placed in my channel. I won’t be revealing those results but here are the top 13 YouTube Channels voted in by all of you:
Now onto the yarny questions!
What is your favorite bamboo brand?
Knock me over with a feather! 74% of you have either never used bamboo or do not use it at all. I’m shocked! My goal for the new year is to peer pressure you into trying it. Honestly, it is quite lovely… even poor quality bamboo is absolutely lovely. So very soft and sleek and silky! You’ve really got to try it and for those of you who are waiting on recommendations here you go!
What is your favorite Cotton Brand?
It’s no secret that cotton isn’t my favorite material to use. Over this past year I’ve given a lot of cottons a try for you all because I know that I need to be diverse here. That being said, I’ve apparently not done my job very well because a whole lot of you are using cotton from the bottom of the barrel in my opinion. I’m going to work on changing that in 2019 for you all. I suspect that the reason some of these brands are ranking so high is simply because of their accessibility, not for their quality.
17.09% of you don’t use cotton at all.
Vinni’s Colours – 1.09%
Premier – 1.45%
Cascade / Colour Spun – 1.81%
Paintbox – 2.9%
Peaches N Cream – 3.27%
Bendigo Woolen Mills – 4.72%
Nurturing Fibres – 6.9%
Scheepjies – 7.27%
Sugar N Cream – 8.36%
I Love This Cotton – 11.27%
What is your favorite wool brand?
Wool is a tricky thing. There are so many varieties and so many different qualities one could get when trying out a new brand. It can be quite scary so hopefully the numbers below will help you if you’re thinking about branching out and using wool for the first time or simply looking for other brands you haven’t tried. Also, bravo to all of you out there spinning your own wool!
44.72% of you do not use wool at all.
5.45% of you are allergic to wool.
Cascade / African Expressions – 1.09%
Caron / Scheepjies – 1.45%
Patons – 1.81%
StyleCraft – 2.18%
KnitPicks / Indy or your own spun – 2.9%
Drops – 4%
Bendigo Woolen Mills– 4.36%
Lion Brand – 8.72%
What is your favorite acrylic brand?
This was one of the most interesting parts of this process for me. The numbers have changed quite drastically since the last time I polled on acrylic yarn and I have to say I was quite surprised. Pleasantly surprised but still surprised.
6.18% of you don’t use acrylic at all and apparently South Africans really dislike acrylic.
Berroco – .36%
Scheepjies / Bernat – 1.81%
Charity – 2.54%
Elle / Lion Brand – 4.36%
Paintbox – 5.81%
I Love This Yarn – 8.36%
Caron – 8.72%
Red Heart – 15.27%
StyleCraft – 24%
11.82% of you said you had no particular favorite.
Wondering where the missing 1.45% is? Those are the folks who say their favorite is what ever is on sale! No seriously!
What was your favorite stand alone pattern of 2018?
Here are the top 7 patterns named by you all in the survey. If you haven’t worked these up you should consider placing them on your to do list. They are all wonderful patterns!
**Disclaimer** This pattern was released 10 years ago! I decided to include it in this post even though it wasn’t released in 2018 simply because of the sheer number of votes it got.
What was your favorite Crochet A Long (CAL) of 2018?
My oh my how these numbers have changed from last year! I am so excited to see some new faces on the line up for this years polling data and for some of my friends who have not just stayed within the ranks but have found themselves at the top of them and I hope you are too. No doubt you’ll find something you love within the top ten CALs of 2018.
Sharing the 8th spot are:
And finally….
Who was your favorite designer of 2018?
This tickled me, do you want to know why? Of course you do! It tickles me because even I, who spends so much time in this industry learned of new designers. I am excited to explore their art more and look forward to working up some of their patterns and hopefully sharing them with you all in the future.
Here are the top 11 designers of 2018 as voted on by all of you!
6th place:
5th place:
4th place:
3rd place:
2nd place:
1st place:
I hope you’ve enjoyed the results of the polling and that it holds you over for quite some time because I don’t think I’ll be doing another one soon. Make sure you check out the designers using the links above and subscribe to their websites to keep up to date on all their releases!
***Disclaimer*** Some of the links used in this post may be affiliate links. Using them costs you nothing extra but does give a small percentage of your sale to me to help keep this website and my YouTube Channel running.