Crocheting/knitting is cheap to try out but once you really get into it (and start worrying about yarn quality and so on), the money pit opens. Ask me how I know.
My wife has enlisted friends to help me sell her yarn stash if she dies before me. There’s probably 10 large worth of high value dye lots sitting in bins around me. Her work includes a $200/month yarn shop stipend, and has for many years now.
It’s not considering the value of my time; a decent (actually wearable) yarn is far more expensive than most people think.
I would consider it a waste of my time to spend a couple hundred hours on a garment that’s barely wearable because it’s uncomfortable and borderline not washable. That’s what you will get with any yarn that won’t cost you over $50 in materials for a simple pattern.
Cheap yarns are fine for beginner projects that aren’t made to be worn, but if you’re putting that much of your effort into a garment meant to be used, you should not be using bargain yarn. Your effort is worth too much to sabotage yourself that way.
eta: oh, if you’re wondering (like I did) why crocheting something in polyester would be different from store-bought garments in what seems like the same material, it’s mostly in the weight of the yarn, and partly in how insanely uniform machine knitting is. That creates a radically different fabric than even the most skilled human could produce, and small deviations in either yarn weight or technique have radical differences in the fabric. There are knitting techniques that produce highly artistic texture by doing nothing but varying yarn tension.
TIL! I want to get my niece some pretty yarn (she’s just getting in to crochet) but i have no idea how to choose. I just go by “ooo pretty” and “ooo soft” and if it scores high on both, i get it for her. so far so good.
Natural yarns are almost always best for wearables. It doesn’t need to be fancy (other than ooo pretty, which is my biggest criteria, too). I’d avoid 100% polyester, or high blends.
Personally, I love knitting with bamboo blends, and they’re quite affordable. They’re not suited for everything, but many feel like silk whilst wearing like cotton. And they’re often more sustainable.
It doesn’t wear as well as wool or cashmere in all contexts, but it’s affordable and very pleasant to knit with (eta: sometimes especially beginners have issues with lower end wools, which might be scratchy and which can cause friction issues in sensitive finger folds). I’d say bamboo is miles better for a beginner than polyester, and often comparably priced.
Crocheting/knitting is cheap to try out but once you really get into it (and start worrying about yarn quality and so on), the money pit opens. Ask me how I know.
As someone who owns a spinning wheel, you can dye and spin yarn at home to make the money pit even wider and deeper!
Isn’t spinning your own yarn an amount of work that you should be saving money? 😂
My wife has enlisted friends to help me sell her yarn stash if she dies before me. There’s probably 10 large worth of high value dye lots sitting in bins around me. Her work includes a $200/month yarn shop stipend, and has for many years now.
Yep. Often when I wear a new jumper or whatever around people who know I knit, I get asked ‘oh, that’s pretty, did you make it?’
Lol no, that would have cost me like 5 times more. I couldn’t afford to make it myself.
is that just the value of your time or are you considering you’d use the fanciest yarn too?
It’s not considering the value of my time; a decent (actually wearable) yarn is far more expensive than most people think.
I would consider it a waste of my time to spend a couple hundred hours on a garment that’s barely wearable because it’s uncomfortable and borderline not washable. That’s what you will get with any yarn that won’t cost you over $50 in materials for a simple pattern.
Cheap yarns are fine for beginner projects that aren’t made to be worn, but if you’re putting that much of your effort into a garment meant to be used, you should not be using bargain yarn. Your effort is worth too much to sabotage yourself that way.
eta: oh, if you’re wondering (like I did) why crocheting something in polyester would be different from store-bought garments in what seems like the same material, it’s mostly in the weight of the yarn, and partly in how insanely uniform machine knitting is. That creates a radically different fabric than even the most skilled human could produce, and small deviations in either yarn weight or technique have radical differences in the fabric. There are knitting techniques that produce highly artistic texture by doing nothing but varying yarn tension.
TIL! I want to get my niece some pretty yarn (she’s just getting in to crochet) but i have no idea how to choose. I just go by “ooo pretty” and “ooo soft” and if it scores high on both, i get it for her. so far so good.
Natural yarns are almost always best for wearables. It doesn’t need to be fancy (other than ooo pretty, which is my biggest criteria, too). I’d avoid 100% polyester, or high blends.
Personally, I love knitting with bamboo blends, and they’re quite affordable. They’re not suited for everything, but many feel like silk whilst wearing like cotton. And they’re often more sustainable.
It doesn’t wear as well as wool or cashmere in all contexts, but it’s affordable and very pleasant to knit with (eta: sometimes especially beginners have issues with lower end wools, which might be scratchy and which can cause friction issues in sensitive finger folds). I’d say bamboo is miles better for a beginner than polyester, and often comparably priced.
ok but that’s in you for getting expensive yarn.