Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Caron Dazzleaire

This past weekend I had a pleasant "yarn" surprise. I had been happy to hear a few weeks ago that Caron Yarn had brought back their Dazzleaire yarn. I remember using it back when, (years ago) and really liking it's softness. In fact, one of the first sweaters I crocheted for myself that I actually wore, I crocheted in Dazzleaire. The denim blue color. I wore it so much, I actually wore a hole in the side of it. So when I found out that they brought the yarn back, and in a bulky weight, I had to get me some to swatch with. I was happy to see that the crochet hook they recommended on the ball band was not the same mm size as the knitting needles they recommended. Which meant to me that the company knows something about the crochet stitch – that it's thicker than a knit stitch, and the crochet hook that is used to get the recommended gauge on the ball band should be about 2 sizes larger than the knitting needle size that's recommended. And it was. One point for Caron.
So, on Saturday, I took the skein I had of "Linen", which is an off-white color, and started crocheting with it. With the recommended hook size – an L/11 (8mm) hook. I forgot that I was wearing black. (I was at the gym, on the recumbent bike, where I like to work and swatch while I get my aerobic exercise.) I thought that I would be covered in off-white fuzz when I was through, like what often happens with other soft yarns like this. But – much to my surprise, there was no fuzz. I didn't have to brush anything, no stray threads or fuzz, off of my lap. Yay! Score another point for Caron.
While I was crocheting, I had to do some frogging (ripping out a "design decision"). When I do this with other fuzzy yarns, I have to be very careful, because the "fuzz" tends to wrap together, and it's difficult to undo. With Dazzleaire, however, I found it fairly easy to undo, as long as I didn't try to speed things up and just rip away. I took it slow and steady, and my "design decision" came out easily. Score another point for Caron.
Since Saturday, I've used some other colors of Dazzleaire in swatches, and so far, none of them have left any fuzzy bits. That means it's a super yarn for sweaters and scarves - it won't shed on your clothes.
I am really excited about this yarn. It works up very quickly – so what a great yarn it is for last minute baby or full-size afghans. And hats, scarves, sweaters. You name it!   :-D

Check out this swatch I did - look at the stitch definition, which is good, even though the yarn is fuzzy. 



And here's a close-up of the same swatch.



1 comment:

celdridge said...

I'm currently making a baby sweater with vintage Dazzle yarn. I love it! I didn't realize they had started making it again until I read your post. I will definitely have to pick some up the next time I buy yarn.