Trying Something New......

The kind people at Deramores asked me if I would like to try some of their yarn.

I get asked a lot if I will try things out and review them. 

I tend to always say no.  

I said yes, because of one thing really.

When I was a little girl, my mum knitted......a lot. I remember being dragged around to local yarn shops whilst she checked out what was available. Now, it seemed to me, that every village, town and surrounding area we visited, had a yarn shop. I seemed to always be in one.

Not so much now in this day and age.

With fewer yarn shops in villages and highstreets, online yarn shopping is the way to go for many. It's absolutely great that places like Deramores exist so that we can have a huge choice of wonderful yarns all under one roof. 

The problem I find is this. 

I stick to the brands I know. The ones that I have seen (and felt) from 'real' shops. I know that a huge part about choosing a yarn is its 'feel'. When choosing yarn online, you get a feel for it's colour and it's texture, but you just cannot grab it and see if it's what you want, like, need. If you don't have a local yarn shop, how on earth are you supposed to have ANY ideas as to what the yarns are like?

I do always love when other crafters use and talk about yarns I have never used or come across before, as it's the only way I can get a sense of what it would be like in reality. I value this feedback a lot in terms of online purchasing. I also know that many crafters are utterly honest in their opinions of products that they use, and I value that.

So, that's why I said 'Yes' to Deramores. 

They asked if I would like to try some Phildar Phil Coton 4 Yarn

When working with cotton yarn, I have only ever used King cole's Bamboo Cotton and Rico Design's Creative cotton. I was actually quite keen to try something else and see how it faired.

With the shades I wanted to make a  flower brooch. One that could be put on scarves and bags. I liked the idea of making it in cotton for its robustness. In the end, the grey colour didn't work as well as I had hoped, so I stuck with the pinks and the green which I think have worked out nicely

I was pretty pleased with the results. I used a pattern from this book.....

available here

...but I adapted it a little to suit me better.

This particular yarn comes in 50 shades which is pretty good. It fairs better in shade choice compared to King cole Bamboo Cotton (having only 32 shades) and Rico Creative Cotton (having 29 shades).

It states that this yarn has added Aloe Vera, which adds a 'softness and freshness' to the yarn.

It's a dk yarn that comes in 50g balls for £2.89.

So, what did I think of the yarn, as that's the most important thing here.....

Well, I was expecting the yarn to be softer in feel, for saying it was supposed to have added Aloe Vera for that very reason. I noticed that a review of the yarn on the Deramores site, had stated the very same thing. So I'm not sure that would be a 'sole' buying point for me. Having said that, when touching a brand new ball against a half used ball, the half used ball did appear a lot softer in touch. Maybe it softens up when it's being worked.

Whilst it's a very personal thing this, I generally prefer working with 100g balls. I had the same gripe with Rico Cotton. I mainly like to use cotton for pot holders, and find if I use 50g balls, I often have to 'knot' balls together on a project with a big block of colour which I find frustrating. This is a negligable gripe though, as 50g balls are often fine when working with small colour blocks and projects.

It was a pleasant yarn to work with. It didn't split whilst working with it (very important for me), and I liked the depth of colour in the shades that I chose. I thought the shade choice was decent all in all.

Would I buy it now I've used it in the 'flesh'? Yes, I think I would add it to my list of 'go to' cottons. I think I really like the look of some of the shades. 

Chanvre, mercure, tournesol are shades I think I'd quite like to have in my cotton stash for 'go to' projects, and I think the yarn would mix and match with any other dk cottons you had already, quite happily.

So, all in all, a nice yarn, and one I'd happily use in my cotton crafting projects.

The brooch is a happy, fun brooch, and it will go well on scarves, bags and cardigans, and being cotton, will withstand a lot of wear!

Happy week all.


xxx

p.s. This is a sponsored post by Deramores, but the makes and opinions expressed are entirely my own.