What yarn is best for amigurumi?
A lot comes down to personal preference but if you are just starting out on your first amigurumi then you might wonder which yarn you should choose. The fibre of choice that most people use is either cotton or acrylic. Cotton is a great choice and I love the neat stitches and the overall look of a finished piece in this fibre. The down side is it can be a lot stiffer than acrylic (especially if your tension is tight) which may not be what you want in a child’s soft toy. Acrylic is a little softer and a good choice to start out with as many people find it easier to crochet with, but it does tend to have a slightly fuzzy look which will get worse if the toy is played with a lot.
I mostly use cotton for all my patterns, I love the structural look of the finished pieces and I just think they look neater. You may have noticed, I do like colour, a lot. I spend a lot of time choosing colours for all my projects. When I find a yarn brand that has a large amount of colours to choose from I have to find an excuse to buy ALL the colours! If it comes in a pack then better still. Here are a few of my favourites:
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Drops Paris
This is the yarn I started out using right at the beginning of my design journey. I had just made an octopus by Patchwork Moose which used the yarn. Up until then I had only used acrylic and I really loved the look of the cotton. The pattern inspired me to write my own and this is what I naturally started with. It’s an aran weight (worsted) 100% cotton yarn which comes in 50g balls. A 3.5mm hook is perfect for this yarn. It’s on the slightly chunkier side for amigurumi but good for larger projects and comes in some really lovely colours. Here you can see my Ogres made in it which is the first patterns I designed.
Ricorumi
This is the yarn I have used in my new book ‘Crochet at Work’ (available to buy from my online shop very soon). What’s great about this yarn is it has lots of possibilities for skin colour (around thirteen as you can see in the picture below). This is a DK 100% cotton yarn and comes in 25g balls which is perfect for amigurumi projects. I use a 2.5mm hook for this yarn. There are 80 colours in total, 60 of which you can buy in a pack.
Scheepjes Catona
I discovered this yarn when I was commissioned by Simply Crochet to design my Speckled Birds. It’s a 100% mercerised cotton which gives in a gorgeous sheen. It’s 4-ply (sport) weight (the thinnest one here) so you’ll need a 2mm or 2.5mm hook for this one. Again there are a huge amount of colours and comes in packs too. It comes in balls of either 50g or 10g depending on your project size.
So these are the yarns I regular use but there are a lot more out there so it is good to have an experiment to find the ones you like. But can you use a different yarn than the one stated in a pattern?
Using a different yarn
Every pattern should state what yarn was used and how much of it. If you want your item to look exactly the same it is worth using the same yarn. But you can of course use a different one, especially if you have a stash to use up. Keep in mind when choosing a different yarn, if you use something thicker your make will come out a bigger (and vice versa). Using a different yarn but the same weight can also vary slightly size wise. If you are going to use a different fibre (ie acrylic instead of cotton) then your finished item may look different again. I’ve made one doll in acrylic and then in cotton and I have had to change the pattern to make it work. Also, you have to make sure you use the right hook size if you’re going for a different yarn weight.
I love to re-visit patterns sometimes and change up some of the colours. The speckled birds I designed were so much fun to make, Simply Crochet chose the colours to match the theme of the magazine. But an idea popped into my head the other day and thought it would just as good in more festive colours. In the photo below I’ve used 2 shades of green with a very Christmassy red but kept the pinks to keep its ‘pop’. What do you think? What other colours do you think would look good?
What’s your favourite yarn, tell me in the comments below…
