How do the words fingering weight yarn make you feel? I know when I was first getting into yarn craft, fingering weight yarn left me with both a sense of awe, it’s totally gorgeous, and fear, I could never make anything out of such fine yarn! I’m going to say that these feelings are totally normal and very common. If you have felt intimidated by fingering weight yarn in the past, I’m going to give you seven reasons why you should go ahead and give it a try!
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- You get a lot of yardage in 1 skein.
Hand-dyed yarn, that gorgeous, fancy, typically more pricey yarn, averages between 400 and 450 yards in one skein. WeCrochet offers several fingering weight yarns including Stroll (231 yards), Stroll Tonal (462 yards), Palette (231 yards) and Hawthorne (357 yards). Lion Brand Yarn has Sock-Ease and Summer Nights, both with 400 yards per skein. Hobby Lobby sells Yarn Bee Blends Bliss which has 443 yards. If you pick a small project or lacey summer garment, you can easily make an entire project with just a couple of skeins of fingering weight yarn, depending on the yardage!
- It can be affordable.
It used to be that fingering weight yarn only came in the fancy, more expensive varieties. But recently larger yarn companies and craft stores have gotten wise to the gorgeousness of fingering weight yarn and have started offering a wide variety of fingering weight yarns at a wide variety of price points! I am absolutely in love with Stroll yarn from WeCrochet! Stroll comes in a variety of colors and dye techniques. You can get 231 yards per skein for just $5.99 which can be great for trying it out on smaller projects without investing a lot of money! Lion Brand Yarn also has a couple fingering weight yarns, including Oh Baby Organic and Summer Nights. Each skein of Oh Baby Organic has 180 yards and costs $5.99. Summer Nights has a fun sparkle and is $6.49 per 437-yard skein. Also, with Lion Brand Yarn being carried at JoAnn Stores, you can make them even more affordable with coupons! Hobby Lobby has also started carrying more fingering weight yarns including Yarn Bee Rainbow Wrapsody and Yarn Bee Color Idyll. At $8.99 for 918 yards Rainbow Wrapsody is a really great value! Yarn Bee Color Idyll is available for $8.99 as well and has 415 yards. These are just a few of the affordable fingering weight yarns out there. With the wide variety of prices and fiber content you’re sure to find the perfect, affordable yarn for any project!
- It has amazing drape.
It’s no secret that crocheted projects, especially garments, can be a bit on the bulky side. The nature of crochet stitches, especially the basic ones, tend to be a bit thicker. This isn’t a bad thing! Everyone needs a super cozy sweater! But if you’re looking for amazing drape – the way the fabric hangs and moves – fingering weight yarn is a great way to get a nice flowy drape! If you’re thinking, but it’ll take forever to make anything out of fingering weight yarn…read on!
- The yarn works up more quickly than you’d think.
One of my biggest fears about using fingering weight yarn was that it would take FOREVER to make anything. This is where crochet has the advantage! With the ability to make tall stitches and gorgeous lace, crocheting with fingering weight yarn can move really quickly! If you tend to get bogged down by larger or more time-consuming projects, start with a smaller project like a lacy scarf or shawl!
- There are countless beautiful patterns.
Gone are the days when fingering weight yarn was reserved for knitting. A quick search on ravelry.com brings up over 30,000 patterns! There are pillows, shawls, wall hangings, sweaters, socks and even amigurumi! With that many patterns, you’re sure to find just the right project for you! Personally, I love my Daylight Dreams Shawl! It uses two colors of fingering weight yarn and, with its lacy texture, it works up super quickly!
- It comes in a variety of dye techniques.
While fingering weight yarn does come in solid colors, it also comes in an amazing array of dye techniques, even in the more affordable yarns! Stroll yarn from WeCrochet comes in solid, tonal, hand painted, and even gradient! So, what do those look like? Good question! Tonal yarns stay within one color but shift between values of that color. This gives the yarn a lot of interest while staying in one color. Gradient yarns move between several colors, sometimes slowly shifting, other times changing more abruptly. They often move from light to dark, but they can also shift between several colors. Hand-painted yarn is just like it sounds. Color is painted on allowing for a carefully placed mix of many colors. It’s a really gorgeous effect!
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- You can mix and match fancy and affordable yarns.
This can be a little tricky, but it can totally be done! There are definitely some things to consider when you are using different types of yarn together. Check the fiber content. The more similar the fiber content, the easier it will be to use two different yarns together. Mixing a wool yarn and cotton probably wouldn’t work as those two types of yarn behave differently. But if you’re mixing different kinds of wool or different kinds of cotton, those would probably work well together! Also, consider the weight of the yarns. Even if they both say fingering on the label, the weight of fingering weight yarn can vary from light to heavy. If there’s too big of a difference in the weight of the yarn, it can be noticeable when it’s worked up together, especially if you’re making a garment. Depending on your comfort level of mixing and matching, you might also want to be careful about mixing colors. When you purchase yarns from the same dyer or yarn line, a lot of times, they are made to coordinate and go together. If you are going to mix yarns from different sellers, consider trying to contrast rather than match. It can be very difficult to get an exact match of shades of pink or blue, instead, if you add a neutral tone like gray, navy, or even olive, it’s a lot more likely that they’ll coordinate nicely together.
See!? So many good reasons to give fingering weight yarn a try! With such a wide range of price points, you can test it out without a giant investment! I hope this has given you the encouragement you need to give it a try! If you’re ready to try your first project, I recommend my Braids and Bobbles Shawlette! The beautiful stitches and flexibility of color options make it a great place to start! Happy crafting!
All pattern links in the post go to Ravelry. If you’d like to purchase any pattern on Etsy, shop here!
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