Yarn Reviews

Bernat's Glow in the Dark yarn is a fun yarn to use as an accent for Halloween costumes or for any other occasion when you might be out in the dark, but its short glow time means it won't improve safety

Like the worsted weight version of Berroco's Comfort yarn, Comfort Chunky provides comfort and durability at a good price and in a bulky weight that will have your projects flying off the needles even faster.

Berroco Comfort is a great go-to yarn for anything that you want to make comfortable, washable and durable. The worsted weight Comfort would be a great choice for sweaters for kids or adults, and the huge range of colors makes customization easy.

Berroco has a lot of fun yarns, and the thick and thin, multicolored Hip-Hop is a great choice for accessories or even a sweater if you don't mind it being a little holey.

Berroco Inca Gold is a lovely, squishy yarn with a nice bit of shine that would be perfect for projects that need a bit of added glamor.

Berroco Latitude is an interesting combination of cotton and rayon fibers wrapped together in a silky feeling but stiffer acting yarn that would be great for summer accessories.

Berroco's Linen Jeans yarn is a tube of rayon and linen that brings a soft feel and a casual, drapey look to whatever knitting projects you might choose to make with it.

A soft, shiny yarn that combines the qualities of silk and wool, Berroco Palace yarn is a great choice when you want a project with a little sheen.

Berroco Pure Pima yarn is a great choice for summer knitting or any cotton knitting project that you want to have a little more sheen and softness than your typical project knit with standard cotton yarn.

Black Water Abbey yarn is made in Ireland and distributed in Colorado, giving American knitters the best of both worlds: a fine wool from the old country without the expense of shipping.

Blue Moon Fiber Arts may be known for its sock yarn, but there's more to this company than Socks that Rock, like this lovely 100 percent certified organic merino wool called Gaea.

Caron Simply Soft Eco delivers what knitters liked about Simply Soft with a green twist: each skein is made in part with recycled fiber made from plastic bottles.

Cascade 220 is a well-known go-to yarn for basic wool knitting, but its' superwash counterpart, known just as simply as Cascade 220 Superwash, is a workhorse yarn that's also machine washable.

Cascade is known for making a wide variety of workhorse yarns that are beautiful, useful for a variety of projects, and well-priced. Ecological Wool is no exception: it has generous yardage, a variety of natural colors and is great for knitting and felting.

Recycled silk yarn is a lovely product that's fun to work with and makes dramatic looking projects. Darn Good Yarn offers a nice handspun silk yarn recycled from the leftovers of silk sari production.

Alpaca is a luxurious and warm yarn, and the natural alpaca from Farm Yarn in England is truly beautiful and luscious. It's the perfect choice for extra-special knitting projects.

Galler Yarns' Inca-Eco is a 100 percent organic cotton yarn dyed with eco-friendly dyes and spun in a thick-and-thin manner for a soft, lovely yarn you'll want to use for a variety of projects.

Hand Jive makes a collection of beautiful yarns that are dyed by hand with natural dyestuffs and eco-friendly practices. Nature's Palette is a beauty of a yarn that will make you happy to embrace more natural knitting.

Hand Jive's Nature's Palette Green Sheep Columbia Worsted is an organic wool yarn made mostly from the wool of Columbia sheep living in Montana. The wool is hearty, warm and the perfect thing for a winter project.

Kitchen Sink Dyeworks makes lovely hand-dyed yarns and rovings for spinners in a variety of fibers and colors. This merino-cashmere-nylon blend is perfect for socks.

Knit Picks Andes del Campo is a pretty, heavy yarn that lends a great natural look to any project you might want to knit with it.

If you'd like to knit with an acrylic yarn without any of the bad feeling of some acrylics, Knit Picks Brava is a great choice.

Knit Picks' Shadow Tonal is a pretty lace weight yarn with subtle color changes that make it a good choice for just about any lace knitting pattern you want to work with it.

Sugarbunny is a limited-edition, merino and angora blend from Knit Picks you're sure to want to use for some of your special holiday knitting.

Wool of the Andes Tonal from Knit Picks is a lovely semisolid yarn you'll want to use for a wide variety of fall and winter knitting projects.

Koigu is known for its beautiful hand painted yarns that are just as lovely to work with as they are to look at. Koigu Premium Merino, or KPM, is a great chioce for delicate items with lovely subtle color changes and a bit of shine.

Kollage Yarns has a wide variety of yarns made from alternative fibers, including two corn yarns. Corntastic has great stitch definition and is machine washable, making it versatile and fun.

Cornucopia by Kollage is a 100 percent corn yarn that's actually itself a knit tube. Similar in behavior to a ribbon yarn and feels sort of like a cross between cotton and bamboo.

You might not have thought it was possible to knit with milk, but these days just about anything is possible. Kollage's Creamy yarn is 80 percent milk and 20 percent cotton, giving it a fun, silky feel.

We all know that eating soy is good for our bodies, but could knitting with soy be good for the planet? Kollage Yarns' Delicious may not save the planet, but it's still a lot of fun to work with.

Kollage Yarn is known for its variety of eco-friendly and alternative fiber yarns. Hope is a 100 percent organic cotton yarn that may just become your go-to cotton yarn.

I don't know of a knitter (unless maybe they're allergic) who doesn't love cashmere yarn, and Lion Brand's LB Collection Cashmere is a lovely choice that knits up evenly and has a wonderful, pettable feel.

Lion Brand's LB Collection Cotton Bamboo is a soft, silky light worsted yarn that's perfect for summer knitting projects you'll love to knit and to wear.

Sugar'n Cream is a rather ubiquitous cotton yarn that's a great choice for projects that will get a lot of use like washcloths and mop covers.

Lion Brand Organic Wool is a great choice if you're looking for a somewhat bulky wool yarn that's easy to use and puts a little lighter load on the environment than traditionally produced yarns.

Lion Brand's Lion Wool is a classic basic wool knitting yarn that is great for a variety of projects, from sweaters and throws to felting. Learn the specs and more about this go-to wool yarn.

Lion Brand's Nature's Choice Organic Cotton Yarn is a great choice for people who want the ease and natural look of cotton without the heavy pesticide load. Learn more about this eco-friendly choice.

A sturdy cotton yarn with a bit of hemp for added shine, Martha Stewart Crafts Cotton Bamboo is a winner for kitchen projects and beyond.

You might not think of recycled cotton as being the softest yarn out there, but Lion Brand's Recycled Cotton yarn is surprisingly soft, easy to work with and produces nice results.

Martha Stewart Crafts Lofty Wool Blend is a big, beautiful yarn that's easy to work with for accessories in a flash.

Rockfish by Midnightsky Fibers is a beautiful light wool yarn that's naturally dyed and a breeze to work with. While this particular yarn may not always be available, Jenn Wisbeck's yarns are always worth checking out.

Midnightsky Fibers specializes in vegan and environmentally friendly yarns died with natural ingredients that are handspun and hand dyed. Roo Rio is a lovely chunky yarn that shows off the natural dyes to great advantage.

Nashua Handknits Natural Focus Ecologie Cotton is a lovely Pima cotton yarn that is naturally dyed, making it a great choice for eco-conscious knitters as well as those who simply want a great looking finished product when knitting with cotton

Caron Country yarn is a pretty, soft and squishy yarn that would be great for kids' clothes and easy care projects for adults.

Noro Kureyon is a beautiful wool yarn produced as much by human hands as possible, dyed in lovely colors to make a self-striping yarn you're sure to love.

O-Wool's Balance yarn is a 50/50 organic cotton/organic merino wool blend that is easy to knit with and super-soft. It may in fact be the perfect balance of cotton, wool and sustainability.

O-Wool's Classic organic wool yarn is a true classic that you'll want to use to knit up sweaters, hats and scarves, all without the chemical residue often involved in conventional yarn production.

O-Wool Classic 2-Ply is an organic merino wool yarn that would be a good choices for your fine knitting projects.

Peaches & Creme is a workhorse cotton yarn that you'll actually want to work with, because it's one of the softer yarns in the kitchen cotton genre.

Plymouth Galway is a nice general purpose wool yarn that's great for felting and makes a nice, smooth fabric good for a wide variety of projects.

Plymouth Yarns Boku is a colorful wool and silk blend that's great for felting and a variety of other projects.

PolarKnit's Worsted Weight yarn is a warm, luscious yarn, perfect for winter warming projects.

The Deborah Norville Collection from Premier Yarns aims to provide knitters with durable, fashionable yarns for all their crafting needs. The chunky version of the yarn is super soft and easy to work with for big needle projects.

Deborah Norville's Serenity line from Premier Yarns includes this warm and soft sport weight yarn, a blend of nylon and acrylic perfect for projects that will bring comfort and warmth as well as easy care.

There always seems to be a need in the world for more nice, good-quality yarns that are also easy to take care of. The Deborah Norville Collection from Premier Yarns fits the bill nicely, including with Serenity Worsted Weight, a great basic yarn that's easy to work with.

Red Heart's Collage yarn is a tweedy self-striping yarn with subtle color variations and a nice, almost wooly feel for an acrylic yarn

If you're looking for an inexpensive, easy to work with acrylic yarn that also feels nice to knit with and to wear, Designer Sport by Red Heart may be for you. While I found the finished fabric a little firm, it's a nice choice for colorwork and stitch patterns.

More yarn companies are working hard these days to make their yarn a little greener, as Red Heart has done with its Eco-Cotton Blend, made from a blend of recycled T-shirt cotton and acrylic yarn, which makes for a durable yarn with a little more softness than some cottons.

Red Heart Eco-Ways is a somewhat more eco-friendly acrylic yarn in that it contains recycled polyester fibers. While it feels a little plasticy, it's also got great stitch definition and would be a good general purpose acrylic yarn.

Red Heart's Heart and Sole is a lovely, easy working, machine washable sock yarn that may become your go-to basic for washable, comfortable socks

A workhorse acrylic yarn that's softer than some you might have tried, Red Heart With Love is a good choice for home decor projects or even a simple knit throw.

Rowan Big Wool is an easy knitting, easy wearing yarn that makes quick work of any project. A great yarn for beginners, it is warm and versatile.

Sheep(ish) is the first installment in the Stitch. Rock. Love. yarn line by Vickie Howell for Caron. The acrylic/wool blend is a little shiny, a little fuzzy and full of retro style.

Socks that Rock by Blue Moon Fiber Arts does indeed make projects that rock, produced through knitting that is a lot of fun, too.

Alpaca Love from the Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller line is a blend of wool and alpaca that's easy to knit with, if a little firm. It works up into picture perfect Stockinette stitch.

Debbie Stoller of Stitch N Bitch fame has developed a yarn line with Red Heart that includes this silky, fuzzy blend of wool and bamboo, perfect for sweater knitting and beyond.

Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller's 100 percent wool yarn, Full o' Sheep, is a slightly thick and thin yarn that's easy to work with and pretty soft to the touch.

Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller's Washable Ewe yarn is a nice superwash wool that's soft enough for all your washable wool needs at a great price.

Adorn Sock by Three Irish Girls is a pretty wool and nylon blend perfect for simple socks or projects with more pizazz.

Valley Yarns Northampton is a hard working, unassuming wool yarn that would be a great choice for just about any project you can think up, from basic sweaters to felted projects and intricate colorwork.

Vanna's Choice Yarn by Lion Brand is a surprising soft and versatile acrylic yarn that would be great for baby clothes, accessories and other projects that should be beautiful as well as durable.

Yarnia PDX makes wonderful custom yarns that are wound together rather than being spun, making for an interesting knitting experience and a different look in the finished knit fabric than you'd get if you were knitting with a more conventional yarn.

Knitters Review is a wonderful online magazine that has great reviews of recent knitting books as well as in-depth looks at different kinds of yarn. Search by gauge or by manufacturer and find the perfect yarn for you.

Malabrigo is known for its luscious, beautiful yarns, and probably the most popular one out there is the Malabrigo Worsted, a 100 percent merino wool hand-dyed yarn.