Greener Yarn:
Knitters everywhere are paying more attention to where their yarn comes from, how it is made and its potential impact upon the environment. There are many choices across the spectrum of eco-friendly yarns, starting with locally sourced, undyed fiber you spin yourself and going up to large, commercially produced products that contain some organic or recycled material.
Red Heart's Eco-Ways yarn falls into that second category. It's an acrylic and recycled polyester blend (the recycled material comes from recycled plastics) that provides a bit of a stepping stone into greener materials at conventional prices.
Specifications:
- Content: 70 percent acrylic, 30 percent recycled polyester
- Yarn weight: Medium
- Gauge: Ball band says 17 stitches and 24 rows per 4 inches on size 8 US needles; I got 17.5 stitches and 23 rows per 4 inches with size 7 needles
- Yardage: 186 yards per skein (113 grams)
- Color availability: comes in 8 no dye lot colors
- Color used in swatch: 1615, Lichen
- Care instructions: Machine washable and dryable
Knitting:
Red Heart Eco-Ways is an easy yarn to knit with. I had no trouble at all with splitting and the stitches are very even. The knit fabric has a bit of openness to it and not a lot of curl, some of which blocked out.
The yarn is soft and easy to work with, but it does have a bit of a strange texture that I can only describe as artificial and plastic feeling. The knit fabric also feels a little stiff and firm as it's coming off the needles.
Luckily some of this problem was solved with blocking; the yarn feels softer and more flexible after a dip in the water.
Uses for Red Heart Eco-Ways:
Eco-Ways can be used in the same way you'd use any other acrylic yarn. It would be particularly good for baby and kids' clothes (the colors are mostly light pastels, along with white, black, brown and gray), blankets and other projects that are going to be washed a lot.
I would also think about using this yarn for home decor projects and charity knitting. The nice, even stitches would make this a fine choice for colorwork or textured knitting as well.
Bottom Line:
Red Heart Eco-Ways retails for around $3.20 a skein, which puts it on about the same level as other Red Heart yarns. The soft feel, durability, washability and bit of green credibility (the yarn's ball band is also printed on recycled paper) make this an easy choice for whenever you need acrylic yarn, but the limited range of colors may limit your use of it.
Here's hoping this is a good trend for Red Heart and that they will continue to add recycled content in larger quantities to their products and offer them in more colors so that even knitters who shop the big chains can make their knits a little greener.
