Another on the Side

I'm in the midst of another arthritis flare, so I decided to get in a little more crochet with a side project using some of the yarn from my Herrschner's mystery bag. The very light gray yarn is super soft, but what weight is it? Bulky? Super Bulky? Since there is no information on the bag other than the weight and care instructions, we'll have to do a test.

This is called the wraps per inch test -- you wrap your yarn around something like a pencil or other object with a consistent width) and count how many times you can wrap your yarn around an inch of it. I just use my quilting ruler since it has the inches already marked. My gray yarn wrapped six times.

According to the Craft Yarn Council, that means the yarn is either bulky or super bulky, so I have to choose. Based on my experience with yarns I'd say it's a light super bulky.

Although I like to use an 8mm hook with super bulky yarn, everyone has their own preference, abnd there's usually a range. If you're following a pattern you should use the hook that works with the gauge in the instructions.

Working with the mystery yarn really helped loosen up my fingers, and unlike most super bulky yarns it's quite soft and has a delightful hand. I'm making up a smaller version of the big beautiful basket, and if I have enough yarn I might make two.

By the way, I lined one of the baskets I thrifted with a vintage pillow sham, and it makes a perfect project bin now.

Image credit: the screenshot of the wraps per inch chart came from that page on the Craft Yarn Council's web site.