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This post includes everything you need to know about Lion Brand Chainette! Is it worth the hype? Let’s find out!
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Fiber Friday
What is Fiber Friday? I’m gonna share with you one new yarn that I’m absolutely loving, including allllll the info – the yarn specs, what I would make with it, what I’d use it for, why it’s great for certain types of projects, and what patterns I’ve found that use this yarn including my own patterns and patterns from others! It’s fun to really focus on one specific yarn and explore all the projects people have been making with it. This is one way that I find new patterns, new designers and new designs that I love and can add to my Ravelry queue to make when I have time to start a new project!
When I started knitting and crocheting, I basically used Lion Brand Thick and Quick yarn exclusively. I’m sure you’ve tried it before.. It’s the best. It’s a fun, high quality department store chunky yarn that is easily available and inexpensive – perfect for beginners or those who love those quick gratification projects. If you’re learning to knit or crochet, I would recommend learning with this yarn! For the last 3 years, hats made with Thick and Quick have been my main source of income for the year, and I think now it’s time to venture into new territory and explore some thinner yarns.. and I thought it would be fun to do it together!
Lion Brand – LB Collection Chainette
Lion Brand Chainette is part of Lion Brand’s “LB Collection” of yarns. The LB Collection is essentially Lion Brand’s luxury line, but without a luxury price tag! Lion Brand is known for being extremely accessible in terms of pricing (with most of their products costing well under $10 per unit) so I’m very excited that they have created a more upscale yarn line of more luxurious yarns that are actually affordable to the average person! What makes these yarns more high-end? The LB Collection contains high percentages of animal fibers, rather than high percentages of acrylic or synthetic fibers. Some of my favourite yarns in this collection include:
- 100% Superwash Merino – 100% Superwash Merino
- Merino Yak Alpaca – 70% Merino Wool, 15% Alpaca, 15% Yak
- Cotton Bamboo – 52% Cotton, 48% Rayon from Bamboo
- Merino Camel – 80% Merino Wool, 20% Camel
- Mako Cotton – 94% Mako Cotton, 6% Nylon
- Fifty Fifty – 50% Wool, 50% Alpaca
- Chainette – 70% Baby Alpaca, 18% Virgin Wool, 12% Polyamide
- Cotton Jeans – 100% Cotton
- 100% Baby Alpaca – 100% Baby Alpaca (the softest type of alpaca fiber)
You’d think that with fiber contents like this, the prices would be a lot higher, but they are actually very similar in price to the rest of the Lion Brand yarns! Some of these come in smaller put-ups (or smaller skeins), but the price per unit remains around that $10 mark for most of these products.
Lately, I’ve really wanted to expand my stash to new brands, new fibers and new types of yarn. Let’s discuss what it’s like to work with Chainette!
Have you ever knit or crocheted with a cloud before? Because today’s yarn is literally a cloud. Ok, not quite literally. But really, really, really, really close.
Patterns
I have designed two crochet garments with Chainette: the Chainette Turtleneck which is a really cozy, oversized raglan turtleneck pullover, and the Cloverwood Cardigan, a textured cardigan with a cozy collar.
I found a few other patterns that use Chainette that are definitely worth checking out!
A few patterns to check out are:
1. Easy Eyelet Yoke – Knitatude
2. Crossback Sweater – Knitatude
3. The Horizons Beanie – All About Ami
4. Simple Slouch Gwen Hat – Sewrella
5. The Balance Shawl – Woods and Wool
Before we get into this, let me preface this with saying that if I didn’t like a yarn, I wouldn’t write about it. I’m only sharing my favourite yarns that I loved so much as to even write up my own patterns with them and use them myself. If I don’t love it, I won’t use it, and I definitely won’t recommend it to you, promise 🙂
Yarn Specs
- Medium, Category 4 yarn
- 115yds/105m per 50g ball
- 70% Baby alpaca, 18% Virgin wool, 12% Polyamide
- Recommended needle size 5mm
- Recommended hook size 5.5mm
- Hand wash + lay flat to dry
- 11 really gorgeous colours
- The shades of the colours are perfect. They aren’t so in-your-face-bright but are nicely muted, wearable colours. Very earthy tones, from the silver, cream, and beige, to the mustard, olive, and amber. I honestly could not even pick a favourite because I love them all!
Some similar yarns for comparison’s sake: Drops Air, Hobbii Divina, WeCrochet Wonderfluff.
My Thoughts
Yarns with blown constructions like this are my absolutely favourite types of yarns to work with. One reason is that even though it’s categorized as a worsted weight yarn, the blown construction creates an extremely lightweight fiber that won’t weigh your project down or stretch and grow like other fibers, giving you some of those benefits of a lighter weight yarn. It allows you to create a worsted weight project, which works up really quickly, with the light, airy fabric and feel of a thinner yarn. It’s the best of both worlds – I like to think that you get the lightness of a fingering weight sweater but the quick gratification of a heavier weight yarn. This is especially important in crochet garments, where you’re using so much more yarn than compared to knitting – sometimes double or more!
The fuzzy halo texture created from the alpaca fibers helps lock your stitches in place, preventing unwanted growth or stretching during wear. Combined with the lightweight nature of this yarn, it really creates a beautiful finished garment that doesn’t feel heavy or bulky when you wear it. The reason it’s so light is because the textured fibers create a really voluminous yarn, so a lot of the volume is actually air!
The fiber itself is textured, not smooth. Thanks to the alpaca and wool content in Chainette, it is really soft to the touch and isn’t scratchy or uncomfortable against your skin. I absolutely love a good textured yarn, and this one definitely delivers. When I go shopping for store-bought sweaters, I’m always drawn to the fuzzy ones or the sweaters that have interesting textures; and my process for choosing yarns is no different! I just love that it’s unique and helps make your finished projects more interesting.
Chainette is one of my favourite Lion Brand yarns I’ve ever used. I didn’t expect it to live up to all the hype, and it totally did! It exceeded all my expectations and I have since ordered this yarn many more times. For my Chainette Turtleneck, I used around 8 balls of yarn for this sweater, and it barely weighs anything. It’s so light, yet so warm, which surprised me since it is practically weightless. Gotta love these blown fibers!
Something noteworthy of this yarn is obvious, but I will say it anyway – that it’s a chainette style. (Shocking!) The name of the yarn is Chainette, and “chainette” is also a type of yarn that refers to the way the strand of yarn is constructed. It is not twisted yarn like you often find, but the strand itself is a chain; hence – Chainette. It’s like the fibers have already been spun into a shoelace-type strand. The benefit of using a chainette style yarn is that your hook and needles are waaaay less likely to split the yarn. You know when you’re knitting or crocheting and you realize that half an hour ago, in a row that is too far gone, you actually only picked up half the strand of yarn and now you are left with a skinny, 1-ply loop sticking out of your work? YEAH, IT’S THE WORST. That is very unlikely to happen here, which is a really nice benefit to using a chainette yarn.
The only kind-of-downside: it’s a little more difficult to frog. Since it’s a higher quality yarn with a high alpaca content, it can be hard to unravel once it’s worked up. Have you ever tried to unravel mohair? It’s kind of like that. So if you’re like me, and you need to frog your work a lot, it takes a little longer than usual, but it’s still do-able! Again, not really a con, it’s just the nature of working with these kinds of fibers. And a trick to unraveling: put your project in the freezer first!
For my Chainette Turtleneck, I used a 6.5mm hook rather than the 5.5mm hook recommended on the label because I wanted it to be really loose and drapey, and I think that decision worked out really well. It’s very airy and isn’t stiff like so many crochet sweaters can be.
For my Cloverwood Cardigan, I actually used a 4.5mm hook and a 3.7mm hook. I chose to use a smaller hook since I was crocheting in the linen stitch, which is quite open and airy and could handle using a smaller hook without feeling stiff.
To sum it up, I am obsessed with Chainette. It definitely gets my stamp of approval. I don’t say this about many yarns, but this is one of my all-time favourite yarns to work with.
If you want to check out the yarn for yourself and see all the pretty colour options, click here to browse!
- Click here to read more about the Chainette Turtleneck! Use code “PATTERN10” for 10% off all platforms
- Shop my Lion Brand kits here!
Thanks so much for reading!
Next week: Lion Brand Merino Camel!
Happy making!
x
Janine
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