Hi friends!
This post contains affiliate links. This means, should you make a purchase, I will receive a small portion of the sale at no extra cost to you. All opinions are my own. View my Privacy + Disclosures Policy here.
For so long I’ve heard that Lion Brand Wool-Ease was everybody’s go-to worsted weight yarn. It is the thinner, worsted weight version of Wool-Ease Thick & Quick which I used religiously for years! I wanted to try the worsted weight version so badly but we never had it in stores where I live. The first time I tried it was actually when I created my square for the Traveling Crochet Afghan (shown below!) View the traveling afghan square pattern for free here or download the PDF for $1 here.
Fiber Friday
What is Fiber Friday? Every 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!
Quick back story on why I’m doing this: 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 1000% recommend learning with this yarn! In the last 3 years, I have knit more hats made with Thick and Quick than I can count, 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 Wool-Ease
I recently got my hands on some Lion Brand Wool-Ease in a sweaters’ quantity for my book and I just wanted to share my thoughts! PS – if you didn’t know, I’m writing a book! It will be released in November of 2021 and it will be filled with 20 fall/winter crochet sweater patterns, all graded from XS-5XL, so keep your eyes out for that! Make sure to sign up for my newsletter to be notified as soon as we start taking pre-orders!
This is the colourway “Umber” that turned into a really pretty crocheted sweater that you will be able to see when my book comes out :)Ok back to Wool-Ease: Now first off – I know that this has been a widely available yarn for a lot of people for a long time, but we actually just got it here in Canada! We used to have Vanna’s Choice available at stores here (like at Michael’s), but then it disappeared from the shelves about a year ago. Now, we’ve got some new yarns in place of Vanna’s Choice, and Wool-Ease is one of them. Pretty much the only difference between Vanna’s Choice and Wool-Ease is that Vanna’s Choice was 100% acrylic, and Wool-Ease is 80% acrylic; 20% wool. They both are great yarns with a wide colour range, but the wool component does make a better option for garments since it has a greater ability to hold its shape and blocks nicely whereas acrylic is a little more difficult to block since there are no natural fibers. The colour I got is called Umber, and it’s a gorgeous, deep, warm brown. It’s one of my favourite colours to wear and I love love love this shade.
Wool-Ease is one of LB’s OG yarns that has been around for decades and today there is an entire wool-ease family of yarns that all share the 80/20 acrylic/wool blend composition:
Yarn Specs
- yarn weight #4 (medium, aran weight)
- 197yds (180m) per 85g skein (3 oz)
- 80% acrylic; 20% wool
- $4.69 per skein (USD)
- recommended needle size: 5mm
- recommended hook size: 6mm
- I have used all of 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, and 6.5mm hooks for this yarn and all worked great; it just depends on the fabric density you are looking for!
- Tip: If you’re working a fabric in all plain dc, you may want to size down since this is an airy stitch pattern.
- Tip: If you’re working a fabric in all plain sc, you may want to size up since this is a dense stitch pattern.
- recommended care: machine wash + machine dry!
- dozens and dozens of colour options
My Thoughts
Versatile: I see why this is such a popular line. It’s a great universal worsted yarn that can be used for so many different types of projects. The durability definitely plays an important role in this yarn’s success – the fact that you can machine wash and dry your finished projects is a huge bonus! Wool-Ease is perfect for everything from winter accessories to everyday garments.
Great for Knitwear Sellers: If you’re looking for a yarn to use for markets stock, this is a great one since it has so many colour options that are easy to mix and match within its own line but also with other yarn weights. For example, when I was doing markets, I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick for my scarves and I always wished that I had a lighter yarn that with identical colour options so that I could make matching headbands and hats (Wool-Ease Thick & Quick is just too thick to crochet hats with in my opinion!). I tried using Vanna’s Choice, but I found that my customers were not wanting 100% acrylic hats.
Enter: Wool-Ease! It’s the perfect match to LB Thick & Quick.
Tip: You can also order Wholesale from Lion Brand directly and get a great price if you buy in larger quantities. I used to do this when I sold finished product a few years ago.
Budget Friendly: If you have some Wool-Ease in your stash, there are so many projects to make with it. At only USD$4.69 per skein, it’s a perfect budget-friendly substitute for any patterns that call for LB Jeans, Jeans Colours, Heartland, Vanna’s Choice, Basic Stitch, Pound of Love, and basically any worsted weight wool or acrylic yarn out there.
Let me know if you’ve tried it! I’d love to know what you end up making!
Shop Wool-Ease here on the Lion Brand website or here on LoveCrafts.
Some other yarn review posts you may be interested in:
Read the Lion Brand Truboo review here.
Read the Lion Brand Chainette review here.
Read the Lion Brand Beautiful You review here.
Read the Lion brand Merino Camel review here.
Read the Brooklyn Tweed Peerie review here.
Read the WeCrochet Hawthorne fingering review here.
Read the WeCrochet Palette review here.
Happy making!
Janine xx
You May Also Like
