Minions (who do my bidding) and Followers (who do not)

About Me

My photo
Mama, wife, knitter, blogger, spinner, wannabe something or other. That's enough, right?

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Yarn Review: Knit Picks Mighty Stitch & Mighty Stitch Bulky

Happy Tuesday! It's been over a year since I've done a yarn review and I thought it would be time for another one. I'm on no set schedule so these may pop up from time to time. I tried to do the whole schedule thing.....it didn't work very well for me. Apparently my life is too unpredictable.

The purpose of my yarn reviews: to review a yarn from my stash that I have either used in the past or am currently using for a project. The review may or may not include multiple types of the same yarn or multiple different yarns on the same day. The yarns in question are, unless otherwise specified, coming from my own stash and have been purchased either by me or for me (example: birthday present from Husband), and are for my use (which may or may not include my own design work). I've not been paid nor received any non-monetary compensation for the yarn reviews. The reviews are of my own opinion, based on my personal experiences. In addition, they may or may not coincide with the thoughts of other fiber enthusiasts.


Knit Picks Mighty Stitch (worsted & bulky)

1. Information about The Company: Knit Picks started in 2002 with a fiber enthusiast and an engineer. Their goal was to create a line of consistent and reasonably priced items. They work with trusted mills and manufacturers around the world, right at the source. They are also an ethical company; they spend time traveling to their manufacturers and mills every year to ensure safe working conditions and no child labor. 

2. Other Yarns Offered: Do you really want me to get into this? Okay....Palette, CotLin, Chroma, Felici, Lindy, Stroll, Dishie, Comfy, Brava, Swish....and the list goes on and on and on.

3. Information about the Yarn:
     - Official Name: Knit Picks Mighty Stitch (or Mighty Stitch Bulky)
     - Fiber Content: 80% acrylic/20% superwash wool
     - Skein Weight/Yardage: 100 g/208 yds (136 yds for bulky)
     - Gauge: 4.5-5 sts on US #6 (3-3.75 on US #10 for bulky)
     - Yarn Weight: Worsted (bulky)
     - Washing Instructions: Machine wash gentle & tumble dry low
     - Where to Purchase: Knit Picks

4. Review (why you're really here):
     - PROS:
          1. Machine washable and dryable. I have children so this is a big deal for me. 
          2. Consistent colors, which is important if you're making large items.
          3. Large variety of colors. 
          4. Ethical company.
          5. Tough yarn. This yarn is incredibly difficult to break. I had to cut it. 
          6. Inexpensive. Always a bonus.
     - CONS:
          1. Splitty. I found that the yarn was splitty (the worsted more so than the bulky). 
          2. The worsted weight pills like crazy (the bulky had none). Even while knitting, little pills would travel down the working yarn and I'd have to cut them or rip them off the working yarn. My dry hands did not like working with this at times because they would get caught on fluffs.


Case in point: this is the fluff I scraped off the eight worsted weight hats with my travel Gleaner (this is after the hats had a trip through the dryer but I had plenty of fluff before then). It doesn't loo like a whole lot but it was a Little Man handful (and he compressed it down a bit). When I scraped the bulky hats, nothing came off from the bulky part (but a little came off with the stripe in the middle). 
          3. If you're a bit of a fiber snob, you can tell this is an acrylic yarn, though a soft one. 
          4. I found a few knots and weak spots in the yarn (not the bulky, just the worsted). I had to cut the knots out, which wasn't a big issue. But, for the five skeins of the worsted that I had, I found at least one knot per ball. 


In case you've missed it over the last few weeks, I've made several projects out of this yarn:



Honestly, the pilling issue alone turns me off from this yarn. I think it would work wonderfully for kids (not babies), for toys (because stuffies are supposed to feel like they've been loved and pilling yarn makes me think of something that is well-used and loved), simple hats, and maybe for big blankets, but not for much else. Yes, you can clean off the pills with a sweater shaver or a Gleaner or something, but you shouldn't have to do it every time you wear or wash the item, which is what I had happen with the hats (some were washed twice and I had to clean pills off both times). 

However, I also think this yarn was very nice to work with, pilling issue aside. I think someone that's learning to knit would do well with this yarn (it's not as hard on your hands as cotton and it's not rough like RHSS can be). I have much more of it in my stash and I will use it but I think if I'm going to use an acrylic or acrylic blend from Knit Picks, I'll stick with the Brava. 

2 comments:

  1. I haven't used the worsted or bulky before, so thank you so much for this insightful review! Good to know. I bought some Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud recently, but I have no idea when I'll get around to knitting with it. Love your travel gleener! Gleeners are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so glad I came across your page. I'll look out for other reviews. Have you done a review of any of the Fiddlesticks yarns?

    ReplyDelete