Monday, January 5, 2015

Yarn Explorations: Bernat Tizzy

Yarn comes in all colors, textures, and styles. It is made up of a ton of different fibers and fiber combinations. Today, more than ever, being allergic to wool doesn't make it impossible for someone to enjoy the fiber arts. Acrylics aren't the stiff and hard yarn anymore.  They can be soft and plush. Bamboo makes something durable and silky smooth. Artisans are doing wonderful things when dying the natural fibers. And even natural fiber markets are growing. It's amazing. 

Even though I crochet a lot I haven't really and truly explored the world of yarns. Not by fiber or thickness. I have dabbled here and there with a cotton or a bamboo but in general to be most cost effective I've used just the standard easy to find acrylic yarn. That's not to say there is anything wrong with that yarn. I love it. It's durable, soft, and comes in the most wonderful rainbow. 

However, this year one of my goals is to learn more about the fiber art world. One of those steps is to play with yarns. Thanks, to a wonderful donation, from a friend of a friend, I have gotten an entire yarn stash of different textures of yarns! To start off the year I'm playing with Bulky yarns. 

I have had needle sizes J - P for about 3 years now in my collection and up until November I could count on one hand the number of times I've used them for actual crocheting. They were mostly used to open stubborn packaging or scratch an itch I couldn't reach. All that has changed forever. 

I had a lot of fun with Bernat's Tizzy Yarn in November.



 At first I was still nervous as this style of yarn was all new to me. I'm a hesitant knitter. I can knit but it takes a while for a knitting project to reach the level of relaxation I get with crochet. Instead it requires me to concentrate and think quite a bit. That's not really that good when I'm also trying to multitask watching a movie, chatting with friends, and discussing the day with my hubby. So after a brief interlude of let me knit a sweater I went back to what I know well. Crochet! 

The project was a gift for a baby shower. And since we had no idea the future gender of the baby we chose a happy little frog theme. Originally I was going to knit a sweater, and do a hat and diaper cover. But as we just discussed, knitting wasn't an option. 

Using this yarn was interesting. It is luxuriously soft. To get a handle on it I first used it for a trim on the frog hat. And then I got brave and designed my own diaper cover. It's just a basic pull over hte diaper type but since I didn't have a pattern for a bulky yarn I was doing some guesswork. It looked like it came out alright. 



I also made some little frog toed booties and a blanket for it. (This is the work in progress shot of the booties.)



The heart of the blanket was entirely of the tizzy and that's when I really got to know that yarn. Man a blanket works up fast with a bulky yarn. Also because its bulky yarn you definitely need more skeins of it then of a smaller weight. I discovered that I was quite short on my amount of bulky so I trimmed it with the same green I used for the frog hat and a soft butter cream yellow. I wish I had thought ahead and taken more photographs. I do promise my friends to take more photographs of all projects this year! 

Some notes for the Tizzy. 

1. Pay attention to where you are hooking. It is hard to see the stitches and you can very very easily snag one of the extended loops when crocheting too quickly

2. It's soft and slightly addicting to feel.

3. I found it difficult to weave in ends but once done it hides just about everything in all its soft plushness. 

4. Whatever amount of skeins you think you need buy 2 more. Trust me. You can always use any extra as trim later. But its better to have and not need then need and not have. 

It was fun playing with this yarn and I would gladly do so again! Those larger hooks need a workout more often! 

***These are my personal opinions and review of this yarn. I received no request to nor compensation for this review. **