What’s Velvet Yarn Like?

A Complete Review of Faux Velvet Yarn

Velvet yarn is taking the craft stores by storm. It’s a luxe looking yarn that has great color and depth. It’s super soft, and it doesn’t break the bank for most fiber artists. But what’s velvet yarn like to work with? Is it the same as other yarns? Is it harder to work with? I’m sharing all of my thoughts on this yarn and what I’ve learned through working with it.

Some knitters avoid these yarns like the plague…although that might be a horrible pun considering the state of the world right now. Others use them all of the time. Personally, I’m in the middle of the road. I use them and love them for some projects, but other projects not so much. It all depends on what you are really trying to accomplish with this yarn. Check out the end of the post for a list of other similar types of yarn.

Breaking Down the Yarn:

Stitch Definition

As a knitwear designer, the way a yarn looks in a finished project is important. The fabric it creates, the texture, and how much the individual stitches are all taken into account. These faux velvet yarns are comprised of short soft fibers which make them, fuzzy, for lack of a better term. The fuzzier a yarn is, the less stitch definition a yarn has.

Stitch Definition: How well you can see each stitch.

Faux Velvet yarn has a low stitch definition. If you want to create a simple fabric with your knitting where you don’t see the individual stitches, or create a pattern with these stitches, this yarn is great. If you are knitting something with a texture that you’d like to see such as cables, then this might not be the best yarn for you.

Difficulty Level:

I’ve mentioned that this yarn is really soft. I think the color combined with its softness is what draws many people to this yarn. But, softness can spell disaster for newer knitters or knitters with a more relaxed tension. This silky quality makes the stitches slip around on your knitting needles, and can make it more difficult to pick up stitches when you’re crocheting.

It’s hard to rate this yarn on a difficulty level. If you’re making a project like my faux velvet pumpkins, it’s not too terrible. But if you are doing any detail work or afraid of dropped stitches, I’d skip this yarn for now.

Tension:

When knitting with this yarn, I recommend a bigger size needle, unless you need a very tight tension for some reason. My Christmas Tree Skirt and medium pumpkin pattern both use US Size 10 or 6mm knitting needles. These larger needles also create a nice tension so that the fabric drapes well.

One problem that I’ve run into with tension, not so much in terms of knitting or crocheting, but when applying tension to the yarn itself. The yarn is pretty fragile when you need to pull on it. I’ve specifically noticed this when cinching my stitches together to form the top or bottom of a pumpkin, or when shaping the pumpkin. I’ve begun using bakers’ twine in combination with the velvet yarn in the pumpkins. I’ve also started using it to reinforce the center of my Christmas Tree Skirts.

Care:

These yarns are not made with natural fibers but they do require you to hand wash them and lay them flat to dry. This is another reason that I generally don’t knit wearable items with them.

Worming:

This was something that was totally new to me before using faux velvet yarn. When working with this yarn, you can have great tension, and everything looks totally even.

If you ignore the label instructions and wash this item, the yarn shifts around and creates areas where it looks like you’ve snagged your yarn. It’s not the end of the world and you can fix these sections with a bit of patience. But it does take patience.

Similar Yarns:

Faux velvet yarns might look new, but they are a variant of another popular craft store yarn. Blanket yarn, fuzzy yarn, all of these have similar make ups and behave similarly.

Options include:

Aspen from Premier
Tweedie yarn from Bernat
Faux fur Hygge from Red Heart
Velvet from Hobbi
Faux fur from Lion Brand
Velvet Luxe (and a jumbo version) from Lion Brand

…the list goes on. This isn’t all of them either. So go on an adventure and have some fun playing with yarns.