Saturday, August 8, 2009

Confessions of a fiber junky

I don't think I'm a yarn snob. My all time favorite yarn for making doll bodies remains Red Heart Super Saver or Classic worsted weight yarn. It is easy to crochet tightly, makes a strong fabric and creates great three dimensional shapes. It wears like iron, and is easy on the pocket book. An eight ounce skein of Super Saver will make four Free Spirit dolls, so at $2.50/skein, that is only 63 cents a doll. What a bargain!

For hair, however, I must confess I love wool. And when I get a little extra pocket change, that is my yarn of choice for any and all doll hair. Recently I found a luscious wool/tencel blend at my local yarn shop. It is made by Berroco and is called Lustra. It is 50% Peruvian wool and 50% Tencel, in a single ply (which I love the look of for hair). It will make lovely shiny hair with that wonderful wool tactile feel. I can hardly wait to use it! Below are four colors that I couldn't resist. At $9.00 for a 3.5 oz skein, it isn't cheap, but will probably make two or three wigs, and since we saved so much money on the body yarn, a little splurge on hair is okay :-)





More yarns that I love for hair are shown here; another Berroco yarn called Peruvia, which is a 100% Peruvian single ply wool. An Alpaca/wool blend; a kid mohair/silk blend lace weight, which is too fine to use by itself but blends wonderfully with anything to add highlights and 'hairy-ness.' Also included here is a mohair yarn, which is the best for yarn hair that closely mimics real hair.

A trip to your local yarn shop, if you are fortunate enough to have one close, will yield a gold mine of possible yarns for hair. There are also many places on the internet to get good yarn hair. A Child's Dream Come True is one of my favorites for mohair and single ply wool (they carry Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, very similar to the Berroco Peruvia).

5 comments:

  1. Hi Beth: I just checked in on your Flickr site. Wow, you've been busy. The "Blythe" dolls and clothes are just lovely. Lucky little girls who get them. Love your work and your blog. I truly enjoy the visual delights that greet me every time I visit. Keep it up.

    Joyce

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  2. See i can not use the Red Heart yarns they burn my fingers as i pull them through. i have to use Caron Simply Soft or yarns like that otherwise i end up with really bad burns like rug burns on my fingers when i crochet and can not do it as ofter or as much. So i spend a little bit more on my yarn but can crochet whenever i want to with out the burns on my fingers.

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  3. Hi CB,

    I've used Caron Soft for dolls as well, and they turn out great. Fortunately, I don't have a problem with the Red Heart yarn, but I can imagine what you are talking about...the yarn is 'rougher' than the soft acrylics. Thank goodness there are so many different yarns to choose from!


    Joyce, thank-you so much for your kind words; I'm glad you have enjoyed the flickr site :-)


    Beth

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  4. Hello Beth! I just come from your Flickr site. I posted my question there and could I ask you here as well: what size pipecleaners do you use? Do they measure 300mm*8mm or less?
    Your doll is wonderful! Thank you very much for the tutorial!

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  5. about how many yards does it take to make the doll? how bout the mini?
    p.s. the dolls and animals and cloths are AWESOME!!!

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