Octo-Kitty's Craft Journal: Yarn Review: Deborah Nroville: Everyday Worsted

Hello and Welcome back lovely readers. It's time for another yarn review! This week I want to look at one of my long time favorite yarns; Deborah Norville's Everyday Worsted collection. I first came across this yarn years ago when I was still knitting, it was in a goodwill bag of yarn I picked up. It was the softest yarn I had ever worked with and I loved how the stripes were large and regular instead of the variegated yarns I was used to. There was no label so I thought I would never find it again. I was overjoyed when I found it the next time I was at Joanns and I love both the plain and striped version. So today I want to take a critical look at this yarn.

Despite my early issues finding this yarn, it is a very common one to find. Beyond the solid and striped worsted there are a few other varieties, neon and school colors and you can find a lot of the striped patterns in a sock weight yarn. But today I just want to talk about the worsted in solid and striped as that is what I have worked with an am most interested in. So let's get started.

Texture:
This yarn has a great texture, it is a nice balance between being super soft and fluffy and being too tight and slick. This is a good yarn for making gloves, hats, clothing type projects. It holds it's shape well and neither pills up nor gets scratchy. The solids are consistent when it comes to texture, but a couple of the striped yarns are a bit softer. Over time it maintained this texture even after being washed.

Overall texture is great.

Yarn Weight:
This yarn is a worsted weight, obviously, and sits pretty squarely between the last two we looked at. It is about what I would consider average for a worsted. Again the weight is consistent through the solids but a few of the striped are a bit thinner which is why they are softer. In my experience this has been the lighter colors, Pattycake and Nursery while all the others I have worked with have been consistent. I can definitely recommend this yarn for projects where consistent sizing is important or if you are doing the same design in different colors and want them the same size.

Overall weight is great.

Color Consistency:
While the Everyday collection does have dye lots, there is no noticeable chance between them. I started a tablecloth in the Cotton Candy striped yarn and had to buy new skeins a couple of times and they have all matched perfectly. As with any yarn, if you are trying to match a much older skein there is likely to be some change either from fade or small changes in dyes over time, but is about as good as can be expected. I will once again warn, if you want to be 100% sure of matching colors, always make sure all of your yarns for a project are bought from the same lot.

Overall color consistency is as good as can be expected.

Color Variety:
Between the solids and striped there is a lot of variety here.

Sorry about the small images, there are a lot of colors here. There is not as much variety with the solids as the last yarn we looked at, but still a good variety. And it is made up for with the good collection of striped yarns. There is a more across the board variety of colors here as well, with both pastels and bright colors which both of the other yarns we have looked at was missing.

The stripes have a nice variety between light, dark, and bright mixes as well. The stripes make up in nice big chunks with a little variegated stripe of the other colors between each color which gives a nice look. I would not suggest these striped yarns for patterns too complex or varied in shape too much as the consistency of the stripes is the biggest strength here. They look best when worked in thinner projects like scarves and gloves but work well on hats and blankets as well. Look at the end for what I have worked up in these yarns.

Overall color variety is good, nothing missing.

Felting:

If you haven't read the last couple of reviews, I use acrylic yarns for felting as well as knitting and crochet. I brush out the yarn and felt directly onto the project. Here is a bit more about what I do with Felting. So far it seems like the rougher yarns felt up better, let us see if Deborah Norville's Everyday yarn follows that trend. I will be working with Baby Yellow, Grenadine. and Very Red.

These all came out very soft but the denser yarn meant the fibers stayed together better so there is some potential here.

I figured I would practice my eye shapes and it was not as bad as some of the others have been. I was right about the density, it helped the fibers stay together better without me having to do a ton of layers. But it is still too soft for felting. I have to go over edges over and over to make them solid and the lighter colors will still call for a lot of roving to not show through. I have not decided on which yarn to do next but I think I will pick something less soft so I stop saying the same things over and over in the felting section.

Overall felts better than some softer yarns but still not ideal.

Price:

That all said, this is a pretty good yarn, and one I would love to use for more projects. But is it worth it to use primarily for plushies.
The mean average price for this yarn $4.08 without discounts, most commonly found at around $3.99 (do not buy at Walmart! It's about half again as much in price)
Skeins are 113 Grams and 203 yards
which comes out to:
$.02 per yard or $.036 per gram
Here is a comparison with the other yarns we have looked at

This is a great yarn and that I can absolutely advise to everyone, just know you will have to pay a little more for it. With coupons and sales you can absolutely make up the difference on it. I will keep using it for those projects that are really worth it, but I think I will still supplement with some less expensive yarns for now.

You can find it most places that sell yarn on and offline. Like I said, it is wa overpriced at Walmart, if you can find it. But places like Joanns have it for around $3.99 ($2.99 right now if you want to give it a try!) Michaels does not have it.

That is about it for this time. I had a lot of fun getting to take an extra close look at one of my first favorite yarns and share it with you. Please join us on Friday for more projects in process and thank you so much for taking a look. Let me send you out with some pictures of what I have done with this awesome yarn!