For years knitters have enjoyed the beautiful color shifting yarns like Noro Kureyon, Crystal Palace Mochi, and others. They were beautiful and fun to knit with, but expensive. Knitpicks, a company that offers yarns at much lower prices, just came out with their hot new Noro spinoff Chroma. Lots of people want to know how it knits up, and how it does in the wash. Here are my answers:
1. It is much softer than Noro!
2. It is less fuzzy than Mochi.
3. You can buy a big 100g ball with 198 yards for $8.99.
4. The colorways aren't as nice, but some are not bad. Shown above is "Galapagos" in worsted weight on the left, and fingering weight on the right. My favorite is "Lollipop".
5. My sample was colorfast in the wash, but boy does it felt!!!!
At left is a swatch I knitted up with Chroma worsted. I used #8 needles and 20 stitches. It is unblocked, and measures a little over four inches square. Click to enlarge.
At right is the same swatch after a gentle hand washing. The stitches have relaxed a little, and it is a bit fuzzier. The dimensions have not changed.
Finally, here is the same poor swatch after a vigorous washing and some serious agitation. We have shrinking and felting!! This is a great thing if you want felt, it is a bad thing if your hand knit socks accidently get run through the washer. Beware!
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Thanks for the information. I just got some Chroma for a scarf and like it a lot. The review was helpful!
ReplyDeleteThanks, this is exactly what I wanted to know. I love the price and the colors and was considering purchasing some fingering weight for socks. However, I was concerned about how they would wear with only a single ply (have noticed lots of fuzzing and pilling with Mochi made into handwarmers), and was also concerned about felting. I may purchase, but definitely not for socks!
ReplyDeleteYes--super helpful info. I was intrigued when I saw this new offering from KP and was thinking the worsted weight might be a great and affordable choice for a felted bag, but because of the nylon content, I wasn't sure, so thanks for testing it and sharing your results. Sidenote: Mini Mochi for socks--a huge disappointment. I cannot believe they they have the gall to claim it is machine washable. It isn't--even handwashing tends to cause felting. I am eager to try the chroma fingering for socks though--seems like it def. should be hand wash, however.
ReplyDeleteWell, good grief! I thought the nylon would prevent felting, but there you go.
ReplyDeleteI'm knitting mine up for a scarf of the decorative-beaded-handwash only variety. It is beautifully soft, though, ain't it?
OH my goodness!! I will definitely not be making socks out of this as much as I wanted to! I am glad I came across this before making any commitments! I do want to use it but will be changing my project plans! Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this review - exactly what I wanted to know!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review and felting before/after! I questioned whether KP had made a mistake categorizing as feltable.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this!!!
ReplyDelete