Caron Simply Soft Yarn Solids (3-Pack) Off White H97003-9702

What I needed.

I love to crochet especially baby blankets, this yarn works great

I needed a better quality yarn that would not split easily as I am using it for a 3rd to 8th grade crochet club. Club is working on Warm Up America blankets and throws so a soft acrylic is part of the requirement. Students are learning crochet so better quality/less splitting makes for less frustration with beginners. Also, they love, love, love the number of colors to choose from. Do wish it were a little less $ wise since we are on a shoestring budget supplying some 60 odd students but you get what you pay for.

Not used this colour yet but I know I will not be disappointed as all of the simply soft yarn I order is beautiful and lovely to work with.

Caron Simply Soft (CSS) in Lavender Blue colorway is a beautiful light muted color that pairs well with Purple (which is a lovely aubergine). If you want bright purples, Grape and Iris work well together and have similarly good contrast when paired. If you want to do a 4-color mix with greens, I recommend Purple, Lavender Blue, Dark Sage, and Pistachio. CSS is thinner than worsted but thicker than sport weight yarn. For knitting it is absolutely delightful, but for crochet it takes some finesse. The yarn has no elasticity at all, so I find that I have to use multiple hook sizes depending on the stitch I am making - sometimes two hooks in a single stitch - to maintain consistent tension appearance and avoid large holes at the tops of stitches. The direction of the twist is ideal for knitting, so the 4 strands frequently untwist as I am crocheting and I have to take care not to split them or accidentally catch my hook on just 1. It can get properly tangled, but it's easy to untangle because it has a very "slippy" kind of texture; a quality which requires that every stitch be worked through at least two loops to avoid the final fabric developing huge holes and tight knots at the top of your stitches, so I have adjusted my procedure for when a pattern calls for FLO or BLO. Your finished fabric will feel nice almost no matter what you do with it, but you will need to adjust your hook size if you are making stitches with largely varying sizes becausd you cannot adjust enough just by holding the yarn tighter (trust me on this one, save your hands the pain.) Overall I still really like CSS, and have none of these problems at all when knitting with it, but I just don't recommend it for absolute beginner crocheters. It can definitely be problematic to work with if you are not prepared to face the challenges it presents. 10/10 drape quality for this stuff though. Imitates silk blend yarns I have used pretty well.

Can’t say enough good things about this make of yarn, every time I buy it, it never disappoints- crocheting with this is a dream. I have it in many colours and it’s definitely my go to yarn for baby blankets!