Marled Yarn Experiment Part 4: Fuzzy, Fluffy Yarns

Hello, everyone!

The mohair trend continues this fall. Everywhere I look, I’m seeing folks crocheting and knitting delightfully fluffy sweaters. Do you love the soft and cozy effect of halo yarns as much as I do?

A halo in yarn refers to the soft, fuzzy fibers that stick out from the main yarn core, creating a blurred or misty appearance. This halo effect is often found in natural fibers like mohair and angora, but it can also be created by brushing other fibers, such as alpaca, or when loops are added to the fiber during manufacturing, as with bouclé. The fuzzy fibers trap air, which can make knitted or crocheted items warmer and provide a cozy feel. Here are some other quick facts about fuzzy yarns.

How a Halo Is Created

• Natural Fibers: Some fibers, like angora, naturally have long, fine fibers that easily become loose and form a halo.

• Brushing: Yarns can be brushed to pull out the softest fibers from the yarn’s core, intensifying the halo effect.

• Blown Fibers: A fine, hollow, and often elastic mesh tube made of nylon, silk, or cotton serves as the core. Soft fibers, such as merino, alpaca, or cashmere, are blown into the hollow core using air jets. The blown fibers get trapped inside the mesh, creating the yarn’s soft, voluminous bulk, with the ends of the fibers protruding slightly to create a halo effect.

Characteristics and Effects of Halo Yarn

• Appearance: The fuzzy fibers creates a foggy or blurred look around the yarn.

• Hand/texture: Halo yarns feel soft and cozy against the skin, making them ideal for winter wear.

• Insulation: The trapped air in the halo provides extra insulation, contributing to the item’s warmth.

• Stitch Definition: The soft fibers can obscure stitches, making it harder to see intricate patterns and less ideal for projects that require clear stitch definition.

Thinking about how fluffy yarns can soften stitch definition reminded me of my ongoing quest to find a use for my marled/variegated black and white yarn. (Yep, it’s been a year, and I’m still trying to figure out what to do with this! Ack!)

What kind of fabric will I get by holding it double with a fluffy yarn? Will this finally create the fabric I’ve been dreaming of? Follow my experiment in today’s newsletter to find out!

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But First, A Note: If You Can’t Tolerate Mohair, Try Bouclé!

I love the look of mohair, but I have yet to find one that my sensitive skin can tolerate. In recent years, whenever I get the urge to make something fluffy, I turn to bouclé instead. Bouclé yarns are novelty yarns characterized by small loops, curls, or knots along the strand, created by having one or more outer plies feed at a different rate than a core strand, resulting in a bumpy, textured, and often bouncy fabric. Made from various fibers like wool, cotton, silk, linen, or synthetics, these yarns add warmth, depth, and a distinctive, luxurious feel to home decor, apparel, and accessories. It provides the same loftiness as mohair without the shedding and irritation.

And so for my next experiment, I’ve paired my marled yarn with SimpliAir by HiKoo (Skacel). As a side note, unfortunately, I see on Ravelry that SimpliAir has been discontinued, but if you’re interested in giving bouclé a try, there are others you might look into. Though I’ve never tried these personally, Expression Fiber Arts, Isager, and La Bien Aimée all offer bouclé yarns. I have used Hedgehog Fibres Alpaca Bouclé, though, and I can attest that it is amazing.

A Little Trip Down the Bouclé Memory Lane

About five years ago, I went on a bit of a bouclé binge and designed several shawls using it. One of the shawls, the Trestle Stole, was published in the Autumn 2021 issue of Crochet World. (Sadly, this pattern is no longer available.)

This wrap was worked from the bottom up, using a lacy stitch pattern framed by columns of V-stitches. I love the lofty, fluffy texture. It’s like wrapping yourself in a cloud!

Here’s the original wrap I crocheted for my proposal to Crochet World, using Hedgehog Fibres Alpaca Bouclé in the color Plump.

And speaking of clouds, I went back into my archive and found another shawl I designed around that time—I called it the Cloud Catcher Wrap.

For this wrap, I also used Hedgehog Fibres Alpaca Bouclé—this time in the color Taffy. This wrap combines fan stitches with a simple chain mesh accentuated by clusters. To me, the fabric looks like puffy clouds caught in the mesh.

Both of these patterns were designed to take the stress out of working with fuzzy fibers: (1) Using a larger hook with the laceweight yarn creates larger stitches and spaces that are easier to see and work into. (2) The majority of stitches are made into spaces (either chain spaces or the space between stitches), making it easier to see where you’ll place your next stitch.

Aside from the fuzz obscuring your stitches, the only other drawback I see to yarns with a halo is that they are a total pain (if not impossible) to rip out to undo any mistakes. But on the other hand, you probably won’t be able to see your mistakes through all the fluff, so maybe it’s better to just leave them!

That softening of stitches is what makes me wonder about the effect it might have on my marled and variegated yarn. Let’s crochet a swatch and see what happens!

The Experiment

I made my swatch quite simply. In fact, this may be my simplest swatch ever!

For the swatch, I held the JulieSpins black-and-white yarn double with the Hikoo SimpliAir bouclé. Here’s what both strands look like side by side.

I started by chaining 31 and worked 30 single crochet stitches across. I continued working in single crochet for 32 rows. For this swatch I used a G/4.00mm Clover Amour hook.

What can I say about the swatch? It is absolutely gorgeous!

The Look: The bouclé gives this fabric a distinctively textured, looped, and curly surface, as you can see in the photo above. I love how the bouclé softens the black and white so that the line between the stripes isn’t as severe. I think it looks a little less like an animal print now and more like its own unique fabric.

The Feel: Heavenly! The bouclé yarn adds an element of softness that’s luxurious and cozy. When I run my hand over it, I can feel the distinct nubby, three-dimensional texture created by the curls and bumps in the bouclé. It’s soft without a hint of scratchiness. Also, by using a slightly larger hook, the fabric has a decent amount of drape to it. I was really expecting the fabric to be stiff—as is often the case with single crochet fabric. Yet, this fabric is quite pliable. I get the feeling that the loops in the bouclé may also be contributing to the drape by loosening up the stitches.

For the sake of comparison, here is what a single-crochet swatch of JulieSpins yarn looks like without the bouclé yarn.

What’s Next?

Although this fabric could easily make a wonderfully comfy sweater, I’m really inclined to make a big, fluffy scarf. My head is already spinning with all the possibilities! Hedgehog Fibres Alpaca Bouclé comes in multicolored hand-dyed hanks (in the same colorways as their sock yarn line), so I think it would be really fun to pair a colorful hank with a lighter solid color of sock yarn and see what happens—rather the reverse of what I’ve done here with the variegated sock yarn and solid-colored bouclé yarn.

If you agree, hit reply to let me know, and maybe I’ll put together a free pattern for us!

Thanks for spending a little handmade time with me,

Jennifer

P.S. If you’d like to read about my previous experiments with this yarn, here are the links to the archived mailings:

Part 1: Holding additional colors double for an extra marled effect

Part 2: Pairing marled yarn with shorter stitches

Part 3: Introduction to assigned pooling

Part 3 Continued: Assigned pooling

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