Self-Striping Yarns

It's no secret I have a love of self-striping yarns. They make knitting interesting because you are always watching for the colour changes. The king of self-striping yarns is of course Noro in general, and Noro Kureyon in particular. Noro Kureyon is the kind of yarn for me where if my Noro basket starts to look a little empty (as it did, for example, after I finished my Kureyon Shawl), I get a genuine feeling of disquiet, an anxiety of sorts, that can only be relieved by replenishing my stock.



There are, of course, plenty of Noro knock-offs. I have a lot of those in my stash, too, but they are merely the salt on the potato chips. That being said, I thought I would dedicate this post to the various self-striping yarns I have collected in the few years I have been knitting.


Bernat Mosaic
Picked these up at Wal-Mart and Lens Mill Store. They were single skeins in unlikely places, so I didn't have much choice of colour. Mosaic is 100% acrylic, and very pilly on the skein. The stripes are very long. I would not mix this yarn in a project with Noro Kureyon because of the difference in fibre content. I have not actually made anything with this yarn yet, so I can't really comment on how it knits up.


Crystal Palace Mini Mochi and Mochi Plus
The Mochi yarns are an 80/20 mix of merino wool and nylon. Mochi is quite hairy when it knits up. The Mochi Plus is Aran weight, and Mini Mochi is fingering weight. I would use the Mochi Plus in the same way I'd use a Noro yarn but I would not mix this yarn in a project with Noro Kureyon (or, in the case of Mini Mochi, with Kureyon Sock) because of the difference in hand. The Mochi yarn is soft and fuzzy, with much less memory than the Kureyon, which has a rougher finish.


Ella Rae Jaspe Wool
I received this yarn in a swap, after mentioning I'd like to try it out. It's similar in appearance to Twilleys Freedom Spirit, in that some part of the long stripes are a cabled blend of two colours. It is 100 percent wool, and worsted weight. The yarn knits up like Noro Kureyon. It is a bit more processed, so it is softer than Noro, but still not as soft as the high-acrylic yarns. I might mix this yarn with Noro Kureyon in certain projects, but only if the colour schemes worked well together.


James C. Brett Monsoon (new)
This is a new yarn. I just got it from the yarn store in Huntsville, Ontario. It's a 70/30 blend of acrylic and wool. The acrylic content is a little high, but on the plus side it is very soft, so it might appeal to the people who dislike Noro because it is scratchy. Very similar to Universal Yarns Classic Shades (they are both made in Turkey), though it seems to be closer to a DK weight, where the other is more of a heavy worsted or aran weight. I would not mix this yarn with Noro Kureyon because of the difference in fibre content. The acrylic gives a slight shine to the Monsoon that might be jarring if mixed with Kureyon.


Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn
This is fingering weight wool that I bought because of the long colour runs and bright rainbow shades. I have two big balls of it, almost 1200 metres. Not yet sure what I want to make out of it. The wool is scratchy, and would probably need to be soaked before wearing next to skin. Due to the long colour runs I would not combine this yarn with Noro (Kureyon Sock) in a project.


Mary Maxim Step It Up
As you might be able to guess from the name, Step It Up is a sock weight yarn. This is one I got in a swap where the yarn had to come from the person's own stash. It's another yarn made in Turkey, though this one has a higher wool content: a 75/25 blend of superwash wool with "polyamid" (which is pretty much the European word for "acrylic"). I might consider combining this yarn with Kureyon Sock yarn in a single project, although it has a more finished texture than the rougher Noro yarn. In the end, it is just as scratchy, though, and not recommended for long exposure to sensitive skin.


Plymouth Boku
I have not yet used the Plymouth Boku I bought in Macon, Georgia at Creative Yarns. It seems slightly bulkier than Noro Kureyon, and the colourways are not as imaginative as Noro's (but this is true of all the "knock-offs"). Boku is 95 percent wool, 5 percent silk, so that does give it a more Noro-like texture than many of the other yarns listed here, especially the high-acrylic blends.


Twilleys of Stamford Freedom Spirit
This is one of the few pure wool yarns available at my local Lens Mill Store. It's similar in appearance to Ella Rae Jaspe Wool, in that some part of the long stripes are a visibly cabled blend of two colours, however it is DK weight where the Jaspe is worsted weight. The yarn knits up like Kureyon, and although it is a slightly lighter weight, I have successfully combined this yarn with Kureyon in a project.


Universal Yarns Classic Shades
I found these in a little store in Hamburg, near Buffalo in New York state. This is a 70/30 blend of acrylic and wool. The acrylic content is a little high, but on the plus side it is very soft, so it might appeal to the people who dislike Noro because it is scratchy. Very similar to James C. Brett Monsoon (they are both made in Turkey), though it seems to be closer to a heavy worsted, or aran weight, where the Monsoon is more of a DK weight. I would not mix Universal Yarns Classic Shades with Noro Kureyon because there is a slight shine to it that might be jarring if mixed with Kureyon.


Wendy Fusion (discontinued)
This is a chunky yarn, an acrylic blend. I bought it early in my knitting life, when I visited the Coats and Clark factory outlet store (a dangerous place, because all the good stuff is sold in bags of ten). Some of the colour schemes have very long colour runs of a single colour, with shorter runs of the accent colours. (The Saffron colourway, for example, is predominantly yellow, with shorter runs of red, orange, and lime green.) I would not mix this yarn in a project with Noro Kureyon because of the difference in fibre content and the difference in weight. There is also a difference in the way the fibre takes up colour. The Fusion colours are more intense, and reflect light differently, with a much more "artificial" look, where Noro yarns are purposely natural-looking. So even if there was a chunky version of Kureyon (which I am told is coming in the 2011-1012 Fall/Winter season), they would still not work well together in my opinion.


Wisdom Yarns Poems (discontinued)
Of all the yarns described in this post, I feel that Wisdom Yarns Poems is the best for combining with Noro Kureyon. It is a 100 percent wool, worsted weight yarn with long (though limited) colour runs. The colourways tend to combine well with similar Noro colourways. The wool is slightly softer than Noro, but can be more prone to breakage, as well.