Recently I crocheted a prayer sweater for a friend who hasn’t been feeling well.

I’ve already given her a couple of shawls, so that’s why I decided to crochet a sweater instead. I’ll write a separate post about this sweater at a later time.

In this post I want to review the yarn that I used for this sweater:

Red Heart Unforgettable

I chose this yarn because I loved the colorway, it is machine washable and dryable, and I’d heard other people say how much they love it. Also, it was on sale at Joann’s.

Let’s take a look at the label so that we can see the specs… It is classified as a #4 Medium, 3.5 oz per skein, 270 yards and the suggested hook size is a J-10.

This is a roving-type of yarn so there isn’t a tight, consistent twist like you are used to with something like Red Heart Super Saver. That was okay. I knew there might be a bit of variation. However, I was NOT impressed with this yarn at all. Is it soft? Yes. Are the colors beautiful? Yes. My problem with it is that I would classify it as a #3, and not a #4. Not only did I feel that it wasn’t a #4, the yarn ran through all sizes from about a #1 through a #5.

To give you a little bit of perspective, I took a picture of it with another yarn that is also listed as a #4.

See the difference? I ran into consistency issues with the yarn that I used for my sister’s cardigan, so I wasn’t happy to be dealing with the same issue in another brand of yarn. My one saving grace is that this seater didn’t have a certain gauge that was necessary for a correct fit. I will explain more about that when I write the post on the sweater itself.

I’ll be honest. Where I messed up is that I didn’t really look at the numbers when deciding on this yarn. I’ve posted before how thickness can affect your gauge, so I should have paid more attention. This is what I should have done when looking at this yarn…

Take a yarn that you love and that you know is the approximate thickness for the garment you are making. In this case I’ll use Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn! for my example.

I Love This Yarn: #4 Medium, 7 oz, 355 yds. So, there are 50 yds per ounce, or .019 ounces per yard.

Unforgettable: #4 Medium, 3.5 oz, 270 yds. This has 77 yds per ounce and .012 ounces per yard.

Bernat Baby: #3 Light, 5 oz, 388 yds. This has 77.6 yds per ounce and .012 ounces per yard.

Lion Brand Ice Cream Yarn (Baby): #3 Light, 3.5oz, 394 yds. This has 112 yds per ounce and .0088 ounces per yard.

So, what does that tell us? To me, it looks like the Unforgettable yarn is much closer to the characteristics found in #3 as compared to #4. Let’s see how it looks next to some other #4 yarn.

Bob is helping me to compare. I have a red Stitch Studio Classic (53.14yds/oz – .0188 oz/yd), Red Heart Super Saver in Camo (48.8 yds/oz – .0205oz/yd), Unforgettable (77.14yds/oz – .0129 oz/yd), and Caron regular acrylic in blue (50.75yds/oz – .0197oz/yd).  I need a closer look.

(Please excuse my shadow… I couldn’t get a decent picture)

I hope that you can see how the Unforgettable (with the loop) looks thinner than the others. This is proven with the numbers listed above.

What’s the bottom line? The yarn is beautiful and soft. The colors are great. However, I paid $5.49/skein (on sale… normal price is $6.99/skein) for what I thought was a #4 yarn. What I received was essentially a #3 with inconsistencies, which at times were VERY thin. I definitely wouldn’t use this yarn for anything that requires a certain gauge. It might be okay for scarves, shawls, and maybe hats. However, I don’t think I would ever buy it again unless I found it was part of a huge sale for around $2.50/skein.

If you are interested, though, you should check out Ice Yarns. They have an exact same yarn called Rainbow. They, correctly, classify it as a #3 Light. It comes in 3.53 oz – 262 yard skeins. As of this writing they have 26 different colorways. The best part? It’s $1.75/skein. You have to buy them in a pack of four, so you’re spending $6.99 minimum. For FOUR skeins. Remember, the Unforgettable is $6.99 PER skein at normal price!! I bought 8 skeins of the Unforgettable ($43.92 total). If I had purchased through Ice Yarns it would have been $13.98 plus $12.95 for postage. Yes, you pay a LOT for postage, but it’s two day shipping from Turkey. Even with the high cost of shipping I would have paid almost half as much as what I did for it here in the States. Oh, and I had to pay shipping for the yarn from Joann’s because I didn’t have enough to qualify for free shipping.

The friend who received the sweater is definitely worth every penny I spent on the yarn. It was just an expensive lesson to learn. Always do your homework and don’t just take the wrapper at its word. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I will leave you with a darling picture of my Bobs.