I was at my local craft store, Michaels, holding a nice coupon and looking for a couple colours of yarn to beef up my amigurumi yarn palette. On my list was a decent purple. A bright purple that would work for amigurumi – bright but not nuclear. Sometimes finding good amigurumi colours are difficult as so many yarns are too dark or too light (baby yarns). I spotted this Craftsmart yarn next to the Red Heart stuff, and decided to give it a try.
Craftsmart is a worsted weight yarn that is 100% acrylic.
Link to Craftsmart Yarn via Michaels
As always with my yarn reviews, they are coming from the perspective to make amigurumi toys with.
PROS
+ Good price!
+ Bright and nice selection of colours
+ Slightly soft
+ Very nice to work with
+ Fair amount of stiffness
At Michaels, Craftsmart was around $0.20 cheaper than the Red Heart Super Saver at my time of purchase. Sweet! Touching the ball, it is much smoother than Red Heart Super Saver, but not silky like Red Heart Soft.
What I noticed right away was Craftsmart felt quite nice to work with. The yarn slipped nicely through my fingers and put up with my tight gauge. There was just enough grip for my stitches to stay tight despite how soft the yarn runs through my fingers.
This yarn isn’t as stiff as Red Heart Super Saver, but goes a good job holding up its shape for amigurumi – the stitches puff decently, not tight or saggy creating holes.
CONS
– Found a couple gnarly bits
– a little splitty
– Despite being soft, feels kinda soapy slippery
The downfalls I found with this Craftsmart yarn was I noticed a couple gnarly bits – three cases for 1 amigurumi. The strand had an excess lump of material woven in or big linty fuzz stuck to the strand. It wasn’t a huge deal as I was able to pull out the fuzz or trim it with sissors. There also was a bit of splittyness working with this yarn. On ocassion it would split in a way that I’d miss snagging 1 of the plys of the yarn, so I’d have to loosen the stitch to snag it.
While I did mention the softness of this yarn is quite nice and very workable, it also feels kinda weird. The longer you work with it, the most it feels almost “soapy” to the fingers. No residue, and again, it’s got a good grip, but it feels unusual.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS (neutral)
~ No sheen
~ Is a thicker worsted weight, so best with moderate to large amigurumi projects
~ Compatible with Red Heart Super Saver
~ Dye lot, so ensure you purchase enough for your project
~ Not fuzzy
This yarn is quite similar to Red Heart Super Saver’s gauge – I was able to use both yarns together for the same project and they looked as if they were the same brand. The weight is the same, the sheen level is the same.
This attractive purple owl is made with a mix of the Craftsmart and Red Heart yarns. The purple areas are a bit more smoother of a feel, but otherwise both yarns blend together.
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Overall, Craftsmart yarn is a great alternative to Red Heart Super Saver and is much nicer to work with! This yarn has a nice softness to it, while maintaining a good grip for tight gauge stitches. The cons of being slightly splitty and having the odd linty issues are fairly minor. The weight is quite thick for a worsted, so I’d use this yarn for a larger project.
If I was looking to buy more Red Heart Super Saver like yarn, I’d probably snag this brand instead if I wasn’t worried about continuing with the same dye lot. If you are interested, read My Red Heart Super Saver Review.