For Knitting, Crocheting and More: The Best Yarn

These acrylic yarn skeins from Mira HandCrafts are a go-to for all crafters. The yarn won't fray or unravel while you work, and the finished product holds its shape very well. The texture is even and soft for long-lasting quality. One benefit of all acrylic yarn is price. This pick comes in a set of 12 at a price that’s hard to beat. Plus, you’ll receive seven e-books with different craft patterns with your purchase. It makes for a great starter kit for beginners or a great way to motivate more advanced crafters.

Have endless hours of fun with this bag of crochet yarn which contains 40 different colors. Each ball of yarn is around 40 yards and is vibrant. The storage bag makes it easy to store these balls of yarn away once you’re done.

You can use them for knitting, crocheting, or even making friendship bracelets. The fun colors allow you to add a pop of fun to your clothing. Since the storage bag is so spacious, you can even keep your knitting tools inside it. This yarn is strong, so you don’t have to worry about it breaking easily. It’s also not too thick, allowing you to easily knit masterpieces.

A classic yarn, the Caron Simply Soft brand offers one of the softest standard-weight acrylic yarns. Along with the gentle texture, the yarn’s loose feel can make some projects sag, especially ones with a more open crochet stitch. For afghans and some other projects, though, the yarn can have an extra soft quality that makes it similar to a thicker baby yarn. The yarn comes in over 50 colors with a great selection of solids, while the Simply Soft Paints has an additional dozen variegated yarns. The skeins weigh either 4 or 6 oz., with around 208 to 315 yards per skein.

Homespun yarn is just one Lion Brand’s large selection of yarns. The Homespun yarn is one of the more generic blends, made of acrylic and a small amount of polyester, but it’s a specialty boucle texture with a soft, curly feel. The yarn comes in over 60 colors, from vibrant solids to lightly-patterned nature colors such as Abalone or Sand Dune. It has a bulky feel that makes it a good choice for afghans, scarves, and other winter wear. With a small hook or tight tension, the loose yarn challenging to work with, but its soft feel makes it a nice choice for working with and for using. The yarn comes in 6 oz. skeins, each with about 185 yards of yarn.

Baby yarn isn't exclusively for baby-related projects – it's simply a lighter-weight yarn that’s good for any number of crochet projects from afghans to baby outfits. Bernat has a number of great worsted and chunky-weight yarns, but the Softee Baby brand offers a light-weight yarn in fun range of solid and variegated baby pastels, as well as some brighter colors. Even with a sturdy tension, this yarn gives projects a soft, almost cloud-like feel. It’s 100% acrylic, making it machine washable and fairly durable. Each solid-color skein has 5 oz. or 362 yards of yarn, while the variegated skeins are slightly smaller with 4.25 oz. or 310 yards.

Many standard easy yarns are a synthetic blend, but this yarn is a 100%-cotton worsted-weight. The yarn is fairly firm, though it can soften after washing, and it’s a great choice for blankets, garments, or kitchen gear. Sometimes the colors bleed if the yarn isn't wash properly before using it, but being cotton, it’s more absorbent than other yarns, making it the go-to yarn for dish cloths. It also resists heat, so that it also holds up well when used for pot-holders or hot-dish-mats. Sugar n’ Cream skeins come in a mix of solid and variegated colors, with 3 or 4 oz. per skein or 200 yards of yarn. The yarn is available in 14 oz. cones as well, which work nicely for large projects such as baby blankets.

This brand is famous for its embroidery thread and has recently introduced a line of Italian designer yarns, but it also produces a beautiful cotton thread. The product is 100% cotton and comes in a fine, double-mercerized thread that gives it a harder, stronger feel compared with other cotton threads. The pearly texture makes this thread great for delicate projects like doilies or lace. DMC’s other lines of cotton thread offer a wide range of sizes for different projects, but Cebelia comes in the most common range of sizes 10, 20, and 30. It’s also available in 22 solid colors, wound into balls of 50 grams. For size 10 thread, that’s 284 yards, while the smaller sizes have more yards per ball.

Patons Classic Wool yarn is one of the more standard brands available and can be found in craft stores as well as specialty yarn shops. It’s a 100% wool, worsted-weight yarn that comes in around fifty shades of variegated and solid colors. And, while it doesn’t have quite the range of colors as some of the other brands, it still has a good selection and a variety of interesting multicolored patterns available. For both solids and variegated yarns, the skeins are 3.5 oz. and 210 yards, making them slightly larger than some of the other brands, though similar in price.

Lion Brands Wool Ease yarn offers knitters a popular wool blend at a reasonable price. This yarn is worsted-weight, giving it a fairly average weight suitable for most garments or afghans, though the brand also offers chunky and super-heavy versions of this yarn for even heavier projects. Wool-Ease comes 36 different colors. Even better, with its blend of wool and acrylic, the yarn is super warm, but still machine-washable, making it easy to use and care for. The exact blend of fibers varies from color to color, along with the size of the skein. Solids come in 3 oz. skeins, while most other colors come in 2.5 oz. skeins, with between 162 and 197 yards to each skein.

A specialty material manufactured by one of the larger brands, this yarn combines silk and bamboo for a super-soft feel. Its slightly lighter than the standard worsted-weight, but the Silk Bamboo brand comes in a medium-weight yarn and can be used in a variety of patterns and styles from scarves to sweaters and jackets. Each skein comes with 2.2 oz., or 102 yards, of yarn, so most projects will require a number of skeins to complete. For the size, its more expensive than Patons other wool, cotton, or synthetic blends, but it gets high ratings and offers a range of vivid colors. For a unique combination and an eco-friendly fiber, knitters might find the brand worth a try.

A popular specialty brand, this yarn offers an interesting blend of merino wool, acrylic and cashmere. The yarn is sport-weight, slightly lighter than Debbie Blisss worsted-weight Cashmerino yarn. It has a soft feel, is a great light-weight yarn, and works well for more delicate projects. The yarn comes in small skeins of 2.5 oz., with an estimated 137 yards per skein. In addition the Baby Cashmere line, Debbie Bliss offers a good selection of other product lines as well, in various weights and textures, but it is relatively expensive compared to some of the more common brands.