Why is Yarn so Expensive?

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Have you ever asked yourself, &#;Why is yarn so expensive?&#; When thinking about a hobby to learn or a project to start, your budget should will be an important consideration. A lot of hobbies require tools that can be used over and over again. These hobbies may have no supplies or very inexpensive supplies to keep you in your happy place. Think about juggling, all you need are three evenly weighted objects and poof, you can teach yourself how to juggle! What about card tricks? All you need is a deck of cards. Yes, you might need to buy a new deck after a while, but you really aren&#;t consuming anything each time you practice or show off your skills.

Why am I talking about non-yarn or fabric related hobbies? Each hobby has an approximate budget associated with it, you can be as frugal or as extravagant as you like. Well, with knitting (and sewing) you need tools and supplies.

The tools: knitting needles, scissors, yarn needles, rulers, needle gauge etc. are all reusable and will last a very long time if well taken care of.

But you can&#;t knit air, it just doesn&#;t work.

You need to spend some money to get yarn for your projects. (Yes, there are some people who knit or felt with their pets fur, I&#;m not considering that right now. Yes, the fur is essentially free, but it does take a long time to accumulate and prep that fur and you know that time = money.) So the question becomes, why is yarn so expensive?

What Kinds of Yarn are Available?

There are so many different varieties of yarn, some made out of natural fibers, synthetic fibers or mixes of both. Yarns also come in many different weights, they are called weights but really it is a measure of thickness, making the combination of fiber type and weights near infinite.

Natural Fibers:

This is a long list but no means does it reflect every single kind of fiber used for yarn, these are the most common. (One of our cats has amazing fur that would probably make an amazing yarn, but another kind of cat may not create the same results. Yes, the thought has crossed my mind, maybe when I&#;m an old cat lady with more than one cat that produces the right kind of fiber and my kids are grown&#;)

Common Name of Natural Fiber &#; Origin of Fiber

Wool (varieties such as Merino) &#; Sheep
Alpaca Wool- Alpaca
Angora Wool &#; Angora Rabbit
Mohair &#; Angora Goat
Cashmere &#; Kashmir Goat
Camel &#; Baby Camel
Silk &#; Silk Worm
Yak Wool &#; Yak
Cotton &#; Cotton plant
Linen &#; Flax plant
Bamboo &#; Bamboo plant

Natural Fiber Care

Natural fibers tend to have the same qualitites in yarn form as they did in their native form. Wool is very forgiving with cool water and no agitation, like a sheep walking through the rain, you can wash it very gently. You don&#;t see sheep running around with shrunken wool coats, they don&#;t bathe in hot water while rubbing up against each other. That&#;s how you get felt. Washing wool in hot water with agitation (like in a washing machine) causes the wool to seize up and lock all the little natural fuzzies (actually small &#;barbs&#;) together which makes its overall size smaller and denser.

NO DRY CLEANING Necessary! Ever see a sheep hanging and waiting to be picked up from the dry cleaners? Yes, a lot of commercially made wool sweaters suggest dry cleaning. Please don&#;t do it. Either let it sit, spread out in an airy location so the smells can go away on their own or rinse gently with a wool cleaning no-rinse solution meant for handknits like Soak or Eucalan.

Cotton yarn is soft and breathable, making it ideal for warmer weather garments. It is also very easy to clean, making it just like any other cotton fiber clothing. I would personally wash it very carefully, simply because of all the hours put into the creation of your garment.

Synthetic Fibers:

Synthetic here means that it is mostly man made and chemistry was involved. A few on this list are made from wood pulp cellulose, but need to go through so many processes that the end product is completely unrecognizable from their beginning state. These are the most common types, but there are new synthetic materials being engineered all the time, this list will certainly change over time.

Common Name of Fiber &#; Origin of Fiber

Rayon &#; Wood Pulp + lots of processes
Tencel &#; Wood Pulp + lots of processes
Acrylic &#; Petroleum Product &#; Essentially Plastic
Polyester &#; Petrolum Product + lots of Chemistry
Nylon &#; Air, Water & Coal

Do you notice the lack of shine and sophistication with this yarn? It just has this dullness to it that I do not find appealing for sweaters or hats. This is a great yarn for learning to knit and for kids crafts, it definitely has its place in the yarn stash. It also has this bumpiness to it that I have noticed on a lot of acrylic yarns compared to natural fibers, I do not know why its so noticeable but I sure notice it and don&#;t care for it. I know I&#;m a yarn snob, please forgive me. I forgo other things so I can have beautiful, kinda pricey yarn sitting in my studio.

Synthetic yarns are usually used to create novelty yarns as well. What is a novelty yarn? It is the kind that you&#;ll find that has little loops or glitter or shiny stuff in it. Something usually used to accent a piece and held with another strand of acrylic yarn, not usually used for the bulk of the item.

Synthetic Fiber Care

Not nearly as delicate, synthetic fibers can be washed more like regular laundry. I still wouldn&#;t wash anything too valuable in the washing machine, unless it needs a good cleaning, such as a picnic blanket. Follow the directions on the yarn label, if there are any, just like you would a care label on a garment.

If there is no label or you do not know the fiber content, treat it like you would a very delicate, natural fiber garment. Better safe and clean than sorry and felted!!!!

me

Blends

What is a blend? Ever have a t-shirt tag that says 50% Cotton / 50% Polyester? That is considered a blend. It is a blend of two different fibers to create a new kind of fabric. Why blend fibers? There are many advantages to each kind of fiber listed above. By making a blend, you can have the best quality of each fiber added together to make an even better end product. For example, a lot of sock yarns are made with a combination of Merino and Nylon. The Merino is there for comfort, it is a very soft and warm wool and the Nylon is there for strength, it will extend the life of the socks.

Blend Fiber Care

This is a tricky question, there are so many different blends out there. I would as a default action, always go with the kind of care required for the most delicate fiber listed on the label.

Why is Yarn so Expensive?

You can find yarn prices from a few dollars a skein to $300 a skein! (Skein is a length of yarn sold at a retail location/festival that is usually twisted or balled up. The larger the project the more skeins are required.) Holy crow. That&#;s expensive!!!

Why the huge variation in price? It all comes down to time, energy and supply, like most things sold in a retail setting these days. How long does it take to make? How difficult is it to acquire?

Looking at Yarns from Least Expensive to Most Expensive

Synthetic yarns

Synthetic yarns are the least expensive yarns you will find at a retail store. They are made from materials that are more readily available because they are manufactured in larger quantities. Making the yarn from sythetic materials is all done in a factory setting and involves lots of chemistry and/or processes. Just about all of the processes to make synthetic yarn are automated and there is considerably less human labor involved. compared to natural fibers.

A quick summary:
Raw materials made in a factory from petroleum or wood pulp (yes it needs to come from trees, but it is a more readily available product since it is used in a lot of other industries). Dyeing the material that will eventually be the yarn through a chemical reaction. Prepping the fiber so it can be spun, depending on the type of yarn it could be stretching, steaming or bundling different bales. Spinning of the fiber into yarn. Plying the yarn. (Plying is taking a few strands of the spun yarn and twisting them together to make a thicker yarn.) Winding into skeins. Placing a label on the skein. Packaging the yarn into boxes. Shipping the yarn to the warehouse. Shipping the yarn to the final retail location.

Natural Fiber Yarns

Natural fiber yarns have a longer journey from raw material to finished product, both time wise and number of steps required. You want to know why natural fiber yarn is so expensive? A few of the steps can be up to three years! Shearing the Vicuna, a relative of the Llama, is done every three years and it doesn&#;t produce much fiber at all compared to some sheep. Hence the $300 price tag! Sheep are shorn once a year when their woolen coats are heavy and the weather gets warmer. Goats and rabbits are combed in the spring when they are molting their soft undercoat, and like sheep, they only produce fibers once a year. Wow, that is a long time from &#;sheep to shawl&#;.

A quick summary:
Fibers from animals need to start at the farm, crops (cotton/flax) need to get settled into the field to germinate. Animals need time to grow their coats, crops need time to grow their fiber products . Shearing or combing the animals is done very infrequently, crops are harvested after their growing season. Both types of fibers need the impurities removed (sheep poop is the first one that comes to mind&#;). Both types need to be prepped so that the fibers can be spun. Spinning of the fibers into yarn. Plying the yarn. Making smaller skeins from the bulk yarns, the right size for dyeing. Dyeing the yarn and washing it as many times as needed. Winding the yarn into individual skeins. Placing a label on the skeins. Packaging the yarn into boxes. Shipping the yarn to the warehouse. Shipping the yarn to the final retail location. That is a long time and a lot of effort.

My favorite place to get natural fiber yarns is at a festival. Here is more information about festivals.

Yarn Price Ranges

When I searched up yarn.com to see their yarn selection, I paid attention to the number of yarns in each price bracket. Yarn.com is the website for Webs, a large, if not the largest, yarn store in the US. The brackets are as follows: (I am rounding, I don&#;t need to add in all the .99 cents, pardon my laziness)
$0 &#; $5 &#; 51 yarns
$5 &#; $10 &#; 295 yarns
$10 &#; $15 &#; 231 yarns
$15 &#; $20 &#; 136 yarns
$20 &#; $30 &#; 134 yarns
$30 &#; $40 &#; 49 yarns
$40 &#; $50 &#; 15 yarns
Over $50 &#; 40 yarns

So the most common price range is between $5 &#; $10. You can find some very nice varieties in that price range, I&#;m seeing some Icelandic Wool, Kid Mohair / Mulberry silk blends, Merino Wool and some very nice Acrylics. Acrylics have come a long way since they were first produced, give them a try.

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What Yarn Should You Use When Just Starting to Knit?

I recommend using an inexpensive acrylic yarn:
1) They are usually tightly wound/plied &#; reducing the splitting of the yarn plies which is soooo annoying/confusing to beginners.
2) Inexpensive yarn will not make you feel guilty that your knitting is less than perfect. You can mess up over and over again, you don&#;t feel like you have to make something perfect the first time. Remember, you can always undo it and start over.
3) Acrylic yarn does not pill as much as natural wools, you can take out a section of knitting over and over again and it will still look decent. I like to learn a technique then rip it out so I can use the yarn again and again.

Why Choose a Yarn Based on Fiber Content Instead of Price?

The end goal of your project will help determine (nicer way of saying, &#;should dictate&#;) the kind of yarn you should buy.

For example: If you are making an heirloom shawl for your daughter&#;s wedding, I would splurge and get the soft, etherial yarn that she will enjoy and keep forever. A heavy, not so soft acrylic shawl would not really do the trick. It doesn&#;t fit the occasion.

Another example: You are interested in making a gift for your friend who has a cabin in the woods. This would be ideal for a heavyweight blanket. A heavy weight, yet softish acrylic that is less than $10 a skein would be more suited to this project than a thin, super soft Angora that is $40 a skein. It wouldn&#;t be warm or comforting on a cold winter&#;s night. Plus it would be astronomically expensive!

If you, like most of us, are bound to a budget, make the most of it. You can find some decent Acrylics and Wools at big box stores.

The BEST TIP:

The best way to tell if you will like a particular yarn is to check out it&#;s softness. If you are making a scarf, put it up against your face. If you are making a blanket, put it up against your arms and neck. I would not recommend putting sock yarn on your feet, that&#;s just not cool. Just do a cheek test with the sock yarn and pretend it&#;s your foot.

Promise me you will buy the right yarn for your project, it will be worth it in the end. Putting in all that time and effort, you want it to be used, loved and not irriatating to the skin!!!

Knitting can be an expensive hobby when you buy luxury yarn. But, it&#;s possible to save money and still enjoy your knitting. These money-saving tips for knitting on a budget will help knitters of all income levels find ways to save more, spend less, and be more mindful of their knitting projects and adventures.

The one thing to remember is that it doesn&#;t matter what yarn you use, which designers you love to follow &#; it all comes down to your own knowledge and knitting experience. That knowledge and experience give you creative freedom as you understand how to change and modify any project and pattern. It&#;s all about mindset &#; learn to be resourceful (and not resentful).

The 20+ tips below are divided into sections to make finding relevant money-saving tips easier to find.

Some links below are affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. See the disclosure policy for more information.

Saving Money on Knitting Needles & Notions

Use thrift stores to try out different types of needles

Before splurging on a large set of needles, it&#;s important to try out different materials to see what you like to use. I love the look of those Lykke driftwood needles, but when I bought some wood needles to try them out I discovered how much I dislike wood needles. Thank goodness I learned that lesson before investing in a large interchangeable set.

Instead, head to the secondhand store and look for a variety of knitting needles in different materials to try out. As you use them you&#;ll be able to identify the materials and the types of needles you prefer.

And while you&#;re looking at the knitting needles at garage sales and secondhand stores, see what&#;s available for knitting notions &#; you&#;ll usually find lots of great finds like bobbins, counters, and cable needles (and yarn &#; but we&#;ll address that in the next section).

Invest in the right set of knitting needles

Once you&#;ve tried different knitting needle materials and you&#;ve discovered the kinds of needles you like, it&#;s really worth it to invest in a set of needles. You will save money in the long run! Instead of buying a random set here and there as you need them, you&#;ll save money by buying one complete set.

If you find that you knit most items flat and don&#;t mind seaming you can probably invest in a good set of straight needles with a few circulars for smaller circumference items (like hats or sleeves).

But, if you&#;re looking for workhorse knitting needles that will cover everything, a set of circular interchangeable needles is your best option (here are my recommendations and Favorite Knitting Needles). They can be used for knitting flat and for knitting in the round &#; so all your bases are covered. And, if you get a set with 4-inch needle tips you&#;ll be able to work 16-inch circumferences in the round as well.

Learn how to knit using magic-loop

Magic loop is a simple method of working small circumferences in the round using a long cable. Half the stitches are placed on one side and the other half of the stitches are placed along the other side. The long cable is used to give you room to maneuver as you knit across each set of stitches.

By combining this method with a set of interchangeable needles you&#;ll be able to work all your projects using one set of needles.

If you prefer a quick video, I demonstrate how to use the magic-loop method while working a swatch in this video:

Saving Money on Knitting Patterns

After a good set of needles (and buying yarn, of course), knitting patterns are something you&#;ll be buying regularly. Before I talk about all the ways to save money or find free patterns I just want to state that designers deserve the money they make from selling their patterns. So, when possible, purchase the pattern you&#;re interested in directly from the designer. Don&#;t try to work around copyright laws (and basic decency) by using pirated copies of a pattern.

If there is a particular designer that you love, join their list. You&#;ll often get discount codes and sometimes free patterns. You&#;ll also be the first to know of test knitting calls or pattern discounts (which are both good ways to save some money).

Physical Patterns

The public library is a great option for books of patterns and knitting techniques. If your local library doesn&#;t offer many choices, look at nearby towns and cities. I actually pay a yearly membership to a large city nearby so I can have access to their wonderful library system. The membership more than pays for itself over the course of a year.

Look at thrift stores and garage sales for knitting books. They are often a treasure-trove of old patterns and books.

Digital Patterns

The age of the internet has changed the knitting world and opened up a whole new avenue for knitters. You can find all the techniques, tutorials, and patterns you want online.

Besides Ravelry, you can find free patterns in many places:

• Knitty
• Lovecrafts
• Yarn company websites all have free patterns that feature their yarns &#; Yarnspirations (which features patterns using Bernat, Red Heart, and Caron), free patterns at Rowan, Lion Brand Yarns, and Drops Design, to name just a few of the available websites with free patterns.
• Digital apps &#; check your library to see if they offer access to things like Overdrive or RB Digital

If you like old (and vintage) patterns and books there are even more options available online:

Learn to design your own sweaters

Now you don&#;t need to become a full-fledged designer, but with two good reference books, you can create truly unique sweaters. First, you&#;ll want a book like Amy Herzog&#;s Ultimate Sweater Book (available at Amazon) which explains basic sweater construction for a variety of sweater shapes and has all the numbers and math figured out for you.

Combine a basic sweater construction book with a stitch dictionary, like Barbara Walker&#;s Treasury of Knitting Patterns (available at Amazon) and you can design your own personalized sweaters.

Discover the Confidence You Need to Fix Your Knitting Mistakes

By the end of this six-part self-paced course, you&#;ll be able to read your knitting, recognize a variety of knitting mistakes, and understand how to fix them.

Saving Money on Yarn

The largest ongoing expense in knitting is purchasing yarn. And, while many patterns use high-end luxury yarn, that doesn&#;t mean you have to! It&#;s easy to substitute and use a different yarn in any knitting pattern.

Yarn substitution

Learning how to substitute yarns in knitting patterns is an essential skill for every knitter to have. There is no reason to depend on designers and other knitters to tell you what yarn you need to use. It just takes a few simple steps to find a proper substitute yarn.

Find the key things you need to know in this article: A Beginner&#;s Guide to Yarn Substitution

If you want something even easier, take a look at Yarn Sub. Just type in the name of the yarn used in the pattern and the website will provide a list of suitable alternative yarns. But take a little time to study the substitutes and determine why they were chosen as possible replacements.

Yarn substitution is a vital skill for any successful knitter. There is no reason a competent knitter can&#;t learn how to substitute yarns.

Recycle & upcycle

Secondhand stores are a treasure trove of yarn. You can usually find bins filled with yarn. While plenty of it is cheap acrylic, by sorting through you can sometimes find a worthwhile treasure (I&#;ve found 100% merino and various alpaca yarns when I&#;ve taken time to search).

You can also recycle actual sweaters. Look for sweaters knit with natural fibers and crocheted seams (you can search YouTube for tips on how to recycle sweaters for their yarn). The seams are an important part &#; machine-knit sweaters that are cut and sewn are not good for recycling. But machine-knit sweaters with crochet-like seams can be taken apart and each of the pieces can be unraveled for their yarn.

And don&#;t forget about your own unused project. Frog your unused projects and reuse the yarn; I&#;ve even frogged full sweaters I don&#;t wear anymore and reuse the yarn for something new.

Keep your small bits of yarn and look for patterns that will use those leftovers (log cabin blankets, mitered square blankets, etc). And a bonus tip: keep yarns of the same weight and general fiber content (animal or plant) in separate bags so when you find a suitable project you&#;ll have the scrap yarn ready to go.

And, for those really short lengths of yarn that you can&#;t bear to throw away, make a magic-knotted ball, splicing the yarns together to create your own &#;scrappy&#; ball of yarn.

If you&#;re feeling especially crafty (or crazy!), you can make your own yarn from old t-shirts and even plastic bags. Both would make great market bags and rugs.

Shopping for yarn

At big-box stores, you can save money on yarn too. Many craft stores have coupons and sales. You can also look for large bags of mill end yarns (it&#;s a good way to get some wool yarn a little more cheaply).

And, when possible, support your local yarn shop. Sometimes you&#;ll find sale bins or there may be special sales throughout the year (I like to save up birthday money for some special splurges at my local yarn shop). If your local yarn shop always has big sales at certain times you can plan your purchases and save up for those occasions.

When you are looking to splurge, remember that yarn is sold by weight so thinner yarns (like fingering weight) will have more yardage to a skein than something like a bulky yarn. Both might be sold in 50 or 100-gram put-ups but 100-grams of fingering weight yarn will have much more yardage than a 100-gram skein of bulky yarn.

If there is an online yarn brand/line that you like, see if they have a color card or palette so you aren&#;t making disappointing purchases because the color isn&#;t what you expected. It&#;s an extra expense but it will pay for itself. There&#;s nothing worse than purchasing a sweater quantity of yarn only to find out the color isn&#;t what you expected.

Spin & dye your own yarn

If you&#;re feeling adventurous, dyeing yarn is a fun project (I&#;ve used food coloring and Kool-aid to dye my own yarn a few times &#; and it&#;s lots of fun). You can find yarn ready to dye at Knit Picks and try your own dyeing adventures. I found ChemKnits on YouTube to be a valuable resource for learning how to dye yarn with food-grade dyes. Since it&#;s only food coloring there&#;s no special equipment needed &#; you can use the pots and pans in your kitchen.

If you&#;re even more adventurous, a pound of undyed fiber costs much less than a hand-dyed skein from an independent dyer. That fiber and a drop spindle might open up a whole new fiber-world for you.

Change your mindset

In all of these money-saving tips, it&#;s important to consider your mindset. We all have financial boundaries and make choices every day about how we spend our money. Instead of feeling resentful that you can&#;t afford that expensive, indie-dyed yarn, be glad that you have the mental capacity to be resourceful and make choices that will still make you happy (and save you some money).

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