fibranatura Sea Song Yarn in thrush
A friend of mine requested several months ago I make him a slouchie beanie. I told him I would later. I just made him a hat four years ago, jeez. So anyhoo, my birthday was in February, & what did he get me? A book of slouchie beanie patterns. Subtle. His birthday is next month, & he’s going to be forty, so I figured I better get on that hat soon while Peepaw is still with us.
We discussed yarn options, & I decided it needed to be cotton or it wouldn’t be fit to wear in summer. He wanted it brown to match his eyes. He didn’t want it to be variegated & mocked me for my love of variegated yarns, which he greatly exaggerated. I know, he’s hateful!
Since the only cotton in the only store within an hour of here that sells yarn only had one brown & that was the variegated, I was forced to order yarn online. Yikes. Always a tricky prospect, especially when your ordering a brand you aren’t familiar with.
I ended up at Herrschners where I found fibranatura’s Sea Song on clearance. The price, the beautiful shade of brown (thrush), & the fact it’s a sea kelp & cotton blend won me over.
Fibranatura (a Universal Yarns brand) Sea Song yarn is an 80% cotton/20% sea cell worsted weight blend. Sea cell is a kelp fiber. Univeral Yarn has a large selection of eco friendly yarns, including organic cotton & bamboo.
Sea Song is wonderfully soft & smooth. I love the feel of it. It comes in some beautiful colorways, & has a slight sheen to it that reminds me of embroidery floss (possibly because I was crocheting with embroidery floss before I started on the hat).
Speaking of embroidery floss, another way it reminds me of that is the twist. It is very loose, just like floss, so it splits easily. I’m a slow crocheter anyway, so any yarn that slows me down because I have to take extra care with my stitches & keep having to rework them because I missed a thread gets a dark mark in my book.
Also, in less than half a ball, probably less than a third, I have found two breaks. For a gift I can make this work, but by the looks of things so far (little catches & the broken threads here & there) I would not make anything to sell out of it.
I was really excited about this yarn, the color, the softness, the fact that it was made with kelp, but have been very disappointed with it, mostly because of the splits. I could have overlooked the breaks, I’ve seen worse in yarn, but the splits are a problem.
Overall I would not use Sea Song again, & I’m not sure about trying other fibranatura yarns, but I don’t rule out trying other Universal yarns.
Anyhoo, just feeling a little frustrated & wanted to vent a bit in a quick review. Hope this shines a little light for someone!
Oh, the hat is this really easy slouchy beanie at Jenn Likes Yarn. The hat he wanted in the book was knit, & this was a pretty close approximation in crochet. I could have just winged it, but I’ve been trying to work more patterns to learn new ways of doing things. I’ve been winging it almost since I learned to crochet, & I feel a little stunted because of it. I’m hoping to finish it tonight, if not then for sure tomorrow. I’ll update you on the finished product.
I would love to hear about your experiences online yarn shopping, & any problem yarns you’ve run across, as well as some favorites you’d like to share.