Red Heart yarn question

[magicfan]

I am working on an afghan for my daughter. It's made out of blocks like a quilt. I purchased all Red Heart yarn for this project. I made sure it all was EXACTLY the same weight and fiber. My problem is this. Some of the yarn (dark green for one) feels very thick and stiff whereas other yarn is extremely soft. This is causing some blocks not to be uniform. When all is sewed together will the blocks lay properly? Would washing the finished quilt cause the stiff yarn to soften?

[Nira]

Washing it will definitely soften it. Unfortunately that is just how the yarn is. Someone mentioned the dyes a while back changed the yarn.

[spiritwalker]

The afghan will soften once washed. Even if you stay with one brand of

yarn you will find differences in the skeins. I am not sure what causes

this but it happens.

[gremlin]

I've noticed that some of the darker colors are stiffer than the mid to light colors. The lighter colors almost seem to be thinner than the mid to dark colors. Once the project is finished and washed, they all seem to be better.

[magicfan]

Thank you all so much. I hope it will look okay when all the blocks are sewn together. I am very careful to keep my stitches uniform but the yarn thickness causes some blocks to be larger than others. I have my fingers crossed. I think I had better get her a backup gift...just in case..lol

[KeepsakeKrochet]

I've had that happen too. It seems some of the colors have a different feel. It would make sense that some of the dye colors may change the fiber like Nira said. I use Red Heart all the time and they always soften when washed. As a matter of fact I'm wrapped in one of my blankets right now and it's really soft. But I remember when I was making it one of the colors was more rough.

[Katie G]

You really have to watch the thickness of the yarn, too.

 

I bought some RH white to use with RH stripes and the white was so thin, it was not compatable at all, It was more like Caron Simply Soft.

I had to return it to the store. I bought some ILTY white, and it worked ok, although I did have to go up a hook size when I joined the white.

[RoseRed]

It's a common problem for different colors of the same yarn to not be exactly the same.

 

One thing you can do is to change your gauge while working with the thicker colors. (crochet a little more tightly) Depending on what stitch you're using (say it's just dcs across) you can drop 1 or 2 of the sts so that all the squares are the same size. That really depends on how bad the size difference is between the yarns.

[katyallen815]

I don't think up to a quarter of an inch difference will be a problem, as you can ease them together when you assemble it. I have done many of this type of blanket, and just find that they ease together just great, and when washed, you'd never know the diff! However if they are coming out over a quarter of an inch, more easing is definately in the works, or as mentioned above, resizing everything you make in that color to fit better. Yarn is yarn darn it, no pun intended!!