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I have "Boucle" yarn...now what do I do with it?


papersmiles

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I recently received a lovely gift of quite a few skeins of "Boucle" style yarn. I've never used this for anything but it is very attractive with it's bumpy surface. What do you all do with this yarn? It says it is primarily acrylic with 2% polyester.

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I recently received some in a couple BIG bags of yarn a friend gave me (you know those bags comforters come in? Yeah, TWO of them! :eek:woo:hyper )... I am going to use it to make a couple of Red Scarf Project scarves. I've never worked with it before, so I figure practicing on a few charity scarves is a good way to start.

 

I think I am going to use a K or L hook, and stick with a simple stitch -- let the texture of the yarn provide the texture of the scarf. If I can survive this, maybe I'll use boucle for other things...

 

I think I have one skein of a dark red, one black, and two rust colored. I hope I can get two scarves out of them (one black/red, the other rust). We'll see.

 

Do you think you have enough for an afghan? I'm sure it would make a beautiful afghan with a nice texture, esp if it's a color that goes with your decor...

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I have one word for you two...Vallium.

 

I swear, this was the hardest yarn I ever worked with. The width kept growing and contracting, no matter what I did. It's nearly impossible to figure out where the stitches are. At least with Homespun, you can sort of feel your way...it's a lot harder with this yarn. That being said, the final sweater I produced came out very well and is the warmest sweater I own. It was just tough getting there...

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Oh Craters!!!!! No wonder it was "given away". I have 6 skeins of lemon yellow, 9 skeins of variegated yellow and pale green and 22 skeins of a variegated coffee color. So not really enough to make an afghan. YIKES....Vallium????? Just what I need....a yarn that will give me a case of the "shakes". This is not sounding too promising.

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Boucle...i tried making the crochet me and i'll be a princess capelet, it calls for boucle. it is hard! it seemed that the yarn would get pushed along and sort of bunch up, from the little thread part...i just tried working it in every once in awhile.

 

I tried to frog it, and then stopped. but then a ways through the pattern, i realized that it's too small for me. :-( so, now i don't know what to do with it. I've got a lot of boucle to, becuase it looked so nice and fluffy and warm!!!!

 

There is a quick and easy rose poncho thing, done with a q hook. i did that, but it was also too small. (am a plus sized person) So, that's that.

 

The q hook was awkward at first, but i got used to it.

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I found the first row very hard so what I did for my basketweave afghan was to find a color that matched of regular red heart yarn...I then started my chain of 130 stitches...when I got to the end and was ready to crochet the first double crochet row I added the boucle then.

 

then it was a breeze to crochet because I did it in fpdc and bpdc.......

 

go look, its a picture by itself, Basketweave afghan in GREEN...

 

http://photos.yahoo.com/yetieddy

 

hope this helps some of you...

 

Linda :hook

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Hmmmm.... I do have a Q hook. Maybe I can work up a shawl or something. I did look at your afghan Linda and it is quite lovely and oh so soft looking, but I'm afraid I don't have enough yarn for an afghan. I'll keep the "starter row" in mind though.

 

Thanks so much.

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I've found that using two strands (one boucle and one a worsted weight like Super Saver or One Pounder) and using a big hook will tame the problem. Sometimes you still have to feel for the holes but at least with the worsted weight you can tell where to start.

 

Also, don't do fancy stitches. There's enough drama in the boucle so even HDC looks pretty.

 

Good luck and we'll be waiting for pictures.

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I have one word for you two...Vallium.

 

I swear, this was the hardest yarn I ever worked with. The width kept growing and contracting, no matter what I did. It's nearly impossible to figure out where the stitches are. At least with Homespun, you can sort of feel your way...it's a lot harder with this yarn. That being said, the final sweater I produced came out very well and is the warmest sweater I own. It was just tough getting there...

I absolutely agree. Boulce has been hair-pulling to work with!
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Hi! Yes, it's hard to work with, but you can do it. I have some Baby Boucle, and made a couple items with it, and once you get used to the yarn "resisting" being pulled through the loops, it's ok. I think the trick is to crochet a little more loosely, make sure there is absolutely no tension on the yarn as you're hooking it, particularly when you pull up loops, so the bumps have room to come through the loops when you are completing the stitches. If that makes sense.

 

I found myself pointing the hook end of the hook (?) more toward the front than usual when pulling the yarn through the loops, bending my wrist more so that the hook pointed at me (I hold the hook like a knife). The finished projects are beautiful.

 

Another suggestion is to do a mesh, I think it's called, where you do one stitch then a ch, and on the next row the stitches get made in the ch on the previous row. So stitch, ch, stitch, ch, stitch, ch, stitch, and then on the next row stitch, stitch, ch, stitch, ch, stitch, etc. Not so hard to figure out where to put stitches.

 

Hope this helps!

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  • 11 months later...

I just finished making an afghan for my hubby using a Q hook and it's beautiful, so soft and fluffy. It worked up fast and only took me 8 days off and on :) . I only have the fringe left to add will have that done this week. I didn't have any problems working with this yarn at all, only that I had to make sure I placed a marker at the end of each row. I used two colors (a varigated and solid) and worked two stands together for the afghan.

 

The pattern I used was called Double Cozy from Leisure Arts Afgahns - For All Season, Book 2 (I love this book!!). The pattern called for one color but what I did was 8 rows of varigated, then two rows of solid and 3 rows of varigated, and finished it off with 8 rows of varigated. :hook :hook Not too shabby for a beginner. :cheer

 

I'll post a picture as soon as I'm finished if anyone would like.

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With boucle I sit with a lamp between my feet and have it shine upwards through the back of my work. It allows me to see the stitches better. And when frogging mistakes, I find it very helpful to use 2 crochet hooks to pick apart the mistakes. If you just kind of rip it as usual there will be knots.

 

The hardest boucle I worked with was a mohair boucle. Mohair is hard by itself even without the boucle. I made a beautiful pullover. Then I discovered I was allergic to it the first time I wore it. So it became a gift. My sister loved it!

 

 

 

I recently received a lovely gift of quite a few skeins of "Boucle" style yarn. I've never used this for anything but it is very attractive with it's bumpy surface. What do you all do with this yarn? It says it is primarily acrylic with 2% polyester.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been having the same problem. I felt bad that I spent money for something I wasn't excatly excited to use. So I tried to find a pattern that would work. At this point I have a large granny sqaure afghan in the works and a couple of v-stitch scarfs. With both these patterns once you get the foundation row started its a breeze because you only have to look for the chain spaces instead of the actual stitches.:clap

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I made scarfs. I found some of this yarn at a dollar store. Made one for my cousin and then went back and made one for me. I used a big hook (I think a K) and it only took 2 strands. If you have anyone on your Chistmas list for scarfs, you could make up a few. If the dollar store had more of this yarn I would grab it up. I keep looking....

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Thanks for all the tips, there are some good ones! I was just about to post about a frustrating time I had trying to crochet a baby blanket with this beautiful Wendy brand boucle I found, half merino, half acrylic, all wonderful feeling in light summery lime green and turquoise.

 

I will try a few of these ideas before I give up and just knit it.

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  • 7 years later...

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