Comparing Yarn Colours

Hello again.

This post has been languishing for a while as an unfinished draft post, until today.

A question was posed by a member of my Woolthreadpaint Facebook Group asking if there was such a thing as a chart comparing the yarn colours across three of the most popular yarn brands. (Well actually she only asked about two). And did anyone know of one?

“I do!” I replied, remembering about this draft.

Just the prompt I needed to get it up and running, so here is my list of yarn colours across Yarnsmiths Create, Stylecraft Special and Scheepjes Colour Crafter and how they compare.

Read on….

I’ll pop up some images in a moment, but first – why?

These three brands are very similar in weight and fibre content. They are all 100% acrylic, DK weight, and come in a wide range of colours. They are also very affordable and easily washed, making them ideal for large items like blankets.

Yarnsmiths Create DK

Pros and Cons –

Create is a nice yarn to work with. It is a new range and I think it will be a reliable brand where colours will remain in stock for the foreseeable future.

It comes in the widest range of colours of the three, with 120 different shades to choose from.

At £1.75 for a 100g ball, it is also the most reasonably priced.

And I’m likely to be choosing this yarn more and more in the future for my patterns.

The only con I can think of is that it’s an own brand yarn of Wool Warehouse, so isn’t available from any other retailers. If you want to use it, it has to purchased from Wool Warehouse.

Not a big problem since WW ship worldwide, but I hear from people in South Africa that delivery charges are high and they prefer to use a brand that they can source at home.

Which is where the next yarn comes in.

Stylecraft Special DK

This is arguably the best known yarn for crocheters and forms the core of many people’s yarn stashes.

It is also widely available throughout the UK and overseas.

Like Create it works up well, but dare I say it, lately it has felt a little harder than it used to be. There are lots of conversations online about the quality recently, but it is still a good yarn to use.

It comes in 100 colours and costs £2.35 for a 100g ball.

And also like Create, it is a reliable brand with no discontinued colours.

Scheepjes Colour Crafter DK

This is the third yarn that I will be comparing. It is is easily available on mainland Europe since the company is based in the Netherlands.

Of course for UK and other areas, this yarn is also sold in Wool Warehouse.

It’s the most expensive, at £2.95 for a 100g ball and has the least colours – 93 in total.

I do like this yarn too, and its quality has remained consistent.

The colours seem to be static too, with no deletions.

Before I start listing the colours, be assured that all three brands are interchangeable, and all three can be used together in one pattern without any problem.

And one other important thing –

The colours of the yarns which you will see on a website like Wool Warehouse (and all yarn sites to be fair) are an approximation of the shade. The colour representation can be quite off, making it difficult to compare colours online and also to make a decision if you want to substitute the yarns for a different brand.

As an example, in the photo below I’ve put a yarn peg wrapped with the actual yarn in shade Eindhoven, next to the image of the same colour on the web page. You can see there is quite a difference.

The Comparison

The yarn colours between all three ranges are in the most part, very similar. Of course, Create is the winner for choice of colours, and personally, being a grey freak, I love the wide choice of neutral shades it has.

It also has a few shades which can’t be matched with the other two.

This makes the comparison not exactly straightforward, but I have had a go at matching as best I can.

So, here are some reasons for producing this chart –

1. If my pattern is written up in Create, but you have a lot of Stylecraft Special already in your stash or you simply prefer to use it.

2. If you want to source the yarn from a different country.

3. If you like to mix your yarns in a pattern.

4. If one brand colour is temporarily out of stock and you want to choose a matching one so you don’t have to wait.

The Chart

Some points to note first –

If there is a blank space on the Chart it means there isn’t an equivalent colour in that yarn.

There are some in the list where two different shades of the same yarn could be used because they are similar, and so I’ve listed them both. You could choose either.

Not every match is exact. In some cases, the colours are close, but not identical.

In the Create yarn range in particular there are some colours which have no matches. Simply because there are more colours in the Create range than the others.

There are other acrylic DK yarns available of course. I’ve just picked the three most popular.

I’ve chosen colours to match as best I can. It’s not a hard and fast rule, and you may disagree with mine and have your own choices, which is fine of course.

I’ve put together some photos of yarn pegs showing the matching colours choices. Each little section of the tray corresponds to one line of the Chart, and the colours are placed as Yarnsmiths Create on the left, Stylecraft Special in the centre, and Colour Crafter on the right.

Plus you can download and print the charts from here –

Finally, it hasn’t been as easy as I thought to put together these comparisons. It was tricky to figure out a way to do it which was simple enough to display. I’m not sure I’ve succeeded but at least it’s a tool of some sort to help you choose an alternative yarn.

Best wishes,