Friday, May 29, 2015

Yarn Review - Rhichard Devrieze

Brand: The Yarns of Rhichard Devrieze
http://www.rdyarns.com/


Blend: 100% hand-painted merino
Made in Canada - Weight: fingering
Colour: Playground
Care Instructions: Superwash yarn, but recommended hand-washing and lay flat to dry.
Skein Size: 65g / 2.3oz.  206m / 225y
Cost: $17.00 (CAD)


Review: This yarn is not something I would normally buy myself, although the colours are very attractive and vibrant (the photo's don't really do it justice) but this yarn was a gift from one of my close friends. She's not a yarn expert by any means, but she was very attracted to the colour and thought I could make something out of it, and if you take a moment to surf through the website of the yarn-tistic arts of Mr. Rhichard Devrieze himself you can tell he really is an artist. The colours featured are all very unique and [appear] to be very vibrant! Either that or he has an excellent yarn-photographer on his side. But I don't doubt after working with this yarn myself, the quality and the richness of the colours are definitely there, and will make all of your creations with this yarn pop!

Tag and remainder of the yarn after mittens and hat.
However, the reason I say I would not normally purchase this yarn for my personal collection is that it is a fingering weight. As another bias I've always had towards fingering weight yarns, I assumed all you could use this for are socks... and I am not a big sock knitter. So I surfed around looking for different patterns I could potentially use to test this yarn out. Along with several shawl patterns (which I didn't feel this colour was suitable for), I stumbled across some baby mittens and a simple hat pattern (linked below) that called for a fingering weight. So I decided to give it a go and, have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the workability of this yarn despite it's weight.

Hat and mittens both knitted in the round, no seam.
I knitted both pieces in the round using double pointed needles from sizes US#1 to US#4 and construction went much smoother than I expected. The hand of this yarn is fine, but it's twisted very nicely and sticks together well with loads of stretch where and when you need it! This can be well demonstrated in the cuffs of the mittens which stretch almost 1.5 inches in width!

Close up of yarn colour and stitch details.
The other thing I loved about this yarn was that it was very "exciting" to knit with. Because my rounds were so small each row was a different colour! Sometimes I would get turquoise, followed by a vibrant orange, then purple, or yellow. It sounds like an irrelevant detail, but it did make construction exciting, and quick! Obviously because I wanted to see what my combination looked like in the end! Each piece you make with this yarn will definitely be unique, and that's one thing I love about these types of artistic dyes.

Close up of hat.
Not many downfalls to mention with respect to this yarn, only that be careful when working with such fine rounds that the yarn doesn't twist. Letting it "unwind" once in a while when working for several hours in a row is definitely recommended as the yarn tends to twist up on itself and can knot. However it bounces back even quicker than it twists, so this was only a minor inconvenience.

Photo of hat and mittens with remaining yarn and skein tag.
Another problem with type of yarn is that it's very "flat" in that mean that it doesn't have much of a "fuzzy" yarn filling when working with it (i.e. it's wound together quite tightly, it's not likely to fray). This was only a problem when closing the thumb gussets on the mittens. My spacing was very large and obvious. I solved this problem by double stitching the thumb connection closed and reinforcing with some extra "weaved" in ends.

Hat shown from the side, slouchy fit with plenty of stretch around the ribbed band.

Overall, I did enjoy working with this yarn, and after a baby slouchy hat and a pair of mittens, it feels like I have a lot left of the skein which always pleases me. I wouldn't recommend this for anything with large seaming "gusset" area connections, or be prepared to reinforce these area's if your tension isn't naturally super tight. I would also not recommend this yarn for any garments that do not require excessive amounts of stretching as this is a very stretchable fiber. This yarn is perfect for slouchy hats, or socks! I would not recommend for sweaters, coasters or cozy's (that don't stretch).



Purchase this hat at Yarnhardts Etsy store!!

Purchase these mittens at Yarnhardts Etsy store!!


Pattern(s) used in this post:
(Mittens) Heart Strings Mittens by Crystal Guistinello free pattern available for download on Ravelry at:

(Hat) Bonnet Islande by Anna et les Petites Choses free pattern available (in French and English) at: 

No comments:

Post a Comment