«
»

Let’s pooh-pooh Lion Brand together!

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
Tags:

I want to link to this post about why Lion Brand isn’t the yarn of the proletariat because I agree with it completely and I want as many people as possible to read it. One of the things that annoys me most about Lion Brand is their “cheapness” hype. If you really can’t afford cashmere, buy from KnitPicks or unravel a sweater. DON’T BUY LION BRAND. Their yarn is cheaply manufactured and extremely overpriced. The willingness of knitters to pay for crap means they can put on a huge markup, and… tada! You get to pay $6 for 100 yards of 50% wool, 50% acrylic instead of the same for that amount of 100% alpaca. Yarg. Yarg!

Related Posts:

8 Comments to “Let’s pooh-pooh Lion Brand together!”

  1. Thanks for this link- can’t wait to read! And here I was all ready to try out the Cotton Ease, about which there is much hype.

    Comment by     JulieFrick
    April 11, 2007 @ 8:59 am

  2. Thanks for the link … I agree with it totally!

    Comment by Rhonda the Stitchingnut
    April 11, 2007 @ 10:33 am

  3. I’m glad you brought this up. I’ve never used LB and don’t even know where it can be had in my small town, but for some reason, I get the catalogs all the time and think UGH… potential dryer lint! The post you linked to is well-written with good comparisons, thanks for providing it.

    Comment by Sharon
    April 11, 2007 @ 11:51 am

  4. Being a bit of a yarn snob has saved me from LB. Also seeing what happens to it when its washed and what it feels like to wear it. BLEAH! I decided my time was worth better yarn than that.

    Comment by whichy
    April 11, 2007 @ 12:55 pm

  5. I’ve never liked acrylic and would never buy any yarn at my local JoAnn’s (except during my brief fun-fur stage [hangs head in shame]), EXCEPT the lovely Paton’s Merino, which they had in limited quantities and colors, but pretty inexpensively. Now they don’t even have that, so it’s back to the LYS (love the LYS, but a trip there is always a bit costly) and the internet. Because I have yet to meet a Lion Brand yarn I really liked. I did see some “Lion Wool” at a craft store recently, and thought it odd that it was packaged in 3-oz. skeins, instead of the more usual 4-ouncers. Deceptive packaging? Could be, if people don’t look at the yardage (which they should, of course). It wasn’t particularly inexpensive, either. Lion Brand, the “Yarn of the Proletariat”? I don’t think so.

    Comment by AuntieAnn
    April 11, 2007 @ 5:19 pm

  6. Yep. LB is yarn for new knitters who haven’t thought to look online for yarn and are thus limited to their local craft/big box stores. (Me, five and a half years ago.)

    Comment by naomi
    April 11, 2007 @ 7:55 pm

  7. (Mostly, I mean. I know people who like specific yarns by Lion Brand, and I’ve actually gotten quite good use out of the blanket I knit from “homespun”.)

    Comment by naomi
    April 11, 2007 @ 7:56 pm

  8. I have to agree with all of you about Lion Brand. I’ve only been knitting for about a year and only used Homespun once before I discovered better yarn. I like Patons Merino Wool and Patons SWS really well. Today I purchased some Plymouth Yarn Galway Paint and Galway Colornep. I still have some Lion Wool in my stash but it isn’t quite the same compared to the other wool yarns although I’m sure I can use it for felting. I have used the LB cotton for dshcloths, it seems to be okay. Lion Brand is not a value if you look at the price and number of yards on the skein, and I would not use it to knit a garment that I planned to wear. I avoid their products now and don’t recommend them to anyone. I also had a bad experience with Bernat Masala, a self-striping acrylic that I purchased to make a scarf; I counted 4 knots where they joined the yarn before I was halfway through the skein. The yarn felt soft after it was worked up but never felt nice in my hands.

    Comment by Colleen
    October 12, 2007 @ 8:27 pm

Comments RSS • Get a Gravatar

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.