I am sure that most of the knitting world knows about Cascade 220 Wool by now, but since there may be a few late bloomers out there like myself I thought I would publicly profess my love for this particular thread here today.  I LOVE this yarn.  I keep buying it, but unlike the other threads in my yarn stash, my Cascade 220 never piles up because I use it as fast as I buy it.

The Roots of My Affection

I think I may have mentioned before that I have been knitting since I was eight years old.  I have always loved the rhythmic, almost meditative motion of looping yarn around needle, but truthfully I did not find my true passion for this craft until I discovered felting, or fulling as it is technically called.  (Since most knitters don’t call it fulling, I am going to call it felting for the purposes of this review.)  Felting is the process by which a fabric of knitted wool is exposed to hot water and agitated, causing the wool fibers to shrink and lock into each other, creating a tight, thick fabric, or felt.  This can be accomplished by hand with a boiling pot of water on the stove and a lot of stirring, or more simply, the fabric can be run through a washing machine on a hot wash.  I have tried both methods, but I prefer to use my washing machine, both because I can felt several items at once and because it takes far less time to achieve the desired degree of felted fabric.  The uses for such a fabric are nearly endless: hats, bowls, bags, pouches, scarves, mufflers, shoes, and jackets are just some of the projects I have seen fashioned out of knitted and felted wool.

Once I discovered the process of felting my knitted works, I was entirely hooked.  I am always amazed at how forgiving this process is.  If my knitting is not entirely even (with a mixture of tight and loose stitches), if I have obvious mistakes, or even if I have somehow made a hole in my work, the felting process manages to hide my errors.  I also enjoy the look and feel of the felted wool; its smooth, nearly solid surface is great for making very warm winter accessories, and it is tight enough that purses and handbags can go unlined without fear of losing their contents.  When felted, yarn colors seem bolder and brighter than they do in their original yarn form, allowing the knitter to create really interesting plays on color and form.  Simply put, felting takes knitting to new levels of fun for me.

A Great Medium Weight

Let’s get back to the Cascade 220.  I’ve tried other wools for felting and many perform well in their own right, but Cascade 220 is my favorite and best by far.  Some wools are very scratchy to work with, but I love the way Cascade 220 feels in my hands.  A more refined wool, Cascade has no tiny sticks or scratchy bits to irritate my skin as I work with it and so far it hasn’t made me sneeze despite my slight allergy to wool.  I have found that some wools are quite smelly, perhaps because they are rich in lanolin?  I don’t know why some smell and some don’t, but Cascade doesn’t stink and, being somewhat sensitive to odor, this is important to me.

Cascade comes in such a variety of over 95 colors, from solids to tweeds to heathers.   A rainbow of choices means you can nearly always find just the right shade of soft pink, kelly green, or periwinkle blue.  Perhaps the best news I can give you is that even the very lightest of Cascade 220 colors will felt nicely.  They may require a slightly longer agitation time, but you will still be able to achieve the nice, tight felt that you desire when you set out to make a project.  So many white wools will not felt, but I promise that Cascade 220 will not disappoint you in this area!

A Useful, Affordable Yarn

I don’t want to give the impression that Cascade 220 can only be used for felting.  Much to the contrary, this wool would be great for sweaters, mittens, blankets, and any other type of knit.  Each skein of Cascade yarn is 100gr/220 yds of 100% Peruvian Highland Wool and should be cared for as such (hand wash, lay flat to dry).  For regular, non-felted knits, a size 7 or 8 needle is recommended.  I recommend a size 10.5 or 11 for felting purposes because if the yarn is knitted too closely it won’t be able to agitate enough to felt.  At around $5.00 per skein, Cascade 220 is the perfect wool to stash up for those wool projects you’ve been meaning to get to.  If you’ve been curious about felting do give Cascade 220 a try.

For more information or to locate a retailer near you that stocks Cascade 220, please visit Cascade Yarns .  Coming soon: a free pattern using Cascade 220!  Check back at the Qwowi Stitches Blog in the upcoming week for the free pattern to make the bag shown above.