Yarn Review: Peaches and Cream

I have been using Peaches and Cream any time I use cotton yarn, I actually didn't move onto any other cotton yarn for a long while. I have moved onto trying out others like Bernat Handicrafter Yarn and Lily's Sugar and Cream yarn. But this is a review about Peaches and Cream, which is still my favorite cotton yarn.

It is a size 4 (worsted) weight yarn, it is made of 100% cotton. It is actually kind of interesting as I live in the cotton line of the USA and this yarn is made with cotton from America and goes to Canada to make it yarn and then is shipped back to the cotton line to buy. Just something a little silly that makes me smile when I buy it. You can machine wash and dry it but it says do not bleach, dry clean or iron. But to be real, you can do all of that but it will bleed out the colors. The recommended needle size is 4.5 mm and the recommended crochet hook is 5 mm. (However I use a 5 mm needle and a 4.25 mm hook.)

When it comes to yardage that is hard to say since there is two possibilities. I've only ever found this at Walmart so I'll go by there. The smaller skein is $1.77 and is 2.5 ounces or 70.9 grams giving 120 yards or 109 meters. The bigger skein comes in an actual cone that is $8.44 and is 400 grams or 14 ounces. What confuses me in the small skein it lists the ounces first then grams but the cone lists the grams first then the ounces. I never noticed until I was writing this but still. It gives you 645 meters or 706 yards. So if it is a color you like and want to keep using it 5.92 times meters (rounded), which means you would have to buy 4.77 skeins of the smaller skein to spend the entire amount you'd pay for the cone. So basically the cone is 1.15 of the smaller skeins for free. Of course if you are buying something just small you want to do go with the smaller skein but if you like a particular color I'd say go with the cone if you can.

I will say one of my favorites is a colorway called Strawberry Stripes, as it is a set of stripes yarn that are making stripes, it is in white, light pink and dark pink, this in particular while I was working with it it comes out looking like hand painted yarn, how it slowly goes from one color to the next in a casual gradient, most of the other multicolored ones just suddenly go from one color to the next.

I will also say that while Peaches and Cream are sold at Walmart and online Lily's Sugar and Cream is sold only at Michael's and Jo-Ann's, a lot of the colorways for both are named the same, such as seafoam and psychedelic. If you want to go from one to the other I would be careful, for insistence the two names I used; seafoam is a teal color that it is very obviously two different colors when you hold them side by side, but psychedelic you have to really look to see them to tell the difference. On average Peaches and Cream's colors  are more vibrant.

I have worked a lot with this yarn, I've used up several cones and normal skeins so I think I've got a good basis to review this.

Now when it comes to cotton it is going to feel stiff, because cotton is stiff, but when it comes to Peaches and Cream I would recommend winding it into a ball before you start working on it. For me that is what I kind of have to do. First for the skein because it isn't really a center pull and I hate how it fights around to unwind so I try to just wind the skein into a ball, and for the cone it rolls around since there is a real cone underneath and my cat loves to mess with it so I let her have the cone and she leaves my yarn alone. And also rolling it into a ball does make it the slightest bit softer.

When it comes to softness when compared to Sugar and Cream and Bernat Handicrafter Cotton it is softer then Handicrafter but not as soft as Sugar and Cream.

The biggest issue is splitting yarn. I will say that this will split. It is something that happens with cotton yarn, there is no changing it. At least no way I know. It doesn't split a lot honestly, it will sometimes but it isn't as bad as other yarns I've dealt with. I notice it really will happen when I knit, but other yarns it will split more when I crochet. I don't know if that is how I do it, how the yarn is spun or a combination of both.

I am left handed, which means the normal twisting of the yarn is an S twist which is better for right handed knitting and crochet. So if you are right handed you may find it even better then I do when it compared to splitting.

The only last things are how it is used, I used this mostly for making wash cloths and everyone I've given them to have fallen in love with them. So they have been used within an inch of their fiber lives.

I make the dish clothes, making small, medium, and large wash clothes. I use them for cleaning as well as for hot pads. It is so easy to have a two-in-one situation. I love especially using the hot pad and then being able to use that rag to wash up the dishes after dinner.

It protects very well as a hot pad, it washes amazingly well (how much that has to do with the pattern as opposed to the yarn itself is not to be ignored because single crochet basically makes a grid which helps to clean but the holding of the moisture helps) but still they do what you expect them to do.

I will say when it comes to washing every color I've used (and I've used about eleven different colors so far) that the only one I have a problem with is white. If it is a pure white it will hold any stains a bit, which will give it a used look even when it is washed. It doesn't matter when I make a wash rag, but when it comes to something like a top you might want to worry about it.

If it is a multicolored skein that has white in it, it doesn't matter as much. It isn't even like "oh there is other colors so they help cover up for the white in the skein." No. Even if it is right on the white, it won't show as much. How? I don't know, and honestly I don't care. It works. But still I'd be careful about making clothing with white Peaches and Cream yarn.

The other two things about washing is that some colors do fade a bit in washing. Only the very first time you wash it then it remains pretty much the same color. Some don't, for instance Strawberry Stripes does not fade in my experience nor does Black Current. Others like Seafoam do, but it isn't much, just a little bit.

The last thing is something that will be true of any 100% cotton yarn, as it is used and worn it will start to grow, getting bigger, but once you throw it into the washer and dryer it will be back to how it originally looked, basically being brand new again. I'd suggest finding a cotton blend of some kind for clothing.

This is by far my favorite cotton yarn. It is affordable and works great. I would highly recommend it, if you've never used it before I say get the smaller skein, which I've seen for sell down to even a dollar sometimes, to get a feel for it but if it is a color you love get the cone as most of my wash clothes and things meant for the kitchen or bathroom are made from this yarn.