What Makes Yarn “Delicious”?

We often hear people refer to non-food items as delicious. Yarn is no exception. But what does it mean when someone says: “oh, that yarn is delicious!” The Interweave Yarn team takes our role as fiber experts seriously. We couldn’t let this important question go unanswered any longer.

Above: Image copyright Golden Peak Media.

With the popularity of food shows today, it’s no surprise that food vernacular makes it way into other areas of our lives. From Chef’s Table to The Great British Baking Off, we can’t get enough! And, if there is one thing we’ve learned from cooks and contestants alike, it’s that you need to speak to all the senses to have a winning dish. And that’s the very approach we took in defining what makes yarn delicious.

Related: If The Great British Bake Off Was About Crochet

Yarn’s Scent

When you first lay hands on a new skein, do you bury your face in those fibers and take a sniff? Yarn offers a surprising variety of olfactory inputs, from the clean, nearly-nothing scent of superwash to the decidedly ovine yet pleasant musk of a 100% Polworth yarn. Some skeins, shipped with care from indie dyers, are accompanied by sprigs of lavender, tea bags, or candles in their tissue paper packaging. Those yarns carry those scents with them long after they’ve been unboxed. Then there’s the sharp tang of a project dunked in the blocking bath, tempered with the soft fragrance of wool wash as it dries in the sun. So much to smell, so much to love.

Yarn’s Colors

With striking colors and patterns—gradient, speckled, variegated, or even a solid hue—yarn is a sight to behold. Collecting yummy shades can be as fun as the act of needlearts itself. It’s a feast for the eyes. Speckled yarns are as joyful as ice cream and confetti cake. Muted warm tones give the sensation of fall with its crisp aromatic leaves. A cabinet of yarn arranged in a rainbow becomes a banquet of options as you look for just the right color for your next project.

Yarn’s Sounds

Delicious yarn comes with the sound of quiet contemplation. It’s the soft clicking of knitting needles at work. It’s the whirr of the swift and ball winder as skeins are prepared for use. And it’s the mental space to listen to the little voice inside that you can only hear when you sit still and breathe. Yarn sounds like the joyous buzz of the market floor at Yarn Fest. The oohs and aahs of hundreds of knitters and crocheters discovering a new fiber blend. The squeal of delight when someone finds a yarn they’ve only admired online. It’s the happy voices in a gathering of fiber friends.

Related: How to Hand-Wind a Skein of Yarn

Yarn’s Feel

Touch or the tactile experience is one of the guiding lights leading you to the checkout counter with skeins and more skeins of yarn. For some, the buttery softness of an organic cotton slipping across steel needles makes for an enjoyable project. For others, picking bits of earthy vegetation from the plys of local handspun wool yarn causes joy to spread across their face. The feel of yarn holds memories, too. Those memories might be fond ones or ones you’ve had to reframe as you learned wool isn’t as itchy as it was in the 1950s. So, to be a delicious yarn, it must be one you want to hold in your hands.

Related: Editor’s Note: Interweave Knits Gifts 2022

Yarn is not they type of fiber you should be eating, so we won’t suggest that its taste as a way to describe it. Yarn feeds the other senses in such wonderful ways! We would love to hear what you think makes yarn delicious. Please share your favorite scrumptious yarns in the comments below.

Savor Your Yarn