JL Yarns Vinca Review

Goodevening everyone ^^/

i hope you've all had a fantastic weekend. i myself just kinda lazed around the house mostly, and knit up a storm with my newly acquired yarns :)

the first of last weeks yarn purchases to arrive was my order from Julia's Yarns. I ordered a substantial quantity of their sock yarn called "Vinca" in 2 different colorways, #815 which is a mix of blue/green/purple/pink/yellow, and #814 which is mainly blue, pink and purple.

{color #815}

as i said in my last post, this yarn is 75% superwash wool and 25% Nylon and really doesn't get the greatest reviews on Ravelry. before i bought it i checked out some of the projects that were made with Vinca and i read a lot about splittiness and about repeats in the color changes being hard to find. but since the yarn was on sale for roughly 4$ per 100g (which is basically unheard of for superwash wool) and because i think the colors are dreamy i decided to order some anyways.

{color # 814}

so when the yarn arrived, the first thing about it i noticed is that the colors are very true to the colors represented on the JL Yarns website which is always a plus. there's nothing worse than ordering yarn online only to have it show up and be a totally different color than you were expecting.

the second thing i noticed is that it's not the softest yarn in the world, it's probably comparable to Lion Brand Sock Ease and other big box superwash wool sock yarns. basically, it's no Malabrigo, but for the price, i never expected it to be.

so i decided to swatch with color #815 and as i've said before, while swatching i didn't find this yarn to be splitty AT ALL, which is the biggest complaint i was reading from Ravelry members. although, i've since cast on a large project with this yarn and i have found it to be a little splitty at times, but nothing like i was expecting based on the Rav reviews. also because of its slight scratchiness, obviously it's not the nicest yarn to work with, but i didn't find it altogether unpleasant or unbearable.

I knit my swatch on size 2 needles, not the size 4 recommended on the label because, well, size 2 is my go-to size for knitting socks, and seeing how this IS a sock yarn i didn't want to break precident xD my guage before blocking was 34sts x 41 rows. after blocking i got a guage of 33 sts x 44 rows, so althogether not a substantial change in either. the change could also be due to miscounting on my part since the stitches are very small and the 2ply color changes make the stitches a bit harder to see. overall though, i'd say blocking doesn't make that much difference in guage for this yarn.

{my finished and blocked swatch}

as you can see from the picture, this yarn blocks wonderfully. pretty much all the curl has gone out of the swatch and it will lay mostly flat without being pinned down. so that's one great thing about this yarn. and another great thing is that my swatch softened up a LOT after blocking. really the difference in softness is night and day. i could definItely wear this yarn next to skin after blocking, which is great for the project i just cast on with it.

{close up to show the 2ply color effect}

all in all, i personally would give this yarn a good rating. it may not be the best for someone with sensitive skin, but would be great for baby garments not worn next to skin and for durable socks because i find that scratchier sock yarns tend to hold up better than the softer ones. on a scale from 1 to 10 i give this yarn:

Quality Relative to Price: 8.5

Overal Quality unrelated to Price: 6

Color: 10

Ease of use: 7

bottom line: you get what you pay for. but if you're looking for a decent beginners sock yarn that has great colors and durability, then this might be a good choice for you.

i hope you all liked my review, next up will be the Julia's Yarns Bamboo Spica sometime this week so be sure to check back for that. and i've also recieved part of my order from Herrschners so be on the lookout for a review of Gedifra Korella or Rowan Milk cotton sometime soon too.

have a great week everyeone, and keep on clickin!

~Carla