Life has been chaotic with online school and trying to work, weave and cook daily. So I haven’t been able to write, but this week I forced myself to get some things photographed for my store. I am up to : 2 scarves, 2 shawls. a blanket. and 4 dishtowels. Not a ton, but with a new shaw and blanket coming up I can move onto a few more dishtowels to round things out.

I also did some calculations and learned that if I weave my current stash I will be up to testing 30% of the Lion Brand collection! That is lot! I am going to combine a few lines in to single post- like all the Mandala and all the “Touch of…” yarns. I am quite excited.

Let’s get on with it, shall we? This time I am going to talk about Hand-Dyed Heaven and Coboo.

They are both soft, drapey and size 3. I used them on a 7.5 heddle, but I randomly doubled some slots and holes to give me more texture. 10 EPI would be a good choice for this yarn as well so you can get a firmer weave. Coboo is already a favorite in the Rigid Heddle Facebook world for its price and luster and I can see why! It’s a delightful yarn to weave. In the next post I test it’s cousin, LB Collection Cotton Bamboo. The yarns have the same fiber content, they are just plied differently. The LB is slightly more expensive (but not by much), has a limited coordinating color selection and makes lovely tassels on you fringes. I prefer it to Coboo, but the difference is so slight it’s not a huge concern.

Hand Dyed Heaven is a 100% Nylon yarn hand speckled in some really intriguing colors. Almost everything I have ordered from LB has been true to screen color, including their hand-dyed collections. But this? Nope. Not even close to what I saw on the screen. This is what I was expecting:

I had a vision of a beautiful pooled scarf in blues and greens…

This was what I got:

Hmmmm…. Not quite what I was expecting. This is Cabbage Leaf, btw. My Jawbreaker selection was closer.

So, we had to change up my projects a bit. According to my Rigid Heddle group, Hand Dyed Heaven can be wildly different in the store as well, so expect the unexpected with this line.

For my scarf I used HHH for the warp, and Coboo for the weft. The 100% Nylon is a truly fascinating choice. It’s soft, it’s extremely strong. It meshed well with cotton/bamboo so you can’t really tell which is which except the cotton/bamboo has a slight sheen.

Scarf woven with HHH Jawbreaker weft, Coboo in Beige.

What I love: the texture. It is the most cuddly soft thing. It’s easy care- machine wash and dry. The little speckles are sweet and just rustic enough. I wanted to give it more flare, so I assumed that I could dye this with fiber reactive dyes and it would take differently on the cellulose fibers and the nylon.

But to my surprise?

It didn’t. This nylon yarn drinks the dye as well as cotton.

So yellow! And I have new tags!

Well, lesson learned. I had two more skeins and 3 more balls of Coboo so I combined them to make a jacket from Cris Wood Sews ——> find it here. It’s more formula than pattern, but it gives you a perfect set of measurements that you can customize your weave to. I folded up the bottom for pockets instead of using patch pockets but now I live in this thing. So many pocket, so cozy comfy.

If it looks a little shaggy, it’s because I literally peeled it off my body and photographed it!

Once again, this was woven on a 7.5 heddle. I crammed in some extra warp threads at random and for the weft I left some extremely loose bubbles here and there that made these interesting white lines.

I love my jacket and I need one in black for shoot days because those pockets can hold all the lenses!

Okay: ready for the round up? Here we go!

Hand Dyed Heaven

Pros:

It’s interesting. I have never heard or worked with a 100% nylon yarn
It’s super strong, so it’s great as a warp
It’s so soft!
The little specks add some subtle interest to your project
It’s dyeable with Procion dyes and it takes the color super well.

Cons:

The color ways are not dependable, expect something random and not what you ordered on the site. I would read the list of colors used in each skein and make sure you are okay with all of them in any random amount.

Strong fiber=more pilling. It’s fuzzing out more than the Coboo. It’s counter intuitive- but if a fiber is strong, it won’t drop it’s fluff- it keeps it causing pills.
Some people just hate synthetics and I don’t see the advantage of a synthetic in this line. I would buy some white Coboo and soak it in soda ash and spray my own dye on probably rather than invest in this yarn again. (Though it does go on some great sales, like 3 skeins for $10 and well…why not? When in Rome…) I can’t say I regret this yarn, but can’t say I ever want to use it again.

Coboo

Pros:

SO SOFT.
SO DRAPEY
SO SMOOTH
SO AFFORDABLE
Plays well with other yarns, and it’s dyeable. It’s a very versatile yarn.
Strong enough for warp, makes drape-tastic garments that weave up fast but aren’t too thick and stiff. Easy care- strong cotton protects the weaker rayon.

Cons:

None. I can’t think of anything! I really loved working with it and like Lion Brand’s Merino Wool, I expect to start stashing basic colors so I always have some on hand.

Thanks all folks! I have a fantastic shawl coming up using Lion Brands new Hand Dyed Silk. Spoiler alert, it’s drool worthy and amazing.

Lion Brand Hand Dyed Heaven + Lion Brand Coboo