Mainstay’s Chunky Yarn Review

I will have to admit this was a challenge for me. When I first learned crochet, up until a few years ago, large hooks did not exist. You were lucky to get a 10mm which I never touched til a few years ago. My preferred hooks are 5mm or smaller.

For this review I purchased 6 skeins of Mainstay’s Chunky yarn & the recommend hook size of 25mm. Which was not easy to locate around my local stores.

The Label does not show any crochet using hooks or Knitted patterns with needles. This should have giving me a hint to my nightmare that was approaching haha. They have 3 patterns.. 2 finger crochet and 1 arm knitting.

The weight is a 6.. Hook or Needles 25mm. Machine wash Cold, Air Dry flat. There is a Women Owned TM on the Label and I have seen this popping up on other Mainstay items throughout Walmart lately. There is more about this at this Link. These Skeins have just over 31yds… It looks more than it actually is. I’m just gonna assume this is the normal for Extremely Chunky yarn. This is the first time I’ve worked with yarn this size so I’m used to getting more work done outta a skein than this did for me.

Now with all that being said… I introduce to you…

The Chunkalicious Throw

I will have to give major Kudos to this yarn. When I realized there was not alot of yarn per skein, my original stitch I was going to use was not gonna work. I must have frogged my project at least 6 times. This yarn held up great to all the frogging. No frays, no breakage. It was such a trooper haha. I was however very disappointed to find a knot in each and every skein I used.. tying 2 strands together kinda knots. 😦  I don’t work well with knots. I usually will cut the yarn & restart after I have removed the knot, this was heart breaking as I loose yarn this way.

I ended up using 3 different stitches to make this throw. I hate having stitches that are kinda loose or have large gaps between them near my feet. Your toes always get caught or poke thru haha  So I started with a DC/SC,SK with the first skein color. This gave it a puffy, bumpy texture and no gaps for the toes. Next Color I changed to a regular DC and the 3rd color I used a HDC… Then reversed order back thru the colors. To my amazement I got almost the same amount of rows per color even though I used different stitches… grrr No matter what I did I could not get more for my buck haha

Now mind you I was having a hell of a time with this huge hook so my gauge was all over the place. If I could find one and I ever decide to use huge yarn like this again I would go up a couple of sizes in the hook. I really felt the 25mm was too small for this yarn. Maybe thats why the patterns on the label were for Finger crochet or Arm knitting.

When I finished with the main part of the throw… which measures…43 x38 inches.. I had no more yarn to do a border. Gaahhh I ran back to Walmart and my store was completely out. You Can Not find this yarn on their website either right now. So back home I came. I decided to use a smaller weight blanket yarn to do the border.

It doesn’t look too bad. The Mainstays white wasn’t white, off white or antique.. not one single “white” I owned matched. 😦  My feet don’t really care anyways. They just wanna be warm 😉 To make the smaller blanket yarn appear thicker I did a round of HDC/Ch1. Then the second round I did 3HDC in each Ch1 space.

There ya have it. If you are wanting a pattern for this throw.. Leave me a comment If I get enough requests… I can work one up. It’s really easy to make.

Summary

This is a Sturdy yarn… Makes for a heavy blanket or throw

This yarn is Soft, squishy and easy to work with.

It recommends a 25mm Hook or Knitting needle.. I however recommend Larger

Patterns on label are for Finger Crochet and/ or Arm knitting. You would probably get more blanket outta arm knitting than finger crochet or using hook/needle.

Cleaning is a bit on the bummer side as it has to air dry.. this will take forever as thick as it is.

Price is 5.85 a skein. As I have not worked with other larger yarns like this.. I can not verify if this is actually a savings. Like I stated above 6 skeins to make a lap throw, I was hoping for a bigger blanket.

Color selection is limited.. I’m going to say that because it is new and they are just getting started with this line…. we will see. There was only the 3 colors I used and a almost Dusty Rose type color at my store. So 4 total colors available.

Til Next post .. Take Care.