Budget vs EXPENSIVE Yarns: Which Is BEST for Amigurumi?

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Have you ever wondered if budget friendly or more expensive yarns were best for amigurumi? Come along as I test two yarns to see which one is better for crocheted toys!

Can you guess which amigurumi toy was made with the budget friendly yarn and which one was made with the more expensive yarn?

When Jennifer from Crochet to Play reached out to me about her brand new Christmas pattern, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I’ve had an idea brewing in my old noggin. I wanted to put two different yarns to the test.

One yarn had to be budget friendly and the other yarn needed to be a more expensive yarn. They both had to work well for amigurumi, but they needed to have very different price points.

Budget vs Expensive Yarns for Amigurumi

Budget vs Expensive Yarns for Amigurumi

This idea originally sprang forth from my “How to Test Yarn for Amigurumi” post.

Read More About How to Test Yarn for Amigurumi Here | Choose the BEST Yarn Every Time

The good folks at Premier Yarns had invited me to their headquarters, which is just 15 minutes from my house! We had a lovely meeting and they sent me home with a huge box full of yarn.

They were interested in hearing my thoughts about which of their yarns worked best for amigurumi.

I was so excited about testing each one of the yarns, but it took me some time to figure out how I would accomplish that. I definitely could not have tested all ten of them by making a full toy.

So I came up with a little “test” and rated each of them on five different characteristics:

• Softness/Feel
• Stitch Definition
• Color Selection
• Strength for seaming
• Splittiness

While I fell in love with several of the Premier Yarns, two of them stood out to me as great yarns for amigurumi.

Both of these yarns have great characteristics for amigurumi, but they are in two different price points.

I wanted to put them to the test. These two yarns needed to battle it out to see which one is BEST for amigurumi.

I love to do little experiments and this one was right up my alley.

Premier Yarns (Sponsorship Info)

Let’s check in with today’s sponsor, Premier Yarns. I am so happy to partner with Premier Yarns for this post.

What I love about Premier is that they are a locally owned company. When they invited me to come visit their headquarters I couldn’t have been more surprised to learn that they located only 15 minutes from my house.

Premier Yarns began in 2005 right outside of Charlotte, NC and they carry over ninety different yarn lines.

You might find Premier Yarns in your local craft stores, but they also have a wonderful well organized website to shop from.

When looking at each yarn on the website, make sure to scroll down to see all of the different FREE patterns they offer for each yarn.

And what’s even better is that Premier Yarns is offering you a code for 20% off.

Use 20%LPSC at checkout for your discount. The offer expires January 24th, 2023, one use per customer. Cannot be combined with other offers.

12 Days of Christmas Pattern from Crochet to Play

As soon as this idea to test two different yarns really go bubbling in my brain, Jennifer from Crochet to Play reached out.

She wanted to see if I would be interested in trying out her brand new pattern the 12 Days of Christmas.

BINGO!

I knew this one would be perfect for this little test!

Jennifer’s new pattern is full of the most adorable characters from the iconic song “The 12 Days of Christmas”.

In the pattern you will find twelve unique amigurumi patterns to use as holiday decorations, sweet gifts or you could even turn them into Christmas ornaments.

The bundle comes with all twelve of the patterns:

• A Partridge in a Pear Tree
• Two Turtle Doves
• Three French Hens
• Four Calling Birds
• Five Golden Rings
• Six Geese a-Laying
• Seven Swans a Swimming
• Eight Maids a Milking
• Nine Ladies Dancing
• Ten Lords a-Leaping
• Eleven Pipers Piping
• Twelve Drummers Drumming

I had such a hard time choosing which toy I was going to crochet because they are all so adorable.

Ultimately I chose the drummer because “The Little Drummer Boy” is my favorite Christmas song of all time. Makes me cry every single time I hear it.

Plus I thought he reminded me of my boys when they were little. How cute!

Find the 12 Days of Christmas Pattern Here

Two Yarns to Test

Now I had the perfect pattern and it was time to get to work.

I chose to test:

• Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted
• Premier Basix

Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted

Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted comes in sixty-seven different colors.

The price is $4.99 for a 3.5 oz skein of yarn. That comes out to $1.42 an ounce. Although Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted isn’t a super expensive yarn, it is pricier than what would be considered a budget friendly yarn.

What’s wonderful about this yarn is that the colors are absolutely spectacular.

Another amazing feature is that Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted was designed with special technology. It won’t pill after lots of hugs, cuddles or even washing.

This is a great yarn for amigurumi. It is a lighter worsted weight than the Premier Basix.

(Does that give you a bit of a hint as to which drummer boy was made with which yarn?)

I used the Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted Yarn in the colors:

• Cappuccino
• Butter
• Cloudy Day
• Really Red
• Snow White
• Black

What’s amazing is that this yarn has over 800 five star reviews on the Premier Yarns website.

Premier Basix

Premier Basix is a super budget friendly yarn that comes in eighty-one different colors.

The price is $3.79 for a full 7 ounces of solid colored yarn. The multis, marled and tweeds are 5 ounces.

That comes out to 54 cents an ounce (for the solid colors)! Now that is what I call budget friendly. It’s almost three times cheaper than the Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted Yarn.

The Premier Basix is a thicker worsted and has over 500 5 star reviews on the Premier yarns website. So many comments about how much people like the yarn and how it isn’t scratchy like other budget friendly acrylics.

These are the colors of the Basix yarn that I used for my little drummer drumming:

• Buff
• Lemon
• Light Grey
• Red
• White
• Black

Budget vs. More Expensive Yarns for Amigurumi – The BIG Reveal

The smaller drummer boy was made with with the Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted Yarn.

The larger drummer boy was made with the Premier Basix.

And the Winner Is…..

Drumroll please……

And the winner is, well they are both winners.

It depends on what you like and what your budget is.

What I found most interesting about this experiment is that there really isn’t much of a difference between the two toys.

They are both totally adorable.

The only noticeable difference is the size, one is slightly larger than the other. I used a 3.5 mm crochet hook for both drummer boys.

First of all, both of these yarns are fantastic for amigurumi. But there are a few things to consider when you’re making toys that you may want to consider.

Budget Priority

If the budget is your number one priority, then Premier Basix is a fantastic yarn.

It is a thicker worsted yarn than I typically use, but it worked up only slightly larger than the drummer boy made with the Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted.

I really liked working with this yarn.

For many years I avoided super budget friendly yarns because I was afraid the finished toy wouldn’t look as nice. I also worried that it would feel scratchy and rough in my hands.

Thankfully I was very surprised by how nicely the yarn worked up and I couldn’t be happier with my little drummer boy.

You will like this yarn if you want a:

• budget friendly yarn
• toy with some structure
• yarn with lots of color choices
• slightly heavier weight worsted yarn

Wear and Tear

If you’re planning on making a toy that is going to get a lot of cuddles and hugs, you might want to go with an anti-pilling yarn.

The Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted will not pill after a lot of handling and washing.

You will like this yarn if you want a:

• yarn that won’t pill
• slightly lighter worsted weight yarn
• lot of gorgeous color choices.

The Anti-Pilling Everyday Worsted is also great if you really like toys with lots of fine details. Because the yarn is slightly thinner it makes the details crisper like on the sides of the drums.

Budget vs Expensive Yarns for Amigurumi

I hope that you enjoyed this little experiment. It was a lot of fun for me and I learned something valuable.

Let me know what your favorite yarns are for amigurumi.

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