I TESTED 3 POPULAR Chunky Chenille Yarns| Which One is BEST for AMIGURUMI
I tested 3 popular chunky chenille yarns to see which one is best for crocheted amigurumi and plushie toys!
Chunky Chenille yarn is all the rage for crocheted amigurumi and plushie toys! They are so soft and cuddly! But there are also challenges when crocheting with chunky chenille yarns.
And today I’m testing 3 of the MOST popular chunky chenille yarns to find out which one is BEST for crocheted amigurumi and plushie toys!
3 POPULAR Chunky Chenille Yarns| Which One is BEST for AMIGURUMI & PLUSHIES
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When I decided that I had to try out different chunky chenille yarns, I went online and did a little hunting around. I wanted to find three different yarns that would work well for crocheted toys.
There were so many to choose from that I had a hard time narrowing down my selections.
(And by the way, today’s post is sponsored by Cricut, more about that later)
I knew that I wanted to make one of the new designs from Green Frog Crochet and when I bought the pattern she had the recommended yarn she used. But she also included a link for all the different yarn suggestions that were compatible with her chosen yarn.
This was a gold mine of information. I recognized many of the brands and chose the original yarn she suggested, Himalaya Dolphin Baby, plus two others that were a match (Premier Parfait Chunky and Paintbox Yarns Chenille).
Happy Farm
The pattern I chose is the Happy Farm Bundle with 7 of the cutest, chunky baby farm animals. I mean, how adorable are these little characters.
Although I wanted to crochet them all, I knew to do a true test I needed to crochet the same pattern three different times.
I was also familiar with the Green Frog crochet patterns because I had made her beautiful Mia doll, so I knew the pattern would be well written.
Check Out The Most Adorable Amigurumi Doll Patterns Here
I chose the little pig pattern, because I’ve got a thing for pigs! They are just so cute and pink!
I got right to work with the first yarn, Himalaya Dolphin Baby and noticed something concerning almost immediately.
Cricut Maker 3
Before we get into all the details of each one of these yarns, I know you’re going to ask me about the eyes I used on my little piggies.
I typically use plastic safety eyes, but this time I wanted to do something a little different.
I recently got my very own Cricut Maker 3 and I’ve been thinking of all the ways I can use this for crochet.
First, if you aren’t familiar with Cricut, this is a smart cutting machine that works with a very easy-to-use app that helps you design and personalize almost anything.
It can cut things like faux leather for tags for crocheted hats, stickers for your handmade items or card stock tags for anything you make. These are just some of the things that the Cricut Maker 3 can do.
One of the things I like best about Cricut is that you don’t need to have any design experience. I tend to get very overwhelmed with machines and anything “techie” and I’ve found this very easy to use, you learn as you make.
For my little piggies I wanted them to have a cartoon/anime style for the eyes. I think this is such a cute look. I’ve tried hand cutting felt for this and it always turned out messy. I could never get the pieces as neat as I wanted them. I needed something much more precise to get the look I was going for.
For these eyes I used:
- Cricut brand felt in the colors black and white
- Arleen’s Fabric Fusion to glue them together
- A pair of tweezers to help position the pieces of the eye when gluing
Steps to Make Felt Amigurumi Eyes
- The first thing I did was to open the Cricut Design space app
- Then I clicked on New Project in the upper right hand corner
- Next I looked in the menu on the left hand side and clicked on shapes
- I chose a circle
- Then in the top menu I clicked on size and chose the 0.5″
- Next I clicked on the plus sign in the right hand side to duplicate the circle three more times for a total of four circles
- Reduce the size of two of the circles to 0.2
- Before you click on Make It you need to put the white color felt onto the Cricut Strong Grip Mat
- Once the felt is secure on the mat, press Make It
- Next a window will pop up for you to chose which material you’ll be using, choose On Mat
- I chose the 12 x 12 mat size
- On the bottom right hand corner, press Continue
- The app will then connect to your Cricut Maker 3, this can take a few seconds (make sure to check your bluetooth connection if you’re having problems connecting)
- Next click on Browse All Materials
- Search for Felt and click on it
- There will next be a drop down pressure menu and choose “More”
- Next load your mat with the felt into the feeder guides on the Cricut
- Press the blinking up and down arrow button on the right hand side of the machine
- Then press the play button to start cutting
- Once it has finished and you see the blinking up and down arrow button, click the play button again (this will insure that everythign has been cut well)
- After the second cut, press the blinking up and down arrows
- Carefully peel up a corner of the felt to make sure the cuts went all the way through
Repeat this process with the black felt but size the circles for 0.4. This will create the little black centers for the eyes.
Attaching the Felt Eyes
Tip: Make your felt eyes before you attach them to your little pig.
Once your little felt amigurumi eyes are cut, use a pair of tweezers to place the largest white circle on the bottom.
Place a drop of fabric glue on the black felt circle on top (I placed it near the edge) and put it on the white felt circle.
And finally place a drop of fabric glue on the smallest white circle and place it on top of the black circle (I placed it near the edge again).
Once your eyes have dried (which can take a couple of hours) add them to your amigurumi toy by gluing or sewing them on.
Himalaya Dolphin Baby Yarn
The recommended yarn for the Farm Animals pattern is Himalya Dolphin Baby, which is a very interesting name for a yarn.
The designer recommended the colors pink and beige. You can purchase it on Amazon, which is where I got it, but you can find it at a better price online like on HobinisYarns.
Each skein is 3.5 oz and 131 yards. It is $6.14 full price, but you can always wait for a sale.
Pros
There’s so many things to like about this yarn like:
- How soft it is
- So many different colors
- Colors are very pretty and on trend
Cons
But unfortunately I found there were several cons.
- The stitches are difficult to see (this can happen with chenille yarn, but it was especially difficult to see my stitches with this yarn)
- When you need to rip out any stitches, it doesn’t want to pull out easily
- And if you need to pull out several stitches the yarn sheds and I found all of the chenille shred from the strand
- When weaving in the ends, the yarn tended to shed while trying to thread the needle
Tips
I found that when needing to rip back stitches it was best to do one at a time and very slowly.
Premier Parfait Chunky
The next yarn I tried was Premier Parfait Chunky. I’ve seen a lot of plushie makers recommend this yarn and I was excited to try it. I’ve been a big fan of Premier Yarns for quite some time and they just happen to be my neighbor here in North Carolina.
Each skein is also 3.5 oz and 131 yards. It is $4.99 full price, but Premier Yarns always has great sales.
Pros
- Very soft
- Decent stitch definition for a chenille yarn
- Frogs easily (no problems ripping back stitches)
- Comes in 53 colors
Cons
- It shed a tiny bit when when weaving in the ends, but not as much as the Himalaya Dolphin Baby
Paintbox Chunky Chenille
The final yarn I crocheted with was the Paintbox Yarns Chenille. I’ve been happy with several of the different labels under the Paintbox brand. So I was very excited to try it.
It’s 131 yards and 3.5 oz, just like the other two yarns. It retails for $6.75 on Love Crafts, but you can get it for under $5 per skein when you wait for the sales.
Pros
- Soft
- Frogs easily
- Lightly sheds
Cons
- It only comes in 20 colors
This is a big con for me. I like when a yarn has lots of different colors to choose from for amigurumi toys.
Differences
What is so interesting to me is that the Himalaya Dolphin Baby and the Premier Parfait Chunky are both 3.5 oz and 131 yards, and yet the two pigs came out different sizes. I used the exact same crochet hook to make both!
This would not deter me from using either, it was just an interesting observation.
The Winner
The clear winner was the Premier Parfait Chunky. It has everything that I like in a yarn!
It’s soft, it has good stitch definition, it doesn’t shed much and it comes in so many gorgeous colors.
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