Video: The Secret To Find Good Yarn on Temu

Have you ever wondered if Temu has any natural fibers? I have figured out the secret to getting really high quality yarn for a great price from them, so if you are interested check out my newest video :)

If you want to check out Temu for yourself, you can click here.

FO: Playin' My Song Shawl

Every so often I find myself drawn into the allure of a Mystery Knit Along. Sometimes it's a favorite designer, sometimes it's an object I wanted to knit anyway, and sometimes it's neither of those things and I just learned about it at just the right moment and split second decide to join in. This was the case of feeling like knitting a shawl and then watching Sweet Georgia on YouTube back in July and learning there would be a shawl mystery knit along (mkal) in August. They had a discount on the pattern if you preordered it, and that was that. Decision made.

I decided to combine this mkal with trying out some new yarn (which means I did not go by the gauge in the pattern). I grabbed 3 skeins of this Lotus Yarns Swan Lake from Temu over the summer on a whim. Actually the creamy colored yarn was one of their "price drop just for you" offers and I got it for like $1.79, so how could I pass that up? Then I liked it so well I decided to get a few other colors. Swan Lake is a lace weight yarn that is 50% cashmere, 40% wool, and 10% angora which all equals SO SOFT. For real. The pattern calls for fingering weight in a size 6 needle, so I just went down to a size 5 needle and called it good. It's certainly a bit more airy than the others I see, but I like that for being in a warmer climate.

The shawl construction was pretty cool and one I've never done before. The cream colored triangular section was the first clue, which felt very normal and shawl-like compared to others I've made. Then you leave stitches live around the edges of the triangle but only work one side at a time for each of the next clues, and while the two sides are the same size and use the same textured stitches, the order of each type of stitch is moved around to look asymmetrical. If you look above you can see that the cream colored stripes are in different spots on each side. It's something I don't think you'd particularly notice when someone wears it unless you really look. 

I do really like the different textures and I dig the color combo I chose for this. I bought all of these yarns knowing they would combine well, but not knowing the design beforehand did have me stressing a bit. All good though :) While I do like the textures of the stitches, some of them were pretty similar and right next to each other, which was an interesting choice.

In the end, my shawl measures 80" x 15" is slightly longer but slightly shorter than the pattern says, as expected by using a smaller yarn and needle, but it's still surprisingly close. The miracles of blocking, folks. I could easily block it the exact size the pattern states, but I liked how this looked so it's fine as is. The elongated shape does mean this wears differently than any of the other shawls I've made, which were a triangular or half circle shaped. Typically, I wear my shawls bandana style where I drape the middle in front of my neck, wrap the ends around to the front, and tie them together under the front flap. This is not an option for this shawl - I tried. I can wrap it around from the front, but securing it is a totally different hassle. It definitely works better to just wear it as a traditional shawl (like in my top photo), but we will see how I figure out styling it when it gets cooler outside and I can wear it.

So that's my Playin' My Song shawl :) I was a little behind the clues - 3 weeks just isn't realistic for my to finish a project this size, but I did manage t finish in 5 weeks which it nothing to sneeze at.  I enjoyed knitting this and the yarn is really lovely. I definitely recommend grabbing some if you feel so inclined. Now I have a cashmere/bunny soft wrap to snuggle up in when the weather cools down.

Summary:

Yarn: Swan Lake by Lotus Yarns in colors 2 (cream), 11 (purple), and 16 (teal) on Temu = $10.79

Pattern: Playin' My Song MKAL by Tabetha Hedrick for Sweet Georgia Yarns - $6.50

Time: 5 weeks

Total Cost: $ 17.29

Temu Yarn: Is It What They Say It Is?

Like many people, I've given into the lure of Temu cheap yarn. At first, buying things there was just to satisfy my own curiosity. Was this yarn any good? Are the descriptions accurate? Or are they just taking advantage of unsuspecting people excited to get a good deal on their hobby? I felt it was worth investigating myself since none of the comments on the listings seemed to be anything mentioning what particular knitters like me would want to know - things like fiber content and gauge. So after reading through the little descriptions available, I made a few selections for us to analyze. 

My biggest tip with buying yarn from any company based in China is to read the description and examine the photos carefully. The main complaints I see are from people who bought a yarn that was called "Milk Cotton", but it turned out to be polyester. Sorry but those people didn't read the description - or even the label in this case. Milk Cotton was just the name of the yarn translated into English as close as they could. If those buyers had read the description, they would have seen it was 100% acrylic or polyester. I bought 2 skeins of this knowing they were acrylic, but they are fingering weight and I knew I could use them for something. At $3.50 for 2 skeins, I'm happy with this one.

This yarn was sold as Gradient Wool. The label (using google translate) says its 75% animal fiber and 25% nylon, so this is sock yarn. After a burn test, I agree with the label. This one cost me $5.29, so again - I'm fine with the price for what I got. The only discrepancy I had is that the yarn is less vibrant than the photo they showed (I have dulled it down in my stash to show the real color).

I got a bug to try out some mohair after watching several knitting podcasters talk about it. I'm very untrendy (in case you haven't noticed), so I had no idea holding mohair with another yarn was a ~thing~ but I've been kind of intrigued ever since. I decided to get a few from Temu just to see if I like it or if it makes things too hot for Florida. I grabbed there 3 different listings: The pale peach color was a 10 pack (250 grams total) of 95% acrylic with 5% wool for $10.79; the single skein of pink was sold as acrylic at $2.19; the gray was a 2 pack of acrylic for $1.88. All of these were so cheap that I'm totally cool with what I received. I plan on using the pale peach in a sweater sometime.

This listing is actually what first caught my eye and made me want to buy yarn from Temu, lol. This listing was for 8 balls of Mink Wool Cashmere Yarn for $25.59. This yarn is super fine - definitely lace weight - but it really is so soft. When I translate the ball band it says: 50% animal fiber, 20% Australian wool, 20% viscose, 10% nylon. To be honest the burn test on this made me a bit skeptical. This yarn lit up like a candle. It did have a hair like smell when burning, but it went so fast it's hard to say. I wouldn't have expected that from something that was 70% animal hair, but viscose and nylon do burn quick, so I'm choosing to believe the label since they did list the fiber content. There's no denying that the yarn is incredibly soft - definitely a real hair type feel. This pack also included thinner thread for sewing your creation together as well as little packets of wool wash, which was a nice touch. This is so thin that at first I thought I would have to hold it with something else like the mohair, but I'm toying around with using it on my knitting machine. If it goes well, I would definitely buy this again in another color. My only complaint is that there is a distinct petroleum type smell to the yarn - I'm just hoping I can wash that out and it will be great.

These last few listings are the only true yarn brand item I've bought, but I can say with confidence this one is 100% legit. This is Lotus Yarns Swan Lake, which you can look up online and even on Ravelry. It's a 50 gram skein of 50%Cashmere/40%Wool/10%Angora blend and it is just heavenly soft. This was actually an extra deal to entice me to make a purchase - they usually list it for $5.39 per skein and offered me one at $1.79, so of course I bought it. It had to be this color and only one skein to get the deal, but I'm fine with that for such a nice yarn. This one came in a hank with an all English label and everything. This same yarn sells on Amazon for $11.99 per skein, so that's a pretty great savings even at the full Temu price. I liked this one so much that I ordered 2 other colors and I plan on using it in a shawl soon.

This one is sold as mink cashmere yarn, and it turns out to be Lotus Yarns Mimi Plus, which has been discontinued. These were sold in packs of 3 for $15, which again feels like a great price. The yarn is 37% Mink/ 33% Rayon/ 18% Cashmere/ 12% Wool in a lace weight and this really does feel dreamy. I got enough to make a sweater of this as well.

And finally this lovely bright green linen yarn. This is another from Lotus Yarns - it's called Linen 100 here. The yarn is 100% linen in a lace weight, so this is another candidate for my knitting machine. I just couldn't resist the color and the idea of knitting a linen shirt. These sold for $5 each on Temu, but on Amazon they sell for $11.99 per skein. Again - I'm thrilled with the savings on such a nice yarn.

So my verdict is that Temu can be a great place to buy yarn as long as you pay attention to what you are buying and don't just see the price and get too excited. Anything that sells with the Lotus Yarns labels is definitely good stuff and they are almost all half price of what you can buy it for on Amazon or from other yarn shops. I have several of their yarns in my wishlist  to possibly pick up in the future sometime. Most of the other yarns seem to come in much thinner than you would think compared to American acrylic yarns, but that's not a bad thing. I'm glad to have a source for fingering weight acrylic yarn on the cheap, personally. As long as you make sure you know what you are buying, you can find some really great deals with Temu's yarn :)

If you would like to try any of Temu's yarn, you can use my referral code afd76596 to get a special bonus - right now you can get a $100 coupon bundle AND 50% off your first purchase!

*I have included affiliate links above that give me a percentage of your sale if you make a purchase. All these items were bought with my own money and with no agreement to post - I just wanted to share what I've learned.

WIP Wednesday: Learning New Toys

So, I've been watching a lot of knitting on You Tube lately, and I finally succumbed to the online trend that is the Sentro Knitting Machine. I hemmed and hawed about it for a while - after all I am a knitter and therefor can produce much more detailed items than these little machines ever could. I also have a flat bed knitting machine from the 80s at my disposal. Do I need some "toy" knitting machines? Not really. Especially not for the prices they sell for on Amazon. THEN I found them on Temu.  I'll confess I've been mildly obsessed with Temu lately - They are a Chinese company that ships direct instead of you having to buy things marked up on Amazon. They ship for free, get things to you in about a week, and offer discounts on top of the already lower prices they sell for. All good things in my book. I've been going through a pretty hard time in my personal life, so late one night I bit the bullet and bought myself a few new toys.

I got the 22 pin, 48 pin, and a 4 stitch i-cord machine. I have seen some really cute ideas of things to make with these, so I'm not just jumping in blind and knitting hats for everyone. I'm hoping that this will help me churn out some good gifts in quick fashion as well as help me use up some of my ridiculous yarn stash.

The Sentro machines do come with some yarn that is the right size for you to try out. The bigger machine came with the same size as the smaller machine (maybe a DK weight), but the bigger machine also came with what looks like borderline bulky weight yarn. After cranking out this pink tube in the DK on the bigger machine, I think it does need a thicker yarn. So there is certainly a learning curve to getting things right, but I'm excited to play around with these and see what I can produce. I'm also excited about the idea of my kids getting to make things as well. They are 5 and not quite up to learning to really knit, but if they can turn a crank and make something I know they will be inordinately pleased.

Have you used a Sentro knitting machine? What kinds of things do you make? 

*If you are interested in getting one of these for yourself (and pay much less than you would in the states), click this link to get 30% off and free shipping on Temu. You only get that 30% off once as a new member, so it's a great time to snag a a machine or two for a deal. This is an affiliate link, but I purchased these machines completely with my own money and this post is not sponsored in any way. I just like to share things I think are fun at a good price :)

Knitting Organization: Giving My Organization New Life

 I've been mildly obsessed with my knitting needles and organizing them lately. It all started when a lovely friend of mine lent me her Chiaogoo interchangeable set, which has lead to reconsidering what I thought the knitting experience had to be. That's a story for another day, but this did make me remember something I forgot I even had...

I came across 2 of these older Knit Picks needle cases YEARS ago in a thrift store. They were each full of needles in these plastic pages and I snapped them up for $2 each! Craziness because 1) knitting is not a common hobby in Florida, so you never find good supplies - just things you can pick up at a big box craft store and 2) why would anyone think $2 was enough for these? I loved that thrift store for that reason, lol. Anyway, I bought them both, but I really never even took the needles out for an investigation. They both just got put on a shelf, which eventually got covered over with stuff. I decided to unearth them and see what I had when I started obsessing about quality of needles a few weeks ago.

I was happy to discover I have many sets of Knit Picks and Addi circular needles in these little binders, BUT the pages themselves were ... yucky. It's hard to see in the photo, but they had yellowed considerably and developed a gooey film that rubbed off on your hands and the needles inside the pages. Gross. This type of needle case isn't even sold by Knit Picks anymore, though they do sell replacement pages... for $5.99 for 2 pages. I know that may not sound incredible, but for the amount I would pay to replace these pages I could have bought a new needle case, so that was just too much for me. I decided to check on Temu to see if they had anything that would work.

I got a 12 pack of these pouch pages that have rainbow zippers for $2.58 and they worked great for the fixed circulars. Quite the savings! I actually bought several types of pages because I didn't know officially which ones would work, so I also got some that are designed for budgeting cash, so they have fold over tops and are sized for dollar bills and these were great for my flexi dpns. I have a few other types of pages as well that can hold notions if I want.

While I was at it, I decided to upgrade my notions bag as well. I LOVE this little bag I've used for my whole 11 year knitting career. It's a Shinzi Katoh Alice in Wonderland bag my sister got me when she lived in Japan. I love Shinzi Katoh stuff, and I know it's hard to tell from the photo, but this is a bit dirty after such a long time of use.

I had a sad occurrence recently - ALL this time I've kept it so nice, but a pen came uncapped and stained my bag :/ I removed that pen, but honestly this bag wasn't great for being organized anyway, so I decided to buy one that I could compartmentalize a bit more.

This new bag has 3 zipper sections, one of which has elastic for pens, so I can keep my pens and crochet hooks and stitch holders and whatnot in that one, then my jump drives and post it notes on the opposite side, then all my stitch markers and measuring tape and needle gauge in the center. This bag was $3.88 from Temu.

So now I have all my fixed needles ready for use now that I know what I have and where they are ... and now that they don't have a gooey film on them. These binders are pretty neat, honestly, and I'm excited to use all these "new" (to me) needles at long last.

And my notions bag is nice and organized to go with my Chiaogoo needle case, which is also nicely organized. I'll post more about the various tools I use (and more upgrades I got from Temu as well - they have a surprising amount of knitting and crochet tools and they are so cheap).

All in all, I'm super happy with the items I got from Temu and I think I paid less for all this stuff than I would have for just a few replacement pages from Knit Picks. Gotta love a deal!

*This post contains affiliate links, but all these items were unsponsored and purchased with my own money.