It’s been such a long time! I must admit it’s been a crazy year, not only dealing with my 9-5 (I wish…) job but also pregnancy and now motherhood! But I wanted to improve the blog taking advantage of my maternity leave (whenever possible with a new born of course!).
This time I wanted to write a post since Hobbi kindly sent me different yarns to try and I wanted to do Hobbii’s Divina yarn review, since it was one of their yarns that I was very curious to give it a go and see how it worked out.
In this blog post you will find:
- Skein’s information (provided by Hobbii – all in their website)
- First impressions
- Swatching
- Swatching
- My experience knitting with this yarn
- Pros
- Cons
Conclusion So without further due… let’s dive into it!
*Disclaimer: yarn was kindly gifted by Hobbii but my opinion is based on my experience playing around with the yarn.
SKEIN INFORMATION
Let’s do a quick recap with this yarn main info:
- Composition: 65% baby alpaca, 25% polyamide and 10% merino
- Metraje: 50g – 150m
- Needles recommended: 4-5.5mm
- Gauge: 10cm = 14-16 stitches * 24 rows
- Color selected: 09 Cardamomo
Want more details? You can find more through this link that goes straight to Divina’s info.
Now that we got all the facts settled… let’s hop to my review!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Right upon recieval, I fell in love with Divina’s texture. Once you touch it you can feel the squishy and softness of the skein. It’s a blow yarn so the thread seems to be thicker but it’s actually super light and snuggly.
I chose color 09 Cardamom and it was just what I expected (and looking for!), a soft neutral beige perfect for fall-winter combinations. I don’t know if color online VS reality in other shades might be as accurate as mine was, but deff. cardamom was 100% accurate.
SWATCHING
If you have been following me for a while and/or downloaded any of my free patterns, you might already know that I’m a very loose knitter, so that really “forces” me to make swatches and sometimes not follow the needles especified for the yarn and try what I feel would be okay for my gauge.
In this case, I first tried 5mm needles but turned out looser than expected (not surprised!) so I went with 4.5mm to obtain this swatch – 10cm = 18.5 stitches * 27 rows (without blocking). It still a bit loose but it’s perfect for the project idea I have in mind that I hope to show you in a near future.
AFTER BLOCKING
I wanted to make sure before I moved forward with the project that the measurements and the gauge woudn’t change so I wanted to check how the swatch would react to being soaked in water. It was not about streching it or getting some “defined” gauge measurements out of it but more about seeing if the gauge / tension changed and if that meant a change in all my calculations (which would change everything and make me start them all over again)
What did I find? When knitting in stockinette stitch, the stitch count for 10cm hasn’t change (remains 18 stitches) but when it comes to rows it’s changed to 28,75 (almost increasing 2 rows), meaning the weight of the yarn (even being super light as it is) once you finished knitting the garment / project might make a difference. It was something that I was expecting from this yarn, and of course, it’s important to have in mind when it comes to the math of your project (or following any pattern) to make sure you have the right measurements.
MY EXPERIENCE KNITTING THIS YARN
I have at least knitted two skeins for my project (more or less 20-25% of my project) and I can tell you it feels like butter on my metalic needles. It’s an easy yarn to work with (no taking care of threads and knitting with big loops) and you can see results very quickly (ok, it’s not super bulky or bulky but hey, you see results!), so for impatient knitters and begginers I think it might be a good option and you will obtain a great quality project.
I would recommend if you choose this yarn to keep checking your gauge while knitting, at least mine grew a bit (without blocking), 1 stitch and 1 row, so you don’t find yourself surprised when following a pattern or an idea you might get different measurements.
PROS
- Quality: I love the skein’s composition, it gives the garment / project snuggly vibes and warmth. Comparing the composition with other similiar skeins from other brands, Divina has more wool than other options in the market (while the % of Alpaca remains the same)
- Softness: either touching the skein or the final result, the softness of this yarn it’s amazing and you can notice the difference comparing it to similar options in the market (I can’t wait to finish my project to snuggle in it!)
- Structure: as you can see in the picture below it’s giving my sleeve a very nice structure and look (have in mind that it’s knitted with 4.5mm, this may change if you choose to go with bigger needles and different gauge).
- Great range of colors: it makes it hard to choose between those 32 colors and you for sure will find a few that will fit your color taste / palette.
- Begginer friendly: I would consider this yarn as begginer friendly since you won’t be working with skeins that have multiple threads (no worrying about having loops where you are not suppossed to), making your knits look neat and tidy with no big effort.
CONS
- Frogging: be careful when frogging, I fortunately haven’t done much frogging in this project, but when I had my recommendation would be to do it slowly, with love and patience to make sure it’s done correctly and you don’t damage the yarn (so be aware begginers to not use it as practice yarn, rather use it for a project you are confident with after you’ve practiced with a swatch).
- Price: depending on the project you have in mind, it can be a bit “pricey” if it requires more than a few skeins. For example, a woman’s sweater may need from 5 (XS) to 9 (XL) skeins of Divina (for 5mm knitting needles as seen in some of Hobbii’s free patterns on their website). The good part is that you may find discounts for special ocasions or discounts for buying in bulk so you can take advantage of that and it becomes “less of a con” or even none.
CONCLUSION:
If you are into seeing results very quickly I think it’s a good yarn to try since you might be using 4.5-5mm knitting needles (depending on your gauge or even a bit bigger ones) and it gives a quality look to your knits as you can see in the picture below.
You should check with your swatch if your gauge changes when soaked, just to be aware if you may need to apply any changes when knitting and make sure you have the right measurements when you are done.I would also recommend tocheck it when you’ve knitted a big chunk of your project, so you won’t be surprised along the way and can correct when needed!
I will update this blog post once I finish my project and have a better insight using this yarn but if you were to ask me right now if I would choose it again for new projects…, I would say definitely! (especially in the sangria shade ❤ but I still need to find the right project for it) .
Hope this gives you a better insight to a new yarn and you give it a try!
Xx,
Marta