Questions about Bobbels

Hi everyone,

I’m what you might call a “Bobbel beginner,” and I’m amazed at all the things you can find online. Now I have a few questions that I’m sure you can answer.

1. I always see the yarn quality listed as either “100% merino wool” or “50% cotton + 50% acrylic.” Are there other qualities, or is this the standard? Is there silk, for example?

2. How thin is the thinnest Bobbel yarn? It always has to be made up of several strands because of the color changes. The number of strands determines a certain yarn thickness. If you want to make light, airy shawls from thin yarn, is multi-strand Bobbel yarn even suitable?

3. How do you determine the amount you need for a project? Is it all based on your experience? You basically only notice at the end whether the Bobbel was too short, too long, or exactly right. You can’t just quickly unravel the whole thing and make it again. If you didn’t use up all the yarn, the last color might be missing.

Thank you for your answers. It would be nice if you could chat with me about this. By the way, it’s a shame that the “prettiest Bobbels” can only be bought online. I’d love to see the colors in person and put them together that way. That would be a dream! Are there stores like that???

Best regards, Ina

great topic :-)

Hi Ina,

I’ve crocheted lots of light, summer-friendly shawls with gradient yarn cakes. The thinnest weight is 3-strand cakes. Anything less, so with 2 strands, doesn’t really make sense. 
Besides the ones mentioned, there are also modal yarn cakes. I’m not aware of any other qualities. Cotton and polyacrylic is the most common option. 

Figuring out the yardage is sometimes a bit tricky. Most shawl patterns are designed for 1,000–1,200 meters. With clothing, though, it can vary a lot because different clothing sizes have to be taken into account. 
I always like to use yarn cakes where I can “add on” more if I notice it won’t be enough. 
The yarn winders I trust already know how to make the cake just right. 

Yes, and last but not least, you also have to consider that everyone crochets differently. I, for example, belong to the tiny-stitch crowd, while others crochet very loosely.

Some yarn winders also have a shop, but you’d have to look into that yourself; maybe there’s someone near you and you just don’t know it yet. ;-) 

In any case, I can tell you that with my favorite yarn winders, I was always amazed that the cakes were much, much more beautiful in real life than in the photos online. 

I hope you have lots of fun shopping for yarn cakes. 

Best wishes 
Michaela 

I had a Bobbel wound "just around the corner" in my desired colors and am very satisfied (zip code 74xxx near Stuttgart). At a store that winds the Bobbels itself specially for you, you can also specify the length you want. I think the price is based on the number of meters wound.

Once I knitted a shawl with a ready-made Bobbel (Lana Grossa) that contained some linen. But I found that I didn’t like the linen content in the yarn while knitting. I’m generally not a fan of linen for handicraft projects. 

I’d like to thank both of you for your insights. It’s really fascinating to read when you’re getting familiar with a new yarn. I could use a “trusted winder” like that, too. I’ll have to look online to see where I can find something like that in Berlin. Since Bobbels have been in style for a while now, maybe a store has started offering this service. Unfortunately, the yarn shops I know only sell yarn from major suppliers—in other words, all ready-made products. But maybe things have changed there. I’ll take a closer look. Thanks to the internet, you can find out anything.

If you have a Bobbel custom-wound online, you can’t send it back if you don’t like it. And it does cost money, after all. You have to be sure about the colors, their order, the yarn, the thickness, and the yardage. Well, it’s still an exciting topic, precisely because you can create your own color gradients. Let’s see how things develop for me in that regard :-)

I have a shawl among my patterns that is made with a 2-ply Bobbel.

Yesterday I scoured the internet. I didn’t find a single shop where you can choose the colors for a Bobbel in person. It’s all done online. There are countless suppliers who all wind custom Bobbels according to the same principle. So anyone who has a favorite Bobbel winder nearby can count themselves lucky.

Hi Ina,
did you come across Wollfabrik Hamburg during your online research?
I’m visiting my friend in Hamburg in September (who has absolutely no interest in crafts), but I’m still going to visit that store with her.
Best regards, Petra

Hi,

I’m currently putting together my own color gradients as I knit, since I also find it difficult to have to determine the yardage, the number of strands, and the color combination of a bobble yarn before ordering.

Recently, Twiboo Konen has started offering the option to buy their standard bobble yarn—50% cotton, 50% acrylic—in cones with a length of just 1,500 meters (the large cones are simply too expensive for me if I want lots of different colors). I simply wind as many individual skeins of each color as I need using the yarn winder (so, for example, with 3 strands, I make 3 individual skeins of each color) and then tie on the new strand for each new color section as I knit or crochet. The advantage of this for me is that I can also decide exactly where in a pattern I want the color transition to occur. And you don’t end up with huge amounts of leftover yarn because you misjudged the length needed.

The downside is that, of course, a bobble like that can’t be reproduced identically for customers. I’ve tried weighing the individual sections to figure out how many meters per section would need to be wound for a bobble. But depending on the pattern, the results aren’t reliable enough to create a “bobble recipe.” 

I bought some of my Bobbels at craft markets, where the winders often sell directly on site. However, I’m not a fan of color gradients because I can’t really gauge them—so mine have different but continuous colors.

I was given one with a gradient; it was from the local yarn shop and from a large manufacturer... they’re probably jumping on the bandwagon too.
By the way, the yarn isn’t really thick; the look with the different untwisted strands is just something different—though it does take some getting used to when working with it.

This here, for example, is made with 7 strands.

@ursulapetra
Oh, you’ve really got me thinking. That’s really tempting—I think I’ll have to plan a trip to Hamburg. It’s a 3-hour drive from where I live. Thanks so much for the insider tip.

@Michie
Your approach sounds clever and makes sense to me. Precisely because you can incorporate new colors as the pattern dictates while knitting. And it gives you more flexibility with the length. If I buy yarn cones at the Hamburger Wollfabrik, I’ll definitely try out your technique. Thanks so much for the tip.

@FunDesign
Yes, the big companies are naturally jumping on every trend. It’s a bit of a shame for the many online yarn retailers whose business relies solely on that. There’s already a lot of competition. Thank you so much for your clear photo. I wouldn’t have guessed that it was 7-ply yarn. I think the only way I’ll get closer to my color ideas and the desired fineness is if I wind my own yarn. So, the plan is set!

Thank you all for your comments.

@ Hi Ina,
will you let us know how your “Bobbel” project is coming along?
I’m sure many of us are interested.
Have a wonderful weekend, and best wishes
Petra

@ursulapetra
Yes, I’ll let you know how things go with my yarn cakes. It’s only when you really dive into something that it gets exciting and new ideas start to take shape. I’m looking forward to this new colorful project.

I also wish all readers a wonderful weekend.
Warm regards—Ina

Hi!!! 
I’ve caught the Bobbel bug now, too ;-)
I have a question: I have a pattern for a wonderful vest made from gradient Bobbels with 6 strands. But the vest seems way too thick to me. I’d like it to be thinner. If I used a Bobbel with 4 strands, what would I need to keep in mind? Should I use thicker knitting needles so the dimensions of the vest are right? Or should I knit the piece one clothing size larger? Etc... 
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences! 

Best regards, Anita