Catania..... weird question

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working through a lot of my yarn stash lately, so I’ve used up a lot of acrylic yarn and old Catania stock.

Now I had to buy two new skeins of Catania.

The yarn seems very thin to me. It’s not Catania Fine, but Catania Originals.
125 m per 50 g.
Even though the yardage per gram seems to match, it feels incredibly thin to me.

With my old stash, I crochet with a size 3.5 hook and it looks good. With the new yarn, I’m also crocheting with a 3.5 hook, and it looks as if I’d crocheted with a size 2 hook. The piece also seems small to me (I’ve made the same unicorn before).

Have you had the same experience, or is everything as usual and I’m just perceiving it differently?

Best regards, Heike

Hi Heike,

my new skeins are exactly the same as the ones I bought 5 years ago.
Were your old skeins perhaps Catania Grande?

I’ve been crocheting with Catania for about 10 years.
My gut tells me there are differences in the colors. I don’t know why, but for example, light blue is always very “thick,” while white is more “thin.” But then there are many colors that are “the same.” Maybe that has something to do with the dyeing process?

I have the same impression about the colors. For example, I find the Catania Denim (same yardage!) much thicker than the evenly dyed Catania in the corresponding shade.

However, Catania has recently been renamed “Catania Originals.” Maybe something about the quality has changed after all—maybe it’s more tightly twisted? But I can’t imagine that would make a difference of several hook sizes.

Thanks for your replies.

The white yarn is really very thin, and the colored ones are thicker.
Maybe the quality really has changed.

I had the same feeling last year or the year before with the “Lisa” yarn from Gründl.
It was renamed from “Lisa uni” to “Lisa Premium,” and I had the impression that
the quality was different too.

Hi Heike,

your post is already a few months old, but I still wanted to add a quick comment.

While crocheting two granny blankets, I also noticed that different colors seemed to vary in thickness. For the last blanket, I used only Catania Originals, which I had ordered new. I wasn’t sure whether I was just imagining it, but after reading your post, I thought that maybe it wasn’t just my imagination after all. It really does seem that different colors vary in thickness, even though they have the same yardage and, according to the label, the same quality. That matters less for granny blankets, since the patterns are looser anyway, and for bags and pieces that are stuffed with fiberfill, I generally use a smaller hook for all colors. Maybe someone should ask Schachenmayr why that is.

Best regards,
Giselinde

Hi Heike,

have you made any progress? Have you perhaps contacted Schachenmayr?

I’m having the same problem with the thickness of the yarn.
I’m currently working on my large throw again and ordered more of the yarn.
But it’s much thinner than what I’ve had so far.
My blanket is turning out much smaller with this yarn, so it doesn’t fit together, and the stitch pattern is more like filet crochet; it also feels stiffer—not like the old Catania.
I sent the yarn back and ordered from another seller, thinking it might be second-grade or something similar, but the yarn from that other seller is just as thin.
Now I’m stuck with my half-finished blanket and can’t continue like this.
First, because it doesn’t fit together, and second, because it feels awful to crochet with.
I guess I’ll have to find another manufacturer, in the hope that I can get the same color so I can continue working on my blanket...

Best regards, Petra 

I’ve ordered Catania several times recently, but I haven’t noticed any difference from the older skeins. However, I’ve also had the impression that not all colors are the same thickness… I’d be curious to hear what the manufacturer has to say about this.

I crochet everything in the same color—natural white.
The difference in the yarn is really noticeable, so much so that I can’t continue my blanket project. That’s frustrating because I’ve already used up a lot of skeins for it, and now it doesn’t match well enough to keep crocheting 😔
I’ll have to send the 30 new skeins back—what a shame...