Working with glow-in-the-dark yarn: your experiences?

Dear community,

Do you like using glow-in-the-dark yarn / glow-in-the-dark thread? What has been your experience with it?

It depends on what kind of glow-in-the-dark yarn you’re referring to.

There’s reflective yarn that has a reflective glass fiber thread woven into it. It reflects light when it’s shone on (e.g., by car headlights), just like the cat’s-eye reflectors on a bike. It’s very practical for being seen when you’re out and about in the dark. I haven’t worked with it yet, though—it’s on my to-do list. Under normal lighting, it usually looks quite plain.

There’s UV yarn, which is dyed with fluorescent pigments. It usually comes in bright colors that start to glow intensely as soon as you shine a black light on it. Great for the disco or as party or Halloween decorations, if you happen to have a black light.

And then there’s glow-in-the-dark yarn—also called “glow-in-the-dark”—which is “charged” with light during the day by placing it in direct sunlight or under a lamp for a while. In the dark, it then glows on its own. It contains phosphorescent substances. Unfortunately, this effect doesn’t last very long, so I wouldn’t recommend it for being seen in traffic after dark. But I think it’s great for amigurumi or Halloween decorations.

Here are a few examples I’ve crocheted:

Horror Clown:

Surprise Egg Ghost:  

UFO with an alien: