virtual yarntasting: stylecraft highland heathers dk

Stylecraft has added to its range of good value DKs with Highland Heathers.  It complements the special range with its subtle heathery tone and can be used for any DK pattern (although we always advise that you check your tension before beginning your project). 
 
Heathers comes in a muted colour palette with 12 colours in the range.  As you might expect from the name, the colours are not solid with the heathered effect being achieved by subtle mixing of strands of colour within the spin of the yarn.  The overall effect is understated and really very pretty.
 
Jenny has been working on the Stylecraft Christmas MAL which is a knitted advent decoration.  She finds the yarn easy to handle with little splitting – very similar to special and as such, suitable for knitters and crochets alike.  The MAL can be found here on Stylecraft’s website.  The patterns are free to download and you can buy all of the colours on our website here.
 
Again, like Special, Heathers is 100% acrylic.  It doesn’t have quite as many metres on the ball with  272 metres compared to 295m per 100g but still goes a long way.  It is reasonably price so is an economical yarn making large projects more affordable for those with smaller budgets.  It is suitable to most projects, from accessories to garments to homeware.
 
Highland Heathers is easy to care as it can be both machine washed and tumble dried. Care needs to be taken as if too much heat is applied it loses structural integrity and the project may grow and lose its bounce.
 
No yarn is perfect so we should mention that acrylic generally doesn’t feel as warm as wool to wear and has less stretch and “memory” which can affect the lifetime of a finished project, especially if too much heat is applied. Like other acrylic yarns, it originates from petrochemicals which may contribute to our environmental changes. As a synthetic, it cannot resist heat and will melt and then burn if exposed to a naked flame.

Technical details: 
Premium acrylic, sold in 100g/272m balls.
Knits to standard DK tension of 22 stitches x 30 rows on 4mm needles. 
 
Our opinion:
As this is a brand new yarn, we don’t have much experience of using it but Jenny is finding it similar to Special to handle.  Like Special it lacks stretch so handles differently to wool  yarns but is a good yarn for a budget price.  We love the colours which are amazing for Autumn knits and the pattern support from Stylecraft is good too.  

Itch Rating: 
(0= not itchy at all 'I could wear this next to my skin' and 5  =very itchy 'I can't wear this'
Ruth's rating: 0
Jenny's rating: 1
​ 
Bottom line:
This is a good quality acrylic yarn with a pretty colour palette. It feels soft when knitted up and is accessible to any budget. 

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​​Pros:
Premium quality acrylic
Good value
Vegan friendly
Smooth and easy to work with
Versatile
Interesting colours
Easy to care for

Cons:
Petrochemical origin
Structure destroyed by heat
Low to medium stretch
Low “memory”
Fairly slippery – not ideal for colour work
Only 12 colours in the range