fibranatura Sea Song Yarn in thrush

A friend of mine requested several months ago I make him a slouchie beanie.  I told him I would later.  I just made him a hat four years ago, jeez.  So anyhoo, my birthday was in February, & what did he get me?  A book of slouchie beanie patterns.  Subtle.  His birthday is next month, & he’s going to be forty, so I figured I better get on that hat soon while Peepaw is still with us.

We discussed yarn options, & I decided it needed to be cotton or it wouldn’t be fit to wear in summer.  He wanted it brown to match his eyes.  He didn’t want it to be variegated & mocked me for my love of variegated yarns, which he greatly exaggerated.  I know, he’s hateful!

Since the only cotton in the only store within an hour of here that sells yarn only had one brown & that was the variegated, I was forced to order yarn online.  Yikes.  Always a tricky prospect, especially when your ordering a brand you aren’t familiar with.

I ended up at Herrschners where I found fibranatura’s Sea Song on clearance.  The price, the beautiful shade of brown (thrush), & the fact it’s a sea kelp & cotton blend won me over.

Fibranatura (a Universal Yarns brand) Sea Song yarn is an 80% cotton/20% sea cell worsted weight blend.  Sea cell is a kelp fiber.  Univeral Yarn has a large selection of eco friendly yarns, including organic cotton & bamboo.

Sea Song is wonderfully soft & smooth.  I love the feel of it.  It comes in some beautiful colorways, & has a slight sheen to it that reminds me of embroidery floss (possibly because I was crocheting with embroidery floss before I started on the hat).

Speaking of embroidery floss, another way it reminds me of that is the twist.  It is very loose, just like floss, so it splits easily.  I’m a slow crocheter anyway, so any yarn that slows me down because I have to take extra care with my stitches & keep having to rework them because I missed a thread gets a dark mark in my book.

Also, in less than half a ball, probably less than a third, I have found two breaks.  For a gift I can make this work, but by the looks of things so far (little catches & the broken threads here & there) I would not make anything to sell out of it.

I was really excited about this yarn, the color, the softness, the fact that it was made with kelp, but have been very disappointed with it, mostly because of the splits.  I could have overlooked the breaks, I’ve seen worse in yarn, but the splits are a problem.

Overall I would not use Sea Song again, & I’m not sure about trying other fibranatura yarns, but I don’t rule out trying other Universal yarns.

Anyhoo, just feeling a little frustrated & wanted to vent a bit in a quick review.  Hope this shines a little light for someone!

Oh, the hat is this really easy slouchy beanie at Jenn Likes Yarn.  The hat he wanted in the book was knit, & this was a pretty close approximation in crochet.  I could have just winged it, but I’ve been trying to work more patterns to learn new ways of doing things.  I’ve been winging it almost since I learned to crochet, & I feel a little stunted because of it.  I’m hoping to finish it tonight, if not then for sure tomorrow.  I’ll update you on the finished product.

I would love to hear about your experiences online yarn shopping, & any problem yarns you’ve run across, as well as some favorites you’d like to share.