Slub yarn creates interesting textures when knitted up. The resulting fabric can be light weight and drapey with little pops of extra fibre where the slubs appear.
If you haven’t yet knitted with slub yarn, here are my top tips to get the best results.
This blog post for tips for crocheting with slub yarn covers the following:
This video shows some of the tips such as casting on, slub distribution and weaving in ends.
1 – What is Slub Yarn?
A slub yarn has thick and thin parts within the ply to create an ‘art yarn’ effect.
There is usually one very thin uniform strand that holds the yarn together and is often made from cotton or nylon to bring stability and durability.
The second strand is often roving wool or alpaca that has very little twist in it to help create the thick ‘slubs’ that make slub yarn interesting to work with. This strand can also be made from cotton, bamboo or acrylic.
Slub yarn is different from boucle yarn which has a whole different texture. You can read more about slub and boucle yarns in these posts:
2 – Slub Yarn from Skein to Cake or Ball?
It is easy to use a yarn winder and swift to cake up slub yarn, even jumbo slub yarn.
Just take it slowly so that the large slubs aren’t rushed through the metal loops. If you need to stop and gently pull a slub through with your fingers, it doesn’t seem to do the yarn any harm.
I enjoyed balling up the second skein of jumbo slub yarn. It stayed intact and gave me a good feel for how often the big slubs were likely to appear in my fabric.
3 – What Needle Size For Slub Yarn?
For my cream swatch, I used 6mm needles to show a denser fabric with the jumbo slub yarn. The ball band suggested 6 – 10mm needles.
If you want a denser fabric, move down a needle size by 1mm and if you want a more open fabric, move up a needle size and keep on playing until you get a fabric you love.
Try to use knitting needles with a decent point that will easily push beyond the yarn plies and slubs and go straight through the stitch. I always have a preference for Knitpro wooden needles and they worked very well with this yarn.
I also suspect that needle size impacts greatly on how the slubs present themselves. If you read section ‘5 – Use Simple Knit Stitches for Slub Yarn‘ you will see that the choice of stocking stitch v garter stitch yields different results with the slubs.
My theory is that larger needle sizes would present more of the slubs to the front of the fabric, or at the very least, they would be more visible because the fabric would be more open and lacy.
4 – Casting On With Slub Yarn
My go-to cast on is always Jeny’s Stretchy Cast On and it was a great test for this yarn!
I wouldn’t say it was completely smooth sailing because the slubs do get in the way every now and then. When that happens, slowly pull the slubs through the cast on stitch.
If the cast on stitch is a little looser because it has a slub in it, it makes no difference when you work the first row or round. The beauty of knitting with slub is that it doesn’t create a precise, uniform fabric and the mis-matched stitch sizes are part of the beauty, so roll with it.
5 – Use Simple Knit Stitches for Slub Yarn
This is one of the most important tips for knitting with slub yarn. Keep It Simple!
The yarn is busy, especially if it is also variegated. Complex stitches will not be seen properly, so it is better to stick to the basics of stocking stitch and garter stitch.
This is definitely a case of let the yarn do the talking!
Above shows the different look of the right side of the fabric with stocking stitch and garter stitch above.
Looking at the wrong side of the fabric, two things are obvious:
- In garter stitch the slubs are fairly evenly distributed on both sides of the fabric.
- In stocking stitch, most of the stitches are on the wrong side.
Using smaller needles for a denser fabric has made the slubs mainly appear on the wrong side of the stocking stitch part of the swatch. I suspect that using a larger needle size to create a more open, lacy fabric would help more slubs to be evident.
6 – Ignore The Slubs
It might be tempting to try and change your tension when a slub is about to form part of a stitch, but don’t.
If you are using the right sized needles so that the yarn pulls through the loops easily then the slub should just pop through too. If your needle size is too small, you may find that the slubs don’t have enough space to pass through the stitch.
7 – Frogging Slub Yarn
You would think that frogging slub yarn would be impossible, but it isn’t! Here is what I found worked:
- Use your non dominant hand to stretch out the row/round that is being frogged. This will open up the stitch gauge and make frogging much easier.
- If a large slub makes frogging difficult, take time to gently pull the slub through with your finger nails. If you have ever untangled a necklace chain, it is that same action that will free the slub from the stitch.
- Don’t pull hard on the yarn. Although most slubs have a strong cotton/nylon ply, it can still be broken easily. Take your time and your knitted fabric should frog.
I repeatedly frogged my jumbo slub swatch and saw no degradation in the look of the fibre, even in the large slubs.
8 – Can you Spit Splice Slub Yarn?
Yes you can spit splice slub yarn, especially if your slub yarn is mainly wool or alpaca. Depending on what you are making though, you may be better of weaving ends in instead.
Whilst the spit splice created a strong join, the texture is very different from the slub yarn and may be obvious in your finished project.
9 – Weaving in Slub Yarn Ends
Slub yarn ends tend to present themselves in three different ways:
- No slub and can just be woven in straight away.
- Slub at the bottom, near the fabric. This slub should be teased out unless you think leaving the slub at the bottom won’t affect your finished project – in which case just weave it in!
- Slub in the middle/ top of your yarn tail. This slub has to be teased out to make sewing in the yarn tail possible.
To tease the slub and reduce its density, gently pull it along the yarn tail. Use the hand closest to the fabric to keep tension on all plies. The hand closet to the cut yarn end is used to gently pull the slub along the yarn.
You may feel a point when it ‘pops’. This is either the slub coming loose (which is what you want), or it’s the cotton/ nylon thread breaking (which isn’t ideal).
Cut the yarn where the thin cotton/nylon ply ends, so that your final yarn tail is made up of the two plies of yarn.
Weave in the end. You don’t need to be precise with this because slub yarn is so busy, the woven ends are not seen. They do need to be secure though.
Although the images above show a crocheted fabric, the exact same applies to a knitted fabric.
10 – Look after Your Hands & Nails
If the slubs in your yarn are particularly fibrous they might catch on rough bits of nail or skin on your fingers.
Even though I thought my nails were smooth, I snagged two finger nails while pulling together the swatches for this and the boucle yarn post.
Try to keep your nails trimmed and hands well moisturised when you are working with slub and boucle yarns.
11 – Where to buy Slub Yarn
The yarn used for this post is Jumbo Slub (100g/ 80m/ 87yds) hand dyed from Mamie & Florrie. Amy also has a 4ply slub yarn (100g/ 400m/ 437yds).
Other suppliers I found on the internet were:
- King Cole Opium which which as a cotton and acrylic blend.
- Bamboo Bloom Handpaints by Universal Yarn which is a blend of wool, rayon (from bamboo) and acrylic.
Slub yarn can also be searched for on Etsy and eBay by using terms like ‘Thick and Thin Yarn’, Think ‘n’ Thin Yarn , ‘Art Yarn’ or ‘Fancy Yarn’.
These search terms for slub yarn can return beautiful hand spun skeins for sale or now discontinued yarns from Rowan’s old Thick ‘n’ Thin range and also some lovely vintage finds.
I often see vintage slub yarns in my local charity shops too.
Want More Knitting Tips & Tricks?
Of course you do! I would start with these blog posts:
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