Aldi – Hurly Burly Chunky Yarn Review

Dear Readers,

I have had it on my mind to start doing some Aldi yarn reviews. This idea came about because I have found their yarn to be a bit hit and miss at times. For example I bought an 80% Acrylic 20% wool blend and found it to be much rougher than I expected and kind of crunchy, this was probably amplified by the fact that it was advertised with a scarf pattern and I would certainly not have worn it next to my neck. However I have recently bought some 100% cotton from them which I found to be of superb quality and it was significantly cheaper than other brands I have bought in the past. One issue I can forsee with writing these reviews is that it can be hard for me to know  when Aldi is releasing new yarn and at which shops they will be, but that is something for me to work out. Another issue is that Aldi does not keep the same things in stock for ever, they have a revolving range. Sometimes they bring things back in future ranges, sometimes they don’t. So these reviews are sort of having a trial period for me and I will see how they work and whether anyone likes them. 🙂

So with all of that out of the way, My first review will be of the Hurly Burly Chunky Yarn:

• colourway : Arctic
• 200g appro. 96m
• 100% Acrylic
• Super Chunky / size 6
• 10mm needles or Hook
• Machine washable at 30° C
• No iron or tumbly dry or dry clean

The ball did come with a pattern but I have not tried it out. The ball cost £3.99 at full price.

First my Knitted Swatch:

Can you tell I was excited to break out my giant wooden knitting needles?

I knitted this 17 stitches wide and 22 rows tall with size 10mm needles.
10cm wide = 8 stitches
10cm = 12 rows tall
And that matches up exactly with what the ball band suggested.

This photo is of the swatch after washing and drying.

I found the actual strand of yarn to be quite hard/dense but I have not actually knitted with much Super Chunky yarn in the past so I don’t have a comparison. It does make a very dense fabric but not an unpleasant fabric. It is still soft against the skin so much so that I could wear it around my neck as a scarf without any issues. The yarn was also still quite energised from the spinning process so there was a bit of kink in my ball as I started from the centre, however as an experienced knitter this was no problem at all, it may however, bother a new knitter.

Now my Crochet Swatch:

I chained 17 to begin with and did 9 rows of SC ( UK: DC) and 5 rows of DC (UK: Trebel) with a 10mm hook.

SC (UK:DC) : 7 stitches = 10cm and 8 rows = 10cm
DC (UK:Trebel) : 7 stitches = 10cm and 4 rows = 10cm

This photo is of the swatch after washing and drying.

The DC fabric was naturally a lot less dense/stiff than the sc fabric.

I did a wash and dry test. I actyally hand washed it because I didn’t have other washing to do and I didn’t want to waste the water and electicity for the washing machine but I washed them in warm water and then used the machine to spin dry them. I have a front loader so it gets more bumping and jostling than the centrifugal force of a top loader.

There was no colour bleeding in the machine and the yarn has remained soft after washing and spinning.

I hope that you found this review useful. If you have any suggestions about other things you would have wanted to know about the yarn please let me know in the comments below and of course if you have any questions please do let me know too.

Keep Crafty!
Peace and Love
Ellie