Starburst by Ficio is a 100% cotton yarn made in North Macedonia for Lincraft stores.
- It comes in 100g balls with 230m per ball.
- The rrp is $10 a ball and I was fortunate enough to buy it at 40% off.
- A 4mm crochet hook is recommended.
- Gauge – 10″ x 10″ equals 30 rows by 24 stitches.
- Lincraft sells 7 different variegated colours of the Sunburst yarn..
- The label recommends a cool hand wash and lay flat to dry.
- The weight of the Starburst yarn is not marked on the label, but I would say it’s a dk weight judging by the meterage and the way it looks.
My Observations
I crocheted 2 swatches of the Starburst yarn, the purple in a puff stitch with a 4mm hook and the blue in single crochet with a 5mm hook. I noted the following:
- The centre of the ball was quite easy to find.
- Although the Starburst yarn is not labelled as a mercerised cotton, it has a lovely sheen to it.
- It’s nice to crochet with and didn’t give me any problems, it’s definitely a bit smoother than the average cotton yarn.
- The colours are really beautiful and I love the graded effect.
- I crocheted the purple Starburst yarn into a potholder/trivet and It took approximately 30g yarn to make up.
- The yarn didn’t split at all which is great!
- The Sunburst yarn has a nice drape, which I think would be nice for clothing items.
- The single crochet swatch curled at the corners, so with some stitches, some sort of border might prevent this or blocking might be helpful.
Washing
So, I wanted to see how the Starburst yarn held up in the dryer, so after washing on a cold gentle machine cycle, with a lower spin cycle as well, I dried the purple trivet/potholder naturally on a clothes horse and the blue single crochet swatch on a normal dryer cycle. These are the results:
- So the blue swatch shrank quite alot in the dryer. It was 14½cm wide x 14cm high before I washed it and 12½cm wide after, but strangely enough the same height. That’s nearly 14% shrinkage.
- The stitch pattern was a lot more compact, probably due to shrinkage.
- I feel like the yarn lost some of its sheen as well.
- The purple swatch of the Sunburst yarn seemed to be pretty much the same before I washed it and didn’t shrink at all.