Crocheting Toys from Textured Yarn: Challenges and Solutions

Crocheting with Textured Yarn

You often read on forums that crocheting toys with textured yarn is incredibly difficult. The most important thing is to find the right approach to textured yarn, and you will make friends with it very quickly.
What do I mean by textured yarn? This is yarn like Alize Softy, YarnArt Mink, Adelia Sofia. Toys made from such yarn turn out very interesting.

Counting Stitches with Textured Yarn

Challenges arise right away—the stitches are not visible, and it is impossible to count them. So what should you do?
There are several techniques that help you handle textured yarn. Here they are:
1) You crochet the first three rows literally by feel. Stitches must be counted and recounted, carefully feeling them to sense them. Once you have crocheted 3–4 rows, you can relax a bit, because things will go faster—the number of stitches has increased, and you have more room and maneuverability.
2) Always count your stitches! Carefully, sometimes even placing stitch markers if it is particularly difficult. For example, when crocheting with YarnArt Mink for the first time, I placed 6 markers in each row to make sure I didn't lose count.
3) Many people write that, for example, Alize Softy should be crocheted with a crochet hook #2, but I can confidently tell you—no! Use #1.5 (if it's Clover), or at most #1.75 if it's very uncomfortable. If you have a Gamma crochet hook or a generic one from AliExpress, feel free to use #1.25; that will be more than enough. Why is that? Because fabric crocheted from textured yarn stretches easily, especially with Softy, and during stuffing or washing your toy will lose its shape, the stuffing will poke through, and the fabric itself will look sloppy.
4) Stuff firmly! Very firmly! Stuffing (such as polyester fiberfill or hollowfiber) compresses over time, and your toy will lose its presentation if you stuff it too loosely. The toy must hold its shape.
5) If you make a mistake in a row with the stitch count—crocheting extra stitches or ending up short—just adjust the stitch count in the next row so you don't accidentally create unwanted extra texture.

Once you crochet a couple of toys from textured yarn, the third one will be much easier, because crocheting toys from textured yarn simply takes a little experience.