Favorite yarn for aran cable sweater?

What are your favorite yarns for an aran sweater? This will be my first. Hoping to have cables stand out, but not a sweater that gets too heavy and pulls down with wear. Having a hard time honing in on something with enough definition, yet some loft to prevent it becoming weighted down!

Considering these 4 patterns…

Shire Aran https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/shire-aran
Son of A.R.A.N. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/son-of-aran
Staghorn Aran Second Ed. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/staghorn-aran-second-edition
Aran Pullover https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/aran-pullover-5

Thanks in advance!

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I like non-superwash 100% wool, woollen spun or semi-woollen spun. I prefer non-merino too.

Which country do you live in? Then I can recommend brands that you can order locally.

Oh, and re stitch definition vs heaviness, that is probably a trade-off we have to accept in knitting.

Worsted spun with a medium to high twist tends to have better stitch definition, but it is more dense and hence heavier.

Woollen or semi-woollen spun is loftier and hence lighter, but you lose a little stitch definition. (Choosing a lighter colour will help though.)

I’m guessing you have looked on Ravelry at the yarns used for the patterns you like. Does this help at all?

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That definitely helps! Thank you! I had read conflicting info, that woolen spun was recommended (for the reasons you mentioned), or that worsted spun was recommended for stitch definition. I will definitely plan to find woolen spun as I really don’t want to end up with something too heavy, where the sweater stretches out.

I am in the US (Maine). Yes, I’ve browsed through the yarns used! That’s a great place for ideas and I’ll look through those again. But it helps to hear these questions addressed here due to the conflicting choices out there…

Is non-merino preferred to avoid pilling? Also, should I be too concerned about the number of plies (was looking for 3 ply but don’t know if that makes much of a difference).

I’ve just used Katia concept cotton merino which shows the cables well as it has a round structure. It’s a blown yarn, i.e. it has a woven cotton tube with merino fibres blown in. There are a number of similar yarns - they have the virtue of being light as well as suitable for large needles. They tend to be soft/ slightly fuzzy, so I don’t know if that gives you the degree of cable definition you want.

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I think Valley Yarns Northampton would be a good choice. I made a cape which has great stitch definition and is relatively lightweight. It’s worsted but with a swatch, you can adjust needle size to get the number of stitches/inch for Aran.

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Stunning cape!

Thank you. The pattern on Ravelry is Nuallan Cape by Jennifer Pierce
and the yarn was priced right.

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Wow, that’s a beautiful cape! Saving the pattern for a future project…

Thank you. It was enjoyable to knit during the Covid lockdown.

Ah, you should have a nice choice in Maine! (It’s my impression that there are a lot of yarn shops and producers in Maine and Vermont, plus Canada isn’t far.)

I find that most merino is just too soft and tends to pill. It doesn’t have to be that way, but it often is. Having said that, non-merino can pill too. Like Wool of the Andes is a merino/corriedale cross and if you are unlucky you can get a batch that pills.

Another thought is to combine a slightly thinner wool with a fluffy strand of something like Kidsilk Haze (or the many similar yarns) to make it up to worsted or aran gauge. This makes things a bit more airy.

Regarding the number of plies, I personally would avoid s-on-s plied yarn. This is usually superwash and merino, so it probably won’t be an issue. It is made of many thin plies twisted in one go. So the very thin plies are exposed on the surface of the yarn and are vulnerable to snagging and snapping.

Another one you may want to avoid is a singles, which can make a lovely effect with its own special personality but can also be harder to knit cables in because it tends to catch. Not impossible, but maybe not recommended for a first big cable project.

And yes, somewhere between a three and five ply would be good. I just checked some Wool of the Andes Worsted and it is four plies.

I would suggest:

Less expensive option for worsted spun: Wool of the Andes Worsted (non-superwash) or, if you want a traditional cream colour, Wool of the Andes Worsted Bare (undyed, comes in larger skeins, bit cheaper)

Less expensive option for woollen spun: Briggs & Little Regal or Heritage (really nice quality and wears well)

More expensive option: Barrett Wool Co. Has woollen-spun and worsted-spun options. But I haven’t tried their yarn myself.

With any yarn, it would be a good idea to purchase enough to make a hat to test it out before doing a sweater.

Sorry if I posted too much info. I think I need to get a job in a wool shop! I do a lot of fantasy shopping from here in Australia. Even though we have a huge wool industry, most of it is merino that goes to be woven into fine cloth in Italy or China, and our handknitting selection has suffered in recent years.

Happy knitting! Do come back and show us your sweater!

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Ooh, I love blown yarns. They are so light and pretty!

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I have used the Knit Picks Wool of the Andes… while nice and light, it did pill and fuzz like crazy. Fortunately I hadn’t put a lot of time and effort in as it was used on the smallest size Flax sweater… If you get a chance, the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool festival in New York state is coming up and you can see a lot of options for various natural fibers and pretty much every vendor there has a website you can order from too.

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Such great points of consideration, kushami! Thank you!

Yes, we have a lot of beautiful yarns here in Maine and in nearby states. I had to restrain myself at our Maine Fiber Frolic this year. Sometimes it’s still hard for me to gauge what will be best for a project since I’m still learning so much (learned how to knit as a child, have knit on and off for years but have gotten WAY more into it in the last year or so). And with the indie producers here, price can be a factor as I have to be careful to budget for wool right now. But I would love to use a local yarn for this. Had been looking at Jaggerspun but they are worsted spun (I think, from your comments, I’d rather go woolen spun), and Bartlettyarns–any opinions on theirs? I was also eyeing SeaColors Yarnery (she lives very close to me) if you want to take a look at any of those and let me know what you think! Can’t tell if they’re woolen or worsted spun? Is there an easy way to tell?

I had also been considering Briggs & Little. Thank you for all these recommendations!

Don’t worry, I can never get enough info. And I, for one, think you’d excel in a wool shop :grin: