Back in 2015, when I had just started knitting seriously, I made a small YouTube video reviewing one of my favorite yarns, Berroco Inca Tweed. I made the video because I didn’t feel that the available online yarn reviews had information that a knitter could actually use. In truth, they were sales videos, as opposed to unbiased reviews. Of course this was before I had discovered Knitter’s Review, the best yarn reviewer out there, imho. It was also before I knew enough to look at the yarn brand reviews on Ravelry in addition to the reviews on the seller’s sites before purchasing the yarn. Still, you can’t have enough information when it comes to yarn that you are purchasing online. And while I shout out to, and shop at, my Local Yarn Store (LYS) as much as possible, there are many reasons and instances where a bulk purchase of heavily discounted yarn from an online store is desirable. So it’s important to have reviews that are content-rich from a knitter’s perspective.
Two years later, I realized there was some information I neglected to include in my YouTube review of Berroco Inca Tweed. So here it is!
As I mentioned in the video, this yarn is 50% wool 30% Alpaca, and the remaining 20% is made up of acrylic and viscose. The yarn has a lovely subtle sheen to it, and the neps of the tweed are very nicely incorporated into the plys of the yarn. I love the sophisticated, earthy look of the yarn. It's also extremely soft.
As I mentioned in the video, this yarn is 50% wool 30% Alpaca, and the remaining 20% is made up of acrylic and viscose. The yarn has a lovely subtle sheen to it, and the neps of the tweed are very nicely incorporated into the plys of the yarn. I love the sophisticated, earthy look of the yarn. It's also extremely soft.
At the time of this post, Berroco Inca Tweed is going for about $16.00 USD/hank, but there are frequent online and LYS sales of this yarn. The hanks are a bulky weight 100g / 153 yds in a "thick-and-thin" style, and the recommended needles are US 10 - US 10.5 (UK 4 - UK 3, 6.00mm - 6.50mm). For my swatches, I used US 10 needles, and my pre-wash gauge came out to 16 stitches 22 rows for a 4 inch square. The recommended gauge is 14 - 12 stitches, 20 - 15 rows, so it makes sense that I got a tighter gauge because I tend to knit tightly and usually need to go up a needle size for any project.
I have knit several projects with Inca Tweed, and never had a dye-bleed except with the color Cantuta. Red yarns tend to bleed the most. My sample swatches were knit in Cantuta, which is about as red as it gets. To test my swatches, I soaked them in Eucalan, and as you can see, the dye bled profusely.
I vinegar-bathed the swatches, and then re-soaked them in Eucalan. They still bled! It took about six washes before the soapy water was clear. So, when using this yarn, definitely remove the excess dye before knitting if you are going to combine it with other colors. I want to be clear: I have not found this problem with any of the other colors of Inca Tweed that I've used.
After washing and blocking, my gauge was still pretty much the same. The swatches didn't grow or shrink, and they still had beautiful stitch definition. Also, none of the vibrancy was lost from the color. The yarn was still the beautiful rich dark red.
Here are some of the other projects I've knit with this yarn:
Knitting with this yarn is a joy. It is soft and earthy, and the yarn is strong. As you can see, Berroco Inca Tweed is truly is one of my favorite yarns. If you were unsure whether or not to purchase Inca Tweed online, or better yet, at your LYS, I hope this review has helped you decide to go for it. I do, however, have one word of caution: Even though it’s a very reasonably priced yarn, I just won’t be able to prevent you from going “Berroco”.
“FUR”-THER PERTINENTS:
Needle & Tension Gauge shown in photo is from an Etsy store called RomanticFripperies
-XB
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