Is it better to choose the yarn in ball or cake?
From a qualitative point of view there is no real difference.
The ball of yarn is a classic, it has been sold for a long time in all dedicated haberdashery and internet sites, we find 50, 100 or 200gr and is packaged by companies with specific machinery. Handmade balls of yarn are just an old memory now!
The Cake (or cake) begins to appear at the fair or on dedicated sites for not long. These are always quality yarns that can be made by machinery or by hand and are presented in this nice shape. You can find them in different weights and our advice is to start working by taking the yarn from the inside to make your work more smooth.
So where is the difference?
- Practicality: the ball of yarn if not kept in the special "work bags" tends to roll on itself due to its shape, therefore requires constant control of the yarn and this slows down our work . The cake with its flat base rests on any surface without moving. The thread, if fished from the inside at the beginning of the work, will come out smoothly, without interrupting our moment of relaxation.
- The cost: the ball to be created requires multiple steps: from spinning, to the company that nudges it, to the company that labels and distributes it and finally to the shop / site up to reach the end user. Cake instead pass from spinning to the craftsman who undoes and distributes them directly. Often the label is placed and written by hand precisely to characterize the craftsmanship of the product, but above all to keep the costs of the product more competitive.
- The uniqueness: The ball of yarn having many steps before reaching the final knitter certainly has more people working on advertising the brand, the product will be better known, it will be possible to find it in large quantities from different retailers who offer stimulating ideas, which certainly develop dedicated knitting or crochet patterns and the advantage will be that it can be easily reordered (in case you have run out of material). Do not forget the importance of the color bath even for the same shades. However, this is not always true or advantageous: for some years now the big companies have been launching seasonal collections, so in order not to stay halfway through the work I recommend not to leave the projects in the closet for months and months. On the other hand, since cake is a hand-made product by every artisan / retailer, it is a little more unique and refined choice, obviously I also dedicate my time in the first place to the creation of cakes only for the yarns of which I am I fall madly in love. So every artisan can indulge themselves in the search for the perfect yarn and offer it to their customers! It will be possible to buy them for a short period / season, they will have lower costs and will make your garment unique and inimitable. It will be more difficult to find dedicated models, but let your imagination run wild!
As always in creative works there is no BETTER or WORSE ... there is the imagination of each of us, there are people who love models already written and people who love to create them. There are those who are more traditional and will never leave their beloved ball of yarn and those who give themselves a chance with cakes, but one thing is CERTAIN: a handmade product has at least 100g of love inside!
Good creativity
Francesca