Crochet Gauge and Yarn Review: Testing Balloon, Balloon Amigo and Yarnart Jeans

Hello!

 

Last week I started crocheting some new amigurumis for christmas (no, It´s not too early, specially for me as a beginner). While designing and choosing my color palette for each one, I realized I have so many different brands of yarns in my storage, so I´m not sure how to combine them. For that reason I decide to make a yarn comparison for amigurumi gauge.

The thing is: although each yarn has the "gauge" info in the label, I decided to test them for my own and check what happens if I crochet arms and legs with a different yarn than the body. At first glance, I thought that Yarnart Jeans, Pingouin Balloon and Pingouin Amigo Balloon had similar characteristics, so I started with those. 

If you are not familiar with the term, GAUGE refers to the number of stitches and rows per unit of length

Pingouin Balloon - characteristics and experience: 

               

             Pingouin Balloon, Red 314 and label

I worked before with this yarn and I can say it is very comfortable and soft to crochet, allowing the movements of the hand and the hook to be fluid and without stiffness. I would´t say it´s thick, but it does have a bit of body.

                                  This is Mike crack

             

Mikecrack crocheted with Pingouin Balloon,

The pattern is available on my stores and payhip, get it now https://payhip.com/b/PmZ0y

This brand is easy to find in my country (Dominican Republic), but is limited about the colors, aprox 23 colors. Check 2025 catalog.

Pingouin Balloon Amigo - characteristics and experience:

Pingouin Balloon Amigo, Rosa Barbie 8380 and label

With Balloon Amigo happen the same as Ballon, this brand is easy to find in Dominican Republic and also in Brazil, but there are more colors, aprox 50. Check 2025 catalog. 

As we can see in the labels, Balloon and Balloon Amigo have the same composition: 58% cotton and 42% acrylic.

Yarnart Jeans from Turkey - characteristics and experience:

One of the most famous brands around the world, especially for amigurumis. They have available more than 60 colors!!

                                                                Yarnart Jeans Baby Pink 74 and label

As I said, I´m currently working on Christmas amigurumis and I started with Yarnart Jeans. The color range is excellent, but local availability is limited, so I had to buy them online.   

I found myself searching through the yarns in my warehouse for ones with similar characteristics, so I could mix them together if necessary. Yes, I plan on buying more, even they take almost one month to arrive, and while I´m working I dont want to stop. Besides, this exercise is useful because if I run out of a skein of yarn, I alredy know where and with wich brand I can replace it.

Let´s see the threads together

   

Crochet in sc with the 3 threads. Top: Ballon Amigo, center: Yarnart Jeans and down: Balloon

          Strands together, top:Ballon Amigo, center: Balloon, down: Yarnart Jeans

Conclusions:

• The three yarns are very similar (we knew that), the thickest was Balloon Amigo, the lightest was Yarnart Jeans, but the differences are almost imperceptible.
• All three are good for medium and large amigurumis, especially if you´re looking for a flawless, even, and smooth finish. For small amigurumis or those with very fine details, I wouldn´t recommend them.
• Although the gauge for Balloon and Balloon Amigo says the results are the same: 26 rounds x 20 stitches, I felt Balloon Amigo was a little thicker.
• I felt Balloon softer
• Balloon´s disadvantage is not having a wide variey of colors
• Yarnart Jeans´advantage: more color diversity

Yarn comparison table

Brand	Composition	Perceived thickness	Color range	Availability in Dominican Republic
Pingouin Balloon	58% cotton, 42% acrylic	Soft and medium	~23 colors	High (stores)
Pingouin Ballon Amigo	58% cotton, 42% acrylic	Slightly thicker	~50 colors	High (stores)
Yarnart Jeans	55% cotton, 45% acrylic	Thinner	60+ colors	Low (mostly online only)

Sometimes how the yarn feels is more important, since yarns of the same brand and composition can have slightly different thicknesses and even shades. That's why we've seen other crocheters recommend buying yarns from the same batch so the knitting looks uniform. Consider this example:

Balloon red and yellow, thickness comparison

Balloon red and yellow, thickness comparison

As you can see in the pictures, the yellow one is thicker than red.  Both yarns are Balloon (Pingouin).

 

What would be the most    important thing?

To crochet any piece I would mix Balloon and Balloon Amigo without any problem, but in the case of Yarnart Jeans I would use it to crochet complete parts of the body, for example to make arms or legs, I do not recommend to mix in the same piece.

I hope this post has been helpfull.  I´ll keep trying more yarns later...

    Hugs!

    Johana

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