Boodles Textile Yarn

I recently picked up some Textile Yarn from Hobbycraft (who currently have all their yarn and wool on a 3 for 2 deal), the brand is Boodles by Avec.  I've been wanting to try textile yarn for a while now so I could make a chunky cat basket / bed for James but it's proved quite difficult to track down and expensive. 

I've got a few ideas pinned on my Crochet board on Pinterest so when someone told me that Hobbycraft not only sold it but sold it at a decent price AND it was on offer I had to check it out.  Here's what I chose:

The yarn doesn't come in specific colours instead there are broad shade categories, the two greens are from the green selection and the grey is from the black / white which means that you basically have to just work with what they have in stock and if you run out of a colour you probably won't be able to pick up more too easily. 

The yarn is made from cuts offs from the textile manufacturing industry so the colour of the yarn depends on what's being produced at the time which is why the shades vary so much and aren't guaranteed.  It's definitely a case of grab what you can while you can. :)

I've settled on this pattern from the zen of making's blog as it seems pretty easy to follow.  So far I haven't gotten too far, mostly because this stuff is super hard to work with.

I'm really having to wrestle with the yarn and hook so it's a bit of a slow process at the moment, hopefully I'll get used to it and the process will speed up as I go along.  I do think it's worth the initial struggle though as I love how it's worked up so far.  I'm using a 10mm hook as suggested on the yarns packaging.

I also picked up some Paton's Fab Big Super Chunky yarn while it was on 3 for 2, I'm looking forward to making a super chunky blanket with this yarn so stay tuned for updates on that too.