If you've been following along for a while now, you will probably know that I am a big fan of Hobbii's cotton yarns when making my amigurumi, in fact they are my go-to yarn for a lot of my projects which is why I always have a good supply at hand.
So when I heard they were coming out with a new 100% cotton yarn from one of my favourite amigurumi designers I was more than excited to get my hooks into it!
Pica Pau Cotton 8/7 yarn is a collaboration between Hobbii and Yanina Schenkel, the creative force behind the beloved Pica Pau amigurumi! Pica Pau cotton has two categories, the first is a collection of 29 soft desaturated colours and the other features 25 earth and skin tones colours. The colour palette is carefully curated to meet Pica Pau's unique aesthetic of vivid yet cozy design.
Each 50 g skein of light weight yarn is made up of 100% cotton, with 90 m and a recommended hook size of 5 mm. See more about this yarn.
I went ahead and ordered 9 skeins of this gorgeous yarn to try out first hand and here's what I thought!
First Impressions
Upon unboxing, this yarn felt super familiar to me, it fits right in with my other friends 8/8 cotton yarn and even has my favourite easy start tab to get the perfect centre pull every time! I did notice that it had a slightly more papery feel to the yarn but was still very soft for a cotton yarn.
I figured that since this was most likely going to be used for crocheting amigurumi I would go ahead and make one, and what better design than one of Pica Pau's own! I went ahead and make Lucas the Fox from the book: Animal Friends of Pica Pau 3.
Once I was done making my new friend, it was time to give you all my thoughts on this new and exciting yarn! I will be breaking down this review into 3 categories: Quality - how does it feel on the hook, splitting, cheap materials, etc, Value - Does the cost meet the materials and quantity of yarn and lastly Versatility - What projects can you use with this yarn.
Quality
I'm happy to report that much like Hobbii's other cotton yarns, Pica Pau's meets their high standards, I had no issues with it splitting, the yarn glides through my hooks without issues! the centre pull rarely if ever got stuck giving me yarn barf, and The final results are wonderful with the stitch definition being the highlight here. My one gripe with it is that it isn't as soft as Friends or Rainbow cotton and it did irritate my hands slightly after using it for a while. However the trade off is this stiffer yarn ends up with a super clean and defined stitch.
2 1/2 Knotty Bears (out of 3)
Value
Unfortunately this is where the yarn loses me a little bit, now I understand that this is a business decision and that taking a chance on a new yarn is costly and I love seeing my fellow amigurumi designer win however at $5.49 cad ($3.96 usd) per skein this yarn is one of the most expensive in it's category from Hobbii. To compare it to their other cotton, Friends and Rainbow are often sold for around $3-4 cad and often go on sale, seeing as Pica Pau cotton is extremely similar it's hard to justify buying it over Hobbii's other cottons.
Now let's talk about the weight, 8/7 (read this article for more info on this weighting system). this is a specific weight that I had not seen before, still technically a light weight yarn like an 8/8 but not a fine weight like the 8/6. While I appreciate that they wanted to set this yarn apart I do wish it was 8/8 or 8/6 so that it could be combined with their other cotton. I often intermix Rainbow 8/8 and Friends 8/8 without issue and I think that having this option for Pica Pau cotton would have been helpful essentially extending their cotton colour library.
1 Knotty Bear (out of 3)
Versatility
The primary focus of Pica Pau cotton is to crochet amigurumi, therefore I won't go too hard on it when it comes to making other projects, however I did make a couple tea towels and they turned out quite nice, I don't think I would want to make wearables or blankets from it since there are cheaper/softer options however the cozy colour palette would look great in many types of projects.
2 Knotty Bears (out of 3)
Final Thoughts
While I didn't meet the yarn of my dreams here (that remains taken by Friends 8/8) Pica Pau Cotton 8/7 is a wonderful yarn with a fabulous colour palette, I would suggest using it for making high-quality amigurumi projects to last a lifetime. It pairs perfectly with Pica Pau's amigurumi patterns and I highly suggest giving it a shot if you can afford it!
Final Score: 2 Knotty Bears (out of 3)
Watch the full video review here: