Just hemp yarn: a love/hate relationship

Like any good crocheter, I have a tendency to stockpile any yarn I find on sale or (especially!) clearance.

When I was paroozing the aisles of my (not so local) JoAnn’s one day in 2021 I stumbled upon this LionBrand Just Hemp yarn for about 2 bucks a piece. I bought about six of them. The colors were just so organic, they screamed out to me, and the texture was so interesting to me. I never worked with anything beyond acrylic yarn, so I figured what a great time to try something different.

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At first I just made some chains with my metal hook, and immediately noticed how splitty the yarn was. Since it is hemp yarn, the strands are not woven together as good as they could be, so there was lots of annoyances while working. I thought about making a bucket hat, but decided the yarn was a bit too difficult for me to work with for such a project.

After casting on and then frogging several different project ideas I frustratedly put the hemp yarn in the bottom of a wicker basket and forgot about it for two years.

This year I made a decision to try and not buy any yarn. (I have way too much) (I have also failed this already but it was only two skeins so….self control?) I am only using the existing stash I have, and the first contender up is the hemp yarn. (It’s about time I use it up, I need to clear the basket out anyway)

Thirteen granny squares and two Tunisian crochet straps and I honestly kind of obsessed with this bag.

Working with the yarn itself can be....tricky. It's very splitty since it's hard to get a good twist due to the coarse nature of the yarn, but with patience and time this yarn works up so wonderfully. I really hope to use more hemp yarn in the future, it's great for decor and sturdy bags!