Yarn Review – Lily Sugar ‘n Cream Scrub Off

So you might have seen the Lily Sugar’n Cream Scrub Off yarn recently. I think it’s fairly new, I hadn’t seen it until this spring! Of course I’ve used Sugar/Peaches’n Cream yarn for literally anything and everything before…it makes excellent sturdy dishcloths, fun baskets, and I’ve even used it for vests! But this scrub version is new to me.

I’ll admit I was skeptical. It feels like over this past year or so, every yarn brand has come out with a fancy new “scrubby” cotton. I know Hobby Lobby has a couple variations, Red Heart I believe released a few…and I’ve tried most of them. I find them to be hit or miss. Some are too rough, some don’t really add any scrubbing capabilities, others just fall apart when you touch them to a dish. I’m not naming any names of which lines did which, because I wouldn’t be able to remember exactly. I remember which ones I liked, and that’s what’s really important!

So when I saw this one, I knew I had to try it…but I wasn’t convinced I’d like it. However, unlike most of the others, this one isn’t entirely the scrubby texture. It’s a mix of the basic cotton yarn with sections of the rough scrub bits. So that was already interesting to me. I figured the simple cotton parts might make it a little more sturdy and make it feel more like a basic dishcloth when used.

I had no plans on what to make with it. I knew I wanted a dishcloth because that’s what the scrub variation seemed to be made for–you wouldn’t really want this kind for a face/body cloth, although now I’m thinking a body poof thing might be fun! But that was the extent of my plan. So I just tried a few stitches and nearly everything was getting lost in the texture. Unfortunately, my ball of this yarn that I bought started with the scrub portion, which made it slightly challenging to chain or start anything. I’m sure I could have just cut that part out, but it was my first time using it and I didn’t know if that would be losing a quarter of the yardage or something. So I stubbornly continued on.

I found that starting with a magic circle actually wasn’t too hard with this, so I figured a circular cloth was my fate. And this is definitely a yarn you want to use with a simple stitch pattern. I stuck with just basic HDC because I was worried about anything complicated being totally lost.

This is my finished cloth:

I think it gives the right look. It’s cute, but not so pretty that you feel bad using it to scrub dirty dishes. Also I love that the scrub portion ended up coming through in my last row so there’s a scrubbing edge!

Now for the actual review, and this is both in stitching and the use of the finished cloth…

• CON: Yes, it’s hard to keep track of stitches. That’s why I’d suggest super simple, because I had to fudge my stitch count at least once (which didn’t hurt anything) when I ended up losing one of my increases somehow. I just added another stitch at the end of the round, no big deal.
• PRO: The texture really isn’t hard to work with! It didn’t feel rough on my hands, it wasn’t hurting my tension, it didn’t annoyingly squeak on my hook. All of these are things I’ve experienced with other cottons so I was pleasantly surprised!
• PRO: I didn’t have any shedding/fallout issues! Not a bit, honestly. Even when using the cloth, which I’ll get to later.
• The difference in thickness between the cotton and the scrub portion was noticeable when stitching but fairly negligible in the finished product, so that’s not really a pro or a con.
• PRO: The cloth held together after two rounds of dishes so far! (I only made it yesterday afternoon.)
• PRO: The scrubby portion is actually beneficial. It’s not groundbreaking, it doesn’t magically wipe away stuff with one swipe, but it did add some help when scrubbing. Not a ton but enough.
• PRO: My mother used it without me mentioning anything about needing it tested, and told me she really liked it! She loves when I make her dishcloths, and told me I was welcome to make “plenty more” of these specifically. Also literally as I’m typing this up, my husband is washing a sink of dishes and just asked me “I see why you like this cloth so much, what did you do to make it so good for scrubbing?” So it’s gotten several positive reviews from family members already!

So overall, one slight negative and a few pleasant surprises!

For crocheting purposes, I’d give this yarn a solid A-minus. Only a few small issues but overall it doesn’t hurt the experience! I haven’t tossed this cloth in the washing machine yet (which I like to do for crocheted cotton dishcloths) but I might put it in an old pillowcase the first time in case the scrub parts disintegrate. I don’t think they will, but I don’t want to find that out after the fact.

Update, August 2020: After continued use of this cloth (and many more made afterwards), it’s still a favorite. My whole household constantly uses these, and we just toss them in the washing machine with all the other towels/dishcloths. They’ve held up wonderfully and I still love using all of them!

Have you tried this yarn yet? Did you like it? What have you made with it? Let me know! If it’s good for more than just dishcloths I’ll keep playing around!

_____

If you’re coming here looking for the pattern, I have now moved it to a separate post (linked here). It was simply too confusing and long-winded to have both a review and a pattern in the same post and I wanted more people to be able to access the pattern itself.