Yarn Lovers help me out, please.?

I get my alpaca yarn from knitpicks.com and it washes very nicely with no problems with pilling. Made probably 100 helmetliners with it and over 4 dozen triangle shawls and rectangular stoles with it too. What I use is Wool of the Andes.

Another yarn that is luscious and I use a lot of is Caron Simply Soft. It feels so silky, drapes well, makes a garment that keeps you warm without being too hot,is not itchy and the price is good. You can get yarns made from corn, soy, linen and cotton now and they all have good uses. There is also I Love This Yarn which is a wonderful soft acrylic that is sold at Hobby Lobby. I make boxes full of things to send to those undergoing chemo and it gets rave reviews from them.

Just remember, if you make her a triangle shawl with any wool, it will need to be blocked and quite often after every wearing, a stole is much easier to keep in it's shape without a lot of work and if it's long enough can be wrapped twice and pinned so it stays in place with having to hold onto it all the time.

Alpaca is very soft and one of the warmest yarns there is, but it needs to be carefully hand-washed and blocked out. It can get matted looking even with handwashing if you're not careful. You might look for a superwash wool, these are very soft also and sometimes more affordable. Some sites have yarns at affordable prices like yarn.com and elann.com.

One pattern to look at (I know you didn't ask for patterns, but a friend made one and it looks nice) is on the elann.com site, for a pinwheel sweater that looks like a round shawl with sleeves. It can be worn in two directions, one shorter with a deep collar and the other longer with a shawl collar.

wal-mart does not have a great selection of yarn, mostly # 4 red heart. red heart is great for afghans hats and things that dont touch skin directly. if Grandma will place shawl over her shoulders over her dress then acrylic red heart will do.

walmart also has simply soft which is softer, however it dooes not wash well. the strands separate and it pills.

walmart also has pound of love. it only comes in white and pastels. it is softer than the red heart and washes well.

if you want to try cotton, use the sugar'n'cream cotton yarn.

I just made a baby blanket for my granddaughter out of Jo-Ann Sensations Rainbow Boucle Yarn on

sale 6.49. http://www.joann.com/ The yarn is 2 ply so I made it with double strands. It is makes such a beautiful article. I had two friends come in that looked at it and they wanted to take it home with them. I did not want to send it to her and wanted to keep it for myself. Her son and her dogs use it during the day and her husband takes it from her at night. Her expression of it is "I love love it. The yarn comes in 11 ounces and is so soft and all you feel like doing with is is wrapping it around you and keep every one away while you enjoy it. I guess you know I highly recommend this for your grandmother and to use part of your question "that she can brag about and the other women of her circle of friends can be envious of." Please if you have the time and you use this yarn let me know how you and your grandmother feel about it.

Alpaca yarn or mixtures are beatifully soft and warm. Personally I find alpaca dosn't make me itch like mohair.