Five Things You Need To Know About Lion Brand Mandala Yarn

Lion Brand Mandala yarn is a series of variegated yarns in various colors. I discovered this yarn when I ran across a free beanie hat design, The Broken Chevron Beanie. You can find it on Ravelry, here. I’ve been working with Mandala yarn for almost two years now, and here are five things that cover the good, the bad, and the ugly.

5. Mandala has more than one type of yarn weight. Ask me how painful it was to discover this little fact. It’s a frustratingly funny story. My first attempt at the Broken Chevron Beanie became a discovery of the yarn weight paradigm. The sample of the Broken Chevron Beanie uses the colorway Pegasus. Pegasus has a yarn weight of 3 (light or DK yarn). When I went to the store to buy yarn for this hat, I found a fantastic colorway, Mandala Ombre in Happy. It was thrown in with all of the Mandala yarns in a bin and was a perfect compliment to my winter coat. I don’t know if it was that the store put all of the Mandala yarns in one bin or not, but Ombre yarn has a weight of 4 (medium/worsted). That hat ended up WAY too big.  

Here are the weights of the Mandala Family:

Mandala String: 1 (Super Fine)

Mandala Yarn: 3 (Light/DK)

Mandala Baby: 3 (Light/DK)

Mandala Sparkle: 3 (Light/DK)

Mandala Sequins: 3 (Light/DK)

Mandala Ombre: 4 (Medium/Worsted)

Mandala Impressions: 5 (Bulky)

Mandala Think and Quick: 6 (Super Bulky)

DISCONTINUED Mandala Tweed Stripes: 4 (Medium/Worsted)

4. Mandala makes interesting stranded work. Even using 1 colorway rolled in opposite directions makes some lovely projects. It makes “Fair Isle” color choices as easy as pie.

3. It’s so soft. I just love the way Mandala Original Yarn feels in my fingers

2. It doesn’t fuzz up easily. I have kids and dogs, and I like to carry my knitting around so I can knit whenever I have a moment. The cakes and my projects take a beating, but the yarn doesn’t get beat up too much.  

1. It doesn’t split too often. For a yarn that is so soft, I expected it to split, but unless my tension is too tight, it really doesn’t. I love that. It is much easier to knit quickly when I’m not worried about my yarn splitting.

Ultimately, I love Mandala Yarn and will use it for future projects. Just make sure you pick the correct version for your project and make a gauge swatch so you can create with confidence. You can find Mandala yarn anywhere that Lion Brand is sold.