Caron Anniversary Cakes Yarn Review

I can’t resist a new yarn. I just can’t. Call me a yarn addict and I won’t deny it. Since I can’t go and take a romantic solo stroll down the yarn aisle at Michaels right now, I tend to stalk peruse the yarn page of the Michaels website when I get bored. So when I was scrolling through the Michaels website and happened upon a new special edition Caron Cake – the Caron Anniversary Cakes I knew I had to find it. This yarn isn’t listed for sale on the site and it says it isn’t available in store. But like any self-respecting yarn addict, I know that my local store probably has this either in the back or on display. Obviously this means I’m going to have to go out to look for it. Ladies and gents, I went, I saw, I rescued a new yarn baby. And quite a baby she is… let’s review shall we?

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At the time of writing this, you can’t find anything on the Yarnspirations website or social media promoting this product. So, score for us! We’re going to get to see this first!

It’s How Big?

The new Yarnspirations Caron Anniversary Cakes are a whopping 1000g cake. That is 2.2lbs of yarn folks! In that 1000g, you get 1061 yards/970 meters of Super bulky (6) weight yarn. That’s a lot of yarn. But let’s get to the point that will be the real reason this yarn stops you in your tracks: it’s price tag. The Caron Anniversary Cakes yarn is retailing for $39.99 Canadian plus tax. I used a 30% off coupons and after taxes paid just over $31 Canadian. When I first spied this yarn on the Michaels website a few days ago, they hadn’t completely input all the information for it. All I could see was that it cost $39.99. In the picture it looked like your standard Caron cake but with a label that said Anniversary Cake. Once I found out how much yarn you get, the price tag started to make sense.

Check out the video version of this yarn review and see a crochet swatch:

Caron Anniversary Cakes Value

Once you get over the initial shock of the price and look at it more critically, it doesn’t really seem like that bad of a price. Your average Super Bulky ball of yarn tends to have around 85 – 130 yards of yarn (generally) and can retail between $7.99 – $11.99/ball. For example: Lion Brand Mandala Thick & Quick has 87 yards to a 150g skein and on their site it retails for $7.99 USD. To compare apples to apples here, let’s say that $7.99 is $10.53 CAD (using today’s exchange rate). If I were to spend the same on Lion Brand Mandala Thick & Quick, I’d get 3.79 balls. For easy math, let’s round that up to 4 balls of yarn. So 4 balls of Mandala Thick and Quick would cost me $42.12 and I’d get 392 yards. The Anniversary Cakes will get me 669 more yards for the same price. So if you can get past the initial sticker shock, there is some value there. I’m not putting down or disparaging my beloved Mandala yarns, purely using them as a comparison to show the value of the Anniversary Cakes.

Yarn Label Information

• Current Number of Colourways Available: 10
• Fiber Content: 100% Acrylic
• Weight: 6 (super bulky)
• Ball Size: 1000g
• Yardage: 1061 yd / 970 m
• Suggested Hook Size: 8 mm (L)
• Suggested Needle Size: 8mm (US 11)
• Crochet Gauge: 8 sc x 9 rows= 4″
• Knitting Gauge: 11 sts x 14 rows = 4″

For those of you that haven’t seen/heard/tried a basic Caron Cake before, this is a self-striping yarn. The Caron Anniversary Cakes are no different. I picked up the colourway called Blueberry Birthday and it has 3 different colours that alternate throughout the ball. This yarn is machine washable and dryable but as with all acrylics, you shouldn’t place a heat source like your steamer or iron on the yarn unless your wanting yarn soup.

What Can I Make With It?

I think the answer to this question is that it depends on you and how much work you want to put into it. For fun, I took a quick spin on the Ravelry site to see what kind of projects I could find that use 1050 yards (or close to it) of Super Bulky Yarn. There were a surprising amount of plus size garments that can be made using this amount of yarn. Now, would I want a garment made in a self-striping yarn, as it comes out of the ball? Probably not. But that’s my personal preference. I like to take self-striping yarns apart to control the colour changes or group the colours together to get larger blocks of colour. You could definitely do that with his yarn and get yourself a super cozy colour blocked sweater that’ll last you all winter. If garments aren’t your thing, you could try a floor pouffe, lapghan/blanket, ruana, one of those popular pocket shawls or more. Hell, put this baby on the floor and use it as a foot stool. Kidding, Kidding. … well mostly. There’s a lot that can be done with this kind of yardage so be creative and happy hooking.

Find my free Caron Anniversary Cakes Blanket Pattern HERE.

What do you think? Have you seen this yarn? Have you tried this yarn? What would you make with it? I’d love to hear from you and know what your thoughts are so leave me a comment in the comment section below.

While you’re here, you may like checking out some of my other reviews:

• Fair Isle Crochet Workshop Book Review
• Loops & Threads Sweet Snuggles Stripes Yarn Review
• Lion Brand Landscapes Fusion Yarn Review
• Premier Anti-Pilling Everyday Bobbin Yarn Review
• Lion Brand Mandala Watercolors Yarn Review