Sugarwheel Pattern Ideas – Crochet

Sugarwheels have finally arrived at Hobby Lobby!

There are so many different yarn cakes these days I can’t even keep up!  I’ve tried the Caron Cakes (LOVE LOVE) and the Sweet Rolls (okay but a little squeaky for my taste).  I haven’t spotted the Bernat Pop! or Mandala in the wild yet, but I did manage to score some Sugarwheel yarn cakes the other day.  I was SUPER excited because the scuttlebutt in the crochet groups is that its still pretty hard to get your hands on.

I love doing pattern roundups, and I recently updated a similar post about Caron Cakes a couple of weeks ago – there are TONS of patterns now!

I snagged the Jumpin’ Jelly colorway, which is a combination of really brilliant shades of green, purple, pink, and red.  The colors are much more vibrant than the Caron Cakes and Sweet Rolls.

Of course the first thing I did when I got home with my yarn was start looking at patterns on Etsy.  I love supporting my crochet designing sisters and brothers!

Sugarwheel Pattern Ideas

I’m obsessed with crocheting shawls even though I don’t wear them (this needs to change).  I am always always cold in the office. I don’t know why I reach for the ratty old sweater on the back of my chair when I could be wearing one of the gorgeous shawls I’ve made.

When I saw the Surf’s Up shawl pattern, I clicked the buy button immediately.

I love all things asymmetrical!  This pattern is super creative and looks like it will make good use of the abrupt color changes in Sugarwheel.  I’ll keep you posted – already started crocheting it (quicky yarn review at the bottom of this post!) and it is a lot of fun.

The next patterns I fell hard for were the Marly Top and the Cocoon Shrug, both from the same designer.

These patterns require two Caron Cakes, but since the Sugarwheel yardage is slightly less than Caron Cakes (Sugarwheel is 355 yards; Caron Cakes are 383 yards) you might want to pick up an extra Sugarwheel to be on the safe side.  The Cocoon Shrug looks like the perfect sweater to snuggle up in next to a campfire – it’s loose and airy but still substantial enough to keep the chill away.

This Triangle Shawl is really pretty!

The stitch patterns used vary enough to keep it interesting.  I really love how the width of the color stripes gets narrower as your eyes move from the center of the shawl to the edges.  That’s one of my favorite things about the cake yarns!

I could totally see myself wearing this Bohemian Poncho!

There are a few different ways to customize the pattern with tassels, pompoms, and fringe.  The designer included photos in the listing so you can see what the variations look like.  This pattern calls for less than two Caron Cakes so you’d be safe with two Sugarwheel cakes.

The Double Bobble Beanie pattern comes with an option to make the hat of the decade…the messy bun hat!

I was so jealous of all the people wearing messy bun hats this winter.  My hair is super short, like so short I can’t even do a messy ponytail!

This hat looks nice and smooshy and warm.  If you’re in the US warm might not be something you are looking for right now, but it’s never too soon to start working on holiday gifts and fall craft show stock.

Speaking of winter, how about this Neptune’s Ocean scarf?

It kind of looks like stained glass and the effect with the changing colors of the yarn cake is really pretty.  This pattern uses less than a skein of Sugarwheel along with a contrast color.  Bonus:  you can buy this pattern on Etsy, or you can follow the link in the listing to go to the designer’s blog and get the pattern for free!

While this granny stripes sweater pictured here is a solid color, I think it would look great hooked up with Sugarwheel.

The sweater shaping is perfect – boatnecks and drop shoulders are two of my favorite design elements.  And, because it’s a little fitted, this sweater would make a great layering piece over a solid colored maxi dress.

This Stained Glass Snowflake scarf was designed to use multiple skeins of different colored yarns with a contrasting color. I don’t know if it was intentional, but this scarf would be pretty perfect for the Pride Marches coming up in June.

Sugarwheel helps this become a portable project because you don’t have to carry a zillion skeins of yarn around!  Also, projects that require no end weaving in are the bomb.  This scarf turns the yarn ends into fringe. WIN

I could see wearing this poncho as a beach cover.

The petal stitch looks a little complicated, but the pattern includes a photo tutorial.

There are TONS of free patterns on Ravelry.  No patterns popped up when I searched for Sugarwheel, but there were plenty when I searched for Caron Cakes.  All of those can be adapted for Sugarwheel yarn cakes – just keep in mind that Sugarwheel has less yards per skein.

I wrote a post with suggestions for Caron Cakes way back when (and just updated it a couple of weeks ago – there are TONS of patterns now!), so if you click this link you’ll have even more ideas!

A Quicky Sugarwheel Review

Ashlea of Heart Hook Home did a comprehensive review of Sugarwheel yarn cakes that I highly recommend checking out.  I agree with her – if you’re expecting this yarn to be as soft as Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn, you might be disappointed.  It feels more like Red Heart Super Saver than ILTY.  I suspect that it will soften up in the wash, though.

Yarn cakes are pretty addictive. I find myself doing that “I’ll keep going until I get through the next color change” thing.  Even though I know what color is coming next, it’s always a fun surprise to see how it works!  The range of color options available for Sugarwheel is pretty impressive:

I’m about halfway into the row count on the Surf’s Up shawl, and am LOVING how it’s turning out.  It’s an easy pattern.  Once you get going you quickly figure out that you don’t need to count stitches for every row.  A periodic stitch count check to make sure you’re on track works fine.

I did notice that the curved edge is bulging a little though.  The pattern and yarn band call for a size I crochet hook so I started with that.  A few rows later it was still bulging in a way I didn’t think would block out, so I switched up to a J hook.  I eventually went up to a K hook and that seems to have solved the problem.

This yarn is worsted weight, but it is a fairly dense yarn.  The part of the shawl I made with the I hook feels a little stiff.  I’d definitely feel comfortable crocheting amigurumi without sizing my hook down.  If you are after a more drapey fabric, you might want to use a larger hook and do a quick gauge swatch.

With cakes you expect the color changes to be pretty abrupt.  With the Jumpin’ Jelly colorway, the color changes aren’t as noticeable as I thought they would be.  There is a very slight ombre effect where the colors meet.  Except for when you find a knot joining two of the colors like this:

The good news is that there is only the one knot in the entire skein.  I don’t usually mind knots in my yarn – I just cut the knot out and work around it.  But in cake yarn, knots are super annoying because they affect the length of the color repeat.  Oh well, not much to be done but keep hooking away.

I like that you can see splashes of the adjacent colors here and there (especially noticeable in the light green) – it adds a lot of interest and dimension.

All in all I only have good things to say about Sugarwheel, and I can’t wait to see how this shawl turns out!

What do you think about the Sugarwheel cakes?  Have they arrived at your Hobby Lobby yet?