Caron Colorama O’Go Yarn Review
Yarnspirations has invented a brand-new way of manufacturing yarn, and it’s called O’Go. The O’Go format is currently available in four different yarns, but today I am reviewing the Caron Colorama yarn.
Traditionally yarn comes in skeins, hanks, balls, cones, or cakes. It is sometimes difficult to find the end of the yarn inside of a skein and pulling out the end can cause tangles. Hanks must be wound into balls or cakes. Balls often require a yarn bowl. Cakes are typically center-pull but it can still be difficult to find the end inside. Yarnspirations has designed the new O’Go yarn to be tangle-free and quick start. Does the O’Go really have the advertised features?
THE YARN Brand: Yarnspirations Style: Caron Colorama O'Go Colorway: Wine Time Weight: 5 Bulky Content: 100% acrylic Amount: 228 yards/6.4 oz
Let’s look at the packaging. Yarn typically comes with a band of paper wrapped around it or sometimes a small tag. O’Go has more complex packaging. I pulled away the front part of the cardboard and found it was closed with this patch of “high tack double sided tape.” I find that a strange choice as I certainly would not want my yarn to stick to that tape!
The packaging is quite large once removed. I would recommend cutting out and keeping the very middle section as it has all of the information regarding the yarn specifications that you would typically find on a paper yarn band.
The next step is to find the place where the two ends of the yarn meet together and are held in place with a plastic cord. You cut that cord with scissors and pull it out.
I choose to make one of Yarnspirations special patterns written specifically for this yarn: Caron Dippty Doo Crochet Hat. This pattern requires separating the colors. The pattern instructions say to gently pull apart the colors and cut the yarn.
This is what my O’Go looked like after separating all of the colors as carefully as I could.
I followed the pattern and crocheted the hat!
I did find one knot, which is normal for mass-produced yarn, but I wanted to point that out just to be completely thorough in my review. I simply cut the knot out and weaved in the ends.
When I was using the yarn to make the hat, the carrot-shaped sections of yarn got looser and looser and became harder to use.
There was even one time the yarn tangled. I find bulky weight yarn is typically easy to untangle, and that was the case here.
Once I was done with the hat I was left with rather limp looking sections of yarn.
I feel like there is no way to store yarn in this state without it becoming a mess, so I wound the sections into balls.
I then decided I wanted to experience working with the entire O’Go.
THE YARN Brand: Yarnspirations Style: Caron Colorama O'Go Colorway: Concord Crush Weight: 5 Bulky Content: 100% acrylic Amount: 228 yards/6.4 oz
I found a pattern for a Simple Crochet Scarf. I just substituted my O’Go for the suggested Lion Brand Homespun yarn. I wanted to see what it was like to store this long worm of yarn, so I tried both a yarn project bag and a plastic yarn container, with mixed results.
I was able to successfully crochet the scarf despite the difficulties with the large O’Go format.
Final Thoughts: I have experienced yarn barf with yarn skeins and cakes before, but mostly I have no trouble starting a typical manufactured skein of yarn. However, I can confirm this yarn has a quick start process. I did not like the excess packaging or the cardboard yarn label. I feel it would get lost easily. Whether using the entire length of the O’Go or separating it in to sections I feel the strange carrot or worm type shape is difficult to work with. I also would have trouble storing this yarn in my plastic tub storage system because it does not stack. However, I must note that the yarn itself is of nice quality, and the colorways of Colorama are very nice.
VERDICT: I would not recommend this yarn.
2 Comments
Judy Rank
I checked it out at JoAnns the other day and I am going to pass on buying this. It is much to big to store in the plastic storage drawers I store all my other yarn. I find it very expensive compared to the skeins. Im thinking it would be much harder to use as the “carrots” get smaller. This is a definite NO for me.
Lisa Georgette
Thank you. I found your review enlightening & pretty thorough.
But are the yarns all Bulky? Were there patterns without needing cutting all the yarn apart? Is the Yardage comparable to a regular skein of yarn for the price?