King Cole’s yarns have always complied with the recognised international standards for knitting yarns. As we do not produce and sell toys, we have not previously tested our yarns to the standards for toy manufacturing. However, we recognise that many of our customers do wish to sell toys they have crafted using our yarns and patterns. Therefore to help you, the crafter, we decided to conduct the testing ourselves and provide all the required certifications as a free service so that you can craft and sell toys with confidence that they are safe for use by children.
European standard EN 71 specifies safety requirements for toys. Compliance with the standard is legally required for all toys sold in the European Union. Although the UK is no longer in the EU, here at King Cole we maintain specific standards such as these.
The EN 71-3 standard is designed to assess the migration of certain chemicals into the body if a toy or components of a toy were to be swallowed by a child. In the EU the migration of these elements is assessed by immersing the yarn in an acid, designed to represent stomach acid, for two hours.
We tested the base yarn colours Yellow/Red/Blue/Black which are the building blocks for any shade/colour, it’s called the CMYK System which is used for all forms of printing.
Our dye system follows the exact same principles, for example, Pale Blue will be 20% Blue or Cream will be 15% Yellow/5%Red
The below yarn qualities have been passed the EN71-3 testing process. If a yarn quality is not listed below it means it hasn’t yet been tested – every quality we have sent to be tested has passed! – if you would like a specific quality not listed below to be tested, or indeed have any questions about EN71-3 testing, please contact us through the “Get in Touch” option in the main menu.
Big Value Baby DK with a Twist
Big Value Baby DK with a Twist Superball
The yarns we have tested cover all of our toy patterns so that if a pattern is made as directed using the yarns specified, the resulting product is suitable for babies and children.
Our copyrights apply only to written patterns, not to the finished products. In short, photocopying and selling patterns is illegal, but knitting a toy and selling it is okay.
Oeko-Tex certificates
Please note all of our yarns are Oeko-Tex certified. Find all our certificates below:
OEKO-TEX – All Yarns – Supplier 1
OEKO-TEX – All Yarns – Supplier 2