Knitting & Crochet Blog Week - A Tale of Two Yarns
Mar 28, 2011
Yarn choice is a very personal thing. The feel across your hands, whether it sheds as you knit, the give, the movement on the needles, all affect a person's reaction to a particular yarn as well as the results in a finished object.
With so many variable it can be difficult to pick one yarn that you love or loathe. But over the past year I can point to one yarn purchase that was particularly successful and one that was a huge mistake.
On the up side was choosing to buy five 65g skeins of Clan, a merino 4ply, in the Yarn Yard's sale. Even better it was one of my favourite colourways from this hand dyer.
I bought the yarn for a cardigan and soon discovered it was very smooth on the needles with great stitch definition, creating a robust fabric. It also attracted very positive attention from others. At a knit night I was working on the cardie when a visitor from Australia grabbed my yarn and exclaimed: "Oh, Woollmeise!" She took some convincing that she was wrong and given the popularity of the German brand, I think this speaks highly of yarn I really enjoyed using.
Plus I learnt a little goes a long way...
... for a cardigan, for a glove, and even hat - plus a little left over for a friend to finish a sock.
My tale of woe involves not paying enough attention to past projects. Three or four years ago a I made a colour work cotton jacket - in the end I didn't wear it much because it was too stiff as result of the recommended but unforgiving yarn.
Last summer I was looking for a light cover up and came across a pattern for a net effect short cotton cardie Blithe by Marie Wallin in Rowan Summer Tweed.
I ordered the yarn and made a start. Then I began to remember - the stiffness, the stickiness on the needles, the little fleck of cotton that shed causing me almost hayfever style symptoms. I was miserable but determined to continue - another mistake. So bad, I'm not even going to post a picture of the baggy shapeless scratchy outcome.
I don't think I'll forget this yarn again...