12 posts tagged “yarn”

J and I  decided we would probably spend most of our holidays in the UK this year to help local economies during the recession and cut down on flights for environmental reasons.  This is what led to our holiday in the Lakes originally although the final location was chosen because I haven't properly visited before and J wanted to show me round one of his main childhood holiday locations.  While we were there we also make a big effort to shop and eat locally, choosing local, independent  bakeries, butches, restaurants etc where possible rather than stocking up for cheap at Tesco's.  So far we have sampled the following, amazing local food:

    - Grasmere Gingerbread which is like a mix between a cake and a biscuit
    - Cumberland sausages
    - Herdwick Lamb
    - Eden Sunset local mature cheese
    - Local handmade butter
    - Local Bacon (very good quality - great flavour and no shrinkage)
    - Poppy seed bread
    - Smoked Stilton
    - Ewe's Cheese
    - Sticky Toffee Pudding (invented in the Lakes apparently)

All very yummy!

I also discovered a very small knitting and fabric shop about 5 mins walk from our apartment. There is a lady who weaves, spins and knits with yarn from her own sheep.  This was amazing and I just haunted this place.  She told me all about the diffferent breeds, and I got to watch her weaving rugs on a peg loom out of her own fleece.  I ended up buying 1.5kg of aran weight shetland wool in a natural cream colour from her own herd which she spun herself in an old mill.  I am planning to use it to foray into the world of dying and I want to make Wisteria out of it eventually. 

I got gifted some yarn when I wrote the article for Yarn Forward and this is the first in many updates showing it off...

I will start with the dk silks:

I took a little shopping trip to Iknit on Saturday whilst I was hanging around in London for a roleplaying game to start (I also went into the British Museum for the first time and was practically bowled over by how amazing it was).

So this is really a gratuitious yarn post.

1. Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solid in Orange

2. Easy Knits BFL in Release the Stars

Both are for J as he really likes the bright firey colours and I am trying to make up for the fact that the Wollmeise Sonne yarn went into a pair of socks for my sister and not him.

All my packages arrived on Tuesday which is great services since I only ordered them on Sunday.  So big thanks to:

New Lanark Wools
Woolly Workshop
Great British Yarns

for such speedy customer service.

It all looks great and I don’t feel worried about having some hanks lying around now I have a new ball winder and so don’t have to wind everything by hand.  This will make life much happier.

I should probably get straight to the photos though:

This is my New Lanark 100% wool aran yarn which was amazingly cheap at £1.80 per ball for about (176 yards) and I think better value than Cascade 220. I ordered 5 balls of the Heather yarn in Bramble and 2 of the Natural Blend yarn in Gritstone. It is rough but I don’t mind that - it is rough in a tough and hardwearing way and this will be outerwear anyway.  This is for jumpers and outer hiking socks not scarves.  It is also local to the UK and so I am not racking up a carbon footprint.  I was actually give 3 more balls of the Gritstone colourway than I ordered and I am waiting to hear if they want me to send it back to them.

This is my Cashmere laceweight (3 ply) yarn by Knitwitches in the Sage Rose Colourway.  I am getting very into the idea of lace shawls and already have a pattern picked for this one.  It was sold by a newish online retailer called Great British Yarns who also sent it in this very cute packaging. This is my first pure cashmere (although I have some posh yarns cashmere blended with merino) and everyone it correct – it is amazingly soft.

I got a little bit of Panda Cotton sock yarn in the cinnamon red colourway.  This is obviously not very environmentally friendly but I am hoping that the other packages make up for it and I wanted to try cotton sock yarn as a one off.

Finally the ball winder.  Ironically most of the yarn I have just ordered does not need ball winding but this is an investment for the lace knitting as there is NO WAY I have hand winding 1000m of lace weight yarn.  Also I do think that yarn cakes are very pretty all stacked up and I want my yarn to look like that.

Last weekend I bought some Mirasol Sulka which is 60% Merino, 20% Alpaca and 20% silk (I think).  I had considered making another tank top out of it but it is pretty light on yardage so I don't think that will happen.  Instead I think I will make the Leigh Radford Lace Up Gloves which I have been threatening to make for ages.

At the end of last year I wrote a post about the knitting I would like to do in 2008 and in the excitement of the 101 things in 1001 days I completely forgot to post it.  Some of it has been covered in the 101 things challenge but not all of it and so I bring you the other knitting I would like to do in 2008...

I plan to try knitting with the following yarn types (which I either currently own or hope to buy in the course of the year):

Kidsilk Haze

Wollmeise sock yarn

Fyberspates Merino/Tencel Sock Yarn

Posh Yarn (anything)

Malabrigo Worsted weight

These are the patterns I have got my eye on to try if possible

Green Gables Hoodie

Tree Jumper

Austrian Socks

Anemoi

Kaylee Socks

Huron Mountain Socks

Print o’the Wave Stole

I suppose I should put a disclaimer on this obvious opinion piece. This is not intended to be an attack on any dyers or retailers; all named parties are for illustrative purposes only. This is intended to be a discussion of various buying trends in the yarn world which I have been observing and am commenting on.

There was an interesting discussion on Ravelry recently about inflated yarn prices (particularly on Ebay) which has got me thinking about a couple of things. See how Ravelry is such a good source of inspiration for blog posts. I believe the story goes that a skein of Yarntini went for $100 dollars on Ebay and obviously this has attracted comment because a) that is a lot of money and b) it didn’t go to the dyer. But I think that it opens up a wider debate about what is the “chum effect”. This is when updates to e.g. the Loopy Ewe provoke veritable feeding frenzies and the favourite yarns such as Yarn Pirate, Yarntini etc sell out in minutes. I have resigned myself to the fact I will not own these yarns. I know that attempting to get up really early, press refresh repeatedly and race to get as much in my cart as possible and then get to the checkout before it is “stolen” out of my cart would be a deeply stressful experience and I know that the resulting yarn (however good) wouldn’t live up to that. I know that some people get a real kick out of it but the whole thing makes me feel uncomfortable.

It must be great for dyers to feel so popular and to be doing so well and I congratulate them for this. But the whole model of dyeing a set number of yarns and creating a hype about when they will be available, making ownership seem rare (as if one is part of a special club) seems redolent of capitalist marketing practices I don’t like. I don’t think that one supplier, shop or dyer is doing this deliberately but rather that such tactics are so ingrained in our capitalist culture that they always come out and this is the result. Such marketing tactics make me uncomfortable because they seem to promote a grasping culture which I feel ought to be alien to the knitting culture. From the reports I have seen and comments made in various forums people stuff skeins into their cart in a hurry (occasionally regardless of whether it is a colour they really like) in order that that can just buy it before it goes. Some people have refused to give tips on how to get the yarns they want to newbies in case they loose out. People get upset when yarns are “stolen” out of their carts and I have heard rumours of people buying more than they need or want and thereby not leaving any for anyone else. I completely understand that this is human nature, the nature of capitalism and probably very good for the dyers and retailers involved. But is this dog eat dog attitude really the attitude of knitters. Why is it that the same people who will send care packages to virtual strangers, knit jumpers, hats and scarves for the homeless and destitute and spend hours on holiday gift knitting will shove and push and behave like “sharks” in a feeding frenzy when Yarn Pirate updates come out?

I don’t think that this model is endemic to the Indie Dyer business – both Wollmeise and Lisa Souza have lists of colours on their sites and can dye to order if they have run out of a lot. I waited for some time for my amazing Lisa Souza to arrive because she had run out of the Lime and Violet colourway and needed to dye some more. But I was safe in the knowledge that it would arrive, that I would get exactly the colours I wanted and that I was not depriving anyone else. I am also far more likely to re-order from Lisa because I know that I can go back and get the colours I love time and time again without stress or worry.

Are the dyers whom the feeding frenzy centres on really so much better than everyone else. I am sure they are good but are they THAT good. Are they good enough to justify $100 prices and the feeding frenzies. This is not to denigrate the excellent work of such dyers more to say, should we as knitters stop, take a step back, breathe and check our own mob mentality in these matters.

As an aside the penultimate time I visited a yarn shop they had some Tilli Tomas yarn for sale – the gem encrusted, silk yarn. I remember that it was £30 for a small skein and although it was pretty to look at I couldn’t ever conceive of what it would be used for at that price. Even the yarn store owners joked that it cost £100 just to pick it up and touch it – an excellent sense of perspective and I would be very interested to hear a) it anyone has ever used it and what for and b) what Tilli Tomas sales figures are for such a yarn. Perhaps I should ask Ravelry…

I am coming to the toe on the first TR sock now.  I love the pattern.  It is lots of fun but memorisable and so a good intermediate combination.  However I am not so sold on the yarn.  It is the colour really, the weight, thickness, softness etc are all fine.  In the skein the colour looked beautiful.  On the sock (as I mentioned before) it seemed somehow a little dull but I put this down to fluffing and the interaction of the yarn and the pattern.  Now I am not so sure.

As you can see in the photo the stripes on the heel (worked over on 36 stitches) are great.  They are bright and vibrant and this is what I was hoping the whole sock would look like.  However when worked over more stitches the colour repeats basically alternative, pink for one row, green for the next.  In the heel example you may have 2/3 rows of worked stitches before there is a colour change.  Once the colour change start alternative per row the overall effect suddenly looks grey and dirty.  Luckily for  me this is all on the sole of the foot as the complicated TR pattern obscures the rest but I am still disappointed.  This is not what I hoped for when I made the sock. The contrast shot shows it well, the sole just comes out kinda gray.  The other problem is that it has sort of put me off knitting its mate for a while.  I feel like I need to knit something fun and bright as a contrast.  This is probably a great time to get stuck in to Elfine number 2 as I don’t like having single lonely socks lying around that can’t be word because they are on their own.

But after all that, I feel like I enjoyed the TR pattern enough to make another pair some other time and this time I will be choosing something a little flashier.

I thought about (gulp) frogging the whole sock but to be honest I don't know that it would matter.  Whatever I made with this I think it would turn out the same so I am just going to chalk this up to experience and steam ahead with Elfine as soon as I am kitchenered.

Post in Progress...

As I remarked before I once saw an article in Simply knitting which should have been brilliant about different types of sheep and the way their wool knits up.  It was not amazing and in fact very disappointing.  However I think in the interests of blogging that I should be keeping a record of the different types of wool I have worked with and their various properties.  I will come back to this post and update as I get more experience of different sheep and not-sheep.

Blue Face Leicester – This is nice and thick on the hands but does not have as much of a twist as the Merino (I can't tell if this is part of the spinning process at this stage. Where the merino is smooth (and sometimes shiney) on the plys this is a little fuzzier which increases with the knitting.  I am finding that the fuzz makes the colours paler, and duller than they appear in the ball.  (Natural Dye Studio). 

Merino – Obviously the first thing is that this fibre is some of the softest around. Many of the merino and merino blends I have worked with seemed to be fairly tightly twisted and take colour well – Fleece Artist in particular retains its softness after being chucked in the washing machine which is pretty amazing and certainly not something that can be replicated by the 75% wool and 25% polymide brands.  It doesn’t “fluff” up very much yet though (only a little after being chucked in the washing machine) which I like as the fluffing tends to obscure the colourway.  There is a little bit of felting on the heel but it is not too bad and even being put in the washing machine hasn’t affected the felting factor of the lace.  That is still very clear. (Fleece Artist, Natural Dye Studio, Lisa Souza, Celestial Merino Dream)

Alpaca – Very soft, however I believe the hair fibres must be very short as you barely need to look at Alpaca before it fuzzes up completely and starts to untwist from the ply.  It goes from being quite smooth in the ball to having quite long hairs peeling out of it as soon as you start to work it.  I have only knitted gauge swatches in this so far though so watch this space.  (UK Alpaca, Alpaca des Andes)

On Sunday I got into a bit of a Blue Funk about my knitting.  I had knitted up some gauge swatches on my new purchases and failed to felt the big blue and green stuff (I think the washing machine was too full so I may try again) but I just didn't feel inspired after the first wave of excitement fell away.

I think I know why.  Too much stash is bad for me apparently.  I feel the weight of the stash weighs on my creativity.  I start to feel a bit panicked that I own too much and I can knit fast enough to get through it.  It starts to feel like a burden and not a joy.  I like to have some option to choose from when picking a new project but too much yarn and I mentally lose track of it and then feel oppressed.

I have some more yarn arriving from Lisa Souza and the Natural Dye Studio but I think after that I will not buy any for a while.  At least until the mood lifts.  I am talking like I have bins and bins of the stuff and of course I don't - compared to most hardened collectors I have one small drawer and a bag of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino for the Rogue Hoodie.  But even this is enough to stunt my creativity.  I know my limits.

However this is not really explaining my title.  Feeling stressed about being pressured to be creative with this stash I decided the best thing to do was pick up an old project and ignore the stash and just knit that.  The project was the Elfine socks.  Now I love the way this pattern looks both in the photo of the instructions* and in the way it is knitting up.  In the photo it is knitted in beautiful spring green colours and set amongst honeysuckle (a secret favourite flower of mine which has a lot to do with why I like the pattern).  I am knitting it in Fleece Artist's Indian Summer.  The original is in spring colours and mine is in autumn reds, golds and browns.  Since the pattern is based on leaves this looks great both ways.  But it is toe up.  This was my first toe up sock and from the beginning I was not convinced.  Being a top down knitter usually, reaching the toe usually means the home straight - so going backwards was odd.  Secondly knitting up the toe with all the increases felt a) fiddly and b) like it took longer than knitting it down.  Thanks to the magic 8 cast on from knitty I did not get the loose holes on the toe as other cast on create though and I am grateful for this.  The Queen of Cables is right in that is nice to try on the sock as you go and that the fact this sock is taking so long is probably due to the 16 row repeat lace pattern and not the fact it is toe up but now we come to the crunch.  The Heel.  It is a wrapped heel and this is the first one I have done.  It has a big advantage - not having to pick up stitches which is annoying.  It has a disadvantage.  Huge holes down either side!  I am told this can be overcome and I will investigate techniques but it looks a bit odd - better on lace socks than anything else but still.  Once it is knit up and I can try it on I will have the acid test.  Many blogger comment on how the wrapped heel is far less comfortable than the heel flap and I will have to work out what is best for me.  However even if I hate it that doesn't get me out of toe ups as there is always the Widdershins heel and I would feel compelled to master toe up in any event.

That said concentrating on this project and ignoring the stash issue has made me feel better.  It is gorgeous colour, more interesting than the simple trekking socks for J (pic below) and I forgot how wonderfully soft Fleece Artist is to knit with.  I shall never remember the pattern repeats I shouldn't think and will always need to have it near me but let's face it - it is good practice for Cookie A's twisted flower sock, whenever I get around to buying it.

Note: Just finished round of row 2 of the repeat - otherwise I will never know where I am :)

*As a side note I just won't knit something without having a photo in the instructions - I barely cook things without a photo but knitting without a photo, never!