Monday 28 March 2011

Knitting and crochet blog week- A tale of two yarns

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Whoop! It is blog week again, I like this as it is a challenge to post daily without actually having to think of the topics. I did look at the topics in advance, with the plan to get ready beforehand, maybe even to write the posts. I have done nothing productive apart from think about what to do on day 5 and suffering from a lack of ideas. Anyway, I will worry about that in five days time, here is day 1.

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The topic for this is "A tale of two yarns". I have decided to go down the like/loathe, first up the loathe- It is Four Seasons Grundl Hot socks Rainbow (a sock yarn I don't love- this is a bit of a shock!)

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Actually loathe is a mean word, because even this has redeeming features- I do like the colours and the long repeats with blended colour changes. It is also soft when knitted up.

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Unfortunately it is super splitty, which makes it a pain to knit, and really fluffy which makes it a nightmare to pull apart. I had to try two patterns with this- Baana, which I went wrong with and fell foul of the "its difficult to frog element" (always check for errata!).

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s And a Clapotis, which was not ideal with the "it's difficult to frog" aspect either. s
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Then I broke my 3.5mm needle tip and it has sat looking like this for over a year now. I think I will attempt to frog it and give the yarn to someone who might love it.

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The yarn I would least like to be given would have to be a super cheap acrylic in baby pink. Although I appreciate the uses of acrylic the really cheap stuff is just not pleasant and I am not a pastels fan.

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On to a much more positive aspect, the love. This was really tricky, I scrolled through my file of stash photos and had to say there was something I loved about each of them- the colour, the squishiness, all sorts of things.

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I had to pick one though so I went for the one with the most interesting story behind it for me. This is a handspun 2 ply sock weight. It was the first roving I dyed, the first decent yarn I spun using a drop spindle and I made it into socks- a lot of favourite things there :D. s

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I love the colours too, it is a mix of blue, turquoise, grey and green.

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I can list the qualities of my dream yarn- soft, smooth, nice colours (I am quite into semi solid brights at the minute, but this changes), a thickish sock weight, springy when worked into ribbing and machine washable as I am lazy. I will just have to keep buying yarn until I find what I am looking for, what a shame! ;)


12 comments:

  1. Hi Love your pictures.

    Sock yarn is great, I love those qualities to.

    Have to buy more!

    Ginny

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  2. I wish I could spin, your hand-dyed, handspun is lovely!

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  3. Oh, your handspun makes me jealous. It's beautiful! Too bad about the splitty yarn, though - the colours are gorgeous anyway.

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  4. I don't like yarns that split but will go through the pain of knitting with them if I'm sure that the final result is worth it.
    I'd love to spin my own yarn one day too. Yours looks fantastic!

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  5. Great handspun. I've never got the hang of my spindle, but I really should be using my wheel way more than I do.

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  6. I love your handspun and the fact that you knitted socks from it is even better. I knitted the Clapotis last year using Lorna's Lace Handpainted and it was delicious to work with so I can understand your frustration of the pattern with a yarn that is "splitty" since I have also used yarns like that.

    As usual, I always love your posts.

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  7. Your handspun is beautiful! I love the colours. Splitty yarn can be so frustrating, I have just knitted with a bamboo that split, it ended up lovely but the process was not as enjoyable as I thought it would be:)

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  8. Oh that handspun is beautiful :D

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  9. It is so difficult to struggle on buying yarn isn't it. I manage to cope though. I love your handspun yarn. The colours are beautiful.

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  10. The handspun is beautiful! Hate splitty yarn...

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  11. I will have to remember the name of that yarn so I can avoid it. What a pain, splitty yarn. Socks need to hold up in the wash.
    What beautiful roving you dyed. I'm reminded of the sea.

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  12. That handspun is so pretty!

    I'll bet the socks you made are gorgeous.

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