A Tale of Two Yarns – 2KCBWDAY1

“Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.”

It’s been little over a year since I’ve been knitting and within that year I’ve practically turned into a yarn snob. I remember first starting off with the tried and somewhat true 100% Acrylic yarn of Red Heart Super Saver to where now I can no longer stand to use that yarn unless it was needed.

Now, there is nothing wrong with using inexpensive yarn nor is there really any true horrible yarn. Every yarn has their purpose and every knitter/crocheter has their preference in yarn. As for myself, I am no expert with the many variations of fiber, but I’m also no novice. I would say I’m an artisan. There are many different types of yarn that I have yet to have the pleasure of working with, e.g., bamboo, llama, mohair, and cotton. I look forward to eventually working with them.

But anyhoo, back to the main subject at hand.

Lion Brand Homespun Yarn:

Soft, silky and beautiful! A uniquely textured yarn that works up quickly and easily. From shawls to sweaters to throws, this yarn can’t be beat for softness and sheer touch-ability. With solids, heathers, and beautiful self-striping “painterly” colors, Homespun comes in gorgeous shades you’ll love.

The description is genuine, but it also does not reveal its deep and dark secrets:

• Can’t really see the stitches.
• Complicated stitches and patterns would seem almost impossible or too difficult to use.
• Needles get caught into the fiber strands easily.
• Texture of the yarn limits the ease of movement and gets caught or stuck within itself.
• Exposed ends become unraveled.




Now don’t get me wrong, there are several things that I did like with this yarn. It’s very soft and silky; the colors are vibrant; the twirly texture of the yarn enhances garter stitches; and the yarn gives a nice fuzzy look and feeling. The main thing with this yarn is that you have to pay attention in knitting your stitches to make sure your needle tip doesn’t go in-between the strands.

The first time I used this yarn, I was using a complicated pattern where the stitches were getting caught amongst one another and there were loose strands everywhere. It was so frustrating that I just threw away the entire project along with the whole skein of yarn. I probably won’t ever be using this yarn again, but for those who can work with it, my hat is off to you.

Now for another yarn, Berroco Pure Merino:

Pure Merino is a cabled, multi-plied gourmet basic yarn that is spun from 100% extra fine merino. In a palette of 46 shades this washable wool is perfect for all members of the family including babies.



I love merino yarn. Many of my special hand-dyed skeins of yarn are made out of merino. I especially adore superwash merino. The fiber works so well with any sort of knitting. The ease of each stitch is more enjoyable after the next.

As you can see from the merino project above, the knit and purl stitches look so uniform. I always find it intriguing that the knit stitches don’t look like the normal “V” shape, but as alternating straight lines and slanted lines. The yarn also has a nice “smoosh” feel to it. You know that smooshy feeling to where you squeeze your project to get the feel of it and that bouncy feeling it give with every squeeze. I know I’m not the only knitter out there that does and think this.

As for other fibers, I’d like to give a special shout out to the Cascade line of Peruvian Highland Wool and their Superwash line as well. Also to the Lion Brand Wool-Ease for being fairly inexpensive and easy to work with. And also any MCN (Merino Cashmere Nylon) skein of yarn. The skeins I have that are MCN are specially dyed by my friend, Nuri of Dyet Yarns. She does wonderful colorwork and chooses great fiber.

(Woohoo! One post down, only 6 more to go. >___<)
________________________________________________________________________________________________




Blog posts by https://rosaka.wordpress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License