One of my latest acquisitions is 2 skeins of the new Spud & Chloe Fine, which is sort of like sock yarn but is an 80/20 blend of wool/silk, so to me seems destined for shawldom. The color palette in all their yarns is quite beautiful, full of bright clear colors that would make great kid’s items . . . but for my taste the color palette is a bit boring. I wish there were more “off” colors, and if the people at the LYS are right, more colors are coming in shortly. I can’t wait to see them!
The yarn itself is quite nice, I started swatching with it already and it’s got a great hand and incredible stitch definition. I think this one’s going to be a quick favorite!
I took Thursday & Friday off last week so I could hang with my sister and dad who were in town . . . after they’d both left on Friday I took the opportunity to go back to my old store, String! I pretty much never get to go there because it’s in a neighborhood I’m almost never in, so it was nice to be able to make a dedicated trip to the East Side to catch up a bit and check out the new yarns. Of course I couldn’t leave empty-handed now, could I??
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That’s right, I do sometimes knit other things! Really!
I’ve been meaning to knit up my Cecil sock pattern in a solid color for, like, a year. I was even pretty sure that I wanted to use this grayish-blue color of Koigu for them, but somehow they never rose to the top of the to-do list. Now that my knitting mojo seems to be back in full force (finally!) and I’ve knit more over the last few weeks than I have in the previous few months, I thought it would be good to start a portable project to knit on my commute or in stolen moments waiting in lines. As I look through my Ravelry notebook, I see I haven’t finished a pair of socks since February . . . gotta change that, stat!
I cast on for this sock on Saturday morning and worked on it while catching up on my DVR. A few hours later I’d turned the heel! I sometimes forget how quickly sock knitting goes when you work on a sock for long stretches at a time! Usually my socks only get knit on the subway or in the line at the bank, so they seem to take forever to get done . . .
These probably won’t get done that quickly, though, because I already started something else and brought that project to work on during my commute today. I’m using this cheerful yarn:
Isn’t it so sunny and happy? I’m making a quick present for my sister with this gorgeous Artyarns Supermerino 6 in color 2278, and I need to have it done by next week when she’ll be on the East Coast for a quick visit . . . I’m already more than half-way done after just one day, so I should be able to meet my deadline!
by Ivete Tecedor on July 10, 2009
in Koigu, Yarn
Folks, I think my Koigu problem is only getting worse, not better. Here’s the batch I couldn’t say no to yesterday, and I’m almost 100% sure that one of these colors is already in my stash. And I thought of that before I bought it, and bought it anyway. They’re just so pretty!
I’m definitely making a shawlette for me out of the 410 (the purplish red color on the bottom left), maybe my next design will use this color. It’s a perfect blend for me, dark enough to not wash me out and colorful enough to not be boring to knit with! And as a bonus, it seems to photograph well, which is something I so struggle with when it comes to knitting designs in colors I want to wear. Seems like a winner all around! And yes, that’s the one I’m pretty sure I already own . . .
I’m going to a wedding in Vermont this weekend so that’ll be like 10 hours of car knitting roundtrip, most of it with daylight . . . gotta plan what I’m bringing to knit so I don’t end up bored and/or running out! That would be just awful.
As I’m sure you’ve all noticed, I tend to use handpainted yarns more often than not. Most of the time when you’re knitting a project that will use more than one ball of handpainted yarn, the look of your finished project can greatly benefit from alternating skeins. This is nothing new — I’m pretty sure you’re all familiar with the concept of working from 2 skeins at a time, working a couple of rows with one, then switching to the other and carrying the yarn up the side. Right?
Well, if you’ve done it even half as much as I have, you also know what a giant PITA it is to do it! The strands tangle, the edge can pucker (or just as bad, spread out!), and if you travel and knit like I do, carrying two balls is more than twice as annoying as carrying just the one. Which is where this simple-yet-awesome tip comes in, and it’s so amazing that I thought it deserved its own post!
See how drastically different the size of these two balls of yarn is? This is my laceweight Leila shawl (now finished, thankyouverymuch!), which is knit out of Malabrigo Laceweight. The two skeins were pretty close to begin with, but one definitely had slightly longer color patches than the other and I was sure I’d be able to see it in the finished product if I didn’t blend the two balls together. But I really didn’t want to have to carry both balls around, so I went with the compromise:
Start with just one ball and knit to about the half-way point of that ball (it doesn’t need to be exact, just eyeball it). Then join the second ball and do 2 rows from one, 2 rows from the other, until ball #1 is done. Then just continue on with ball #2!
The beauty of this simple trick is that it saves about 50% of the 2-ball knitting, but it blends the two colors so thoroughly that you can’t tell the difference! I wouldn’t use this “cheat” if the two skeins were drastically different (well, unless the visible blending effect would add to the finished project, which it totally could!), but if they’re pretty close this trick will save you tons of frustration and untangling.
I like this so much, I’m using it on my next project already . . . but more on that next time! I can tell you it’s Koigu, though . . .
by Ivete Tecedor on June 11, 2009
in Koigu, Yarn
I just stumbled across this Babette Blanket yarn pack from Yarnzilla and the above photo is so gorgeous, I am seriously considering ordering it! I’ve never bought anything from Yarnzilla before but I see they offer discounts based on price (the way WEBS does), so assuming you’d get the 25% discount, you could buy this pack for only $222.75! That’s a really great price, and just look at those colors! But I can’t tell from the website description whether the discount applies to yarn packs . . . although you would think it does, after all what’s the difference between ordering 22 skeins of koigu or ordering this yarn pack, right?
This is crazy, I do not need another 22 skeins of Koigu! Must. Resist.
They only have 2 kits in stock — can someone else please go buy them before I lose my mind?
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