So, here we go! A full week dedicated to yarny, bloggy goodness.
Here's the first prompt:
Day One: 28th March. A Tale of Two Yarns.
Part of any fiber enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. 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.
Tips: It is a good idea, if possible, to choose a yarn that you adore and a yarn that just didn’t work for you. You do not need to be critical of any yarn if you do not feel comfortable in doing so, but perhaps you came to realise that one yarn wasn’t suitable for a particular project, if possible you could blog about what you have come to learn about choosing the right yarn, or your love of experimenting with fibres.
I like the idea of the love-hate yarn dichotomy, so that's what I'm going with! For me though, I'm gonna go with yarns that I both love AND hate! And yes, there are more than these two, but here are the ones I'll chatter about. :)
First up: Fun Fur.
Not just the Lion Brand stuff either - the whole fake-fur-type yarn.
When I started knitting seriously (almost 11 years ago now!), the super-popular project, particularly for new knitters, was the Fun Fur scarf. You know the one - cast on 15 stitches (or however many), knit in garter stitch til you're almost out of yarn, then bind off. These scarves were omnipresent 10 years ago. Everyone who knew how to make a stitch had made one or two or three dozen of these things.
I hated them.
Yes, these shaggy scarves hide a lot of beginner mistakes, and there's nothing fancy about then, so pattern to remember or anything, so in that respect they might be good for beginners. But all things considered, they are reeeeally hard to learn on. I would NEVER start someone I was teach on a yarn like that. How can you learn how to read your stitches (or even what the stitches LOOK like) if you can't see the under all the fluffiness? Even as a more experienced knitter, it was obnoxious to try and see where my stitches were!
Why do I like this yarn too? Well, they do make quick'n'easy scarves, like I said. More importantly, the colors available are great. I did use one to make a border to a scarf (not a whole scarf) and trim a matching hat. I just loved the colors so much, I couldn't pass it up. That's really what I like about them - the colors. They make great trim, or a carry-along yarn, but the best part is, because they were so popular, these yarns were made in every color and colorway under the sun!
Along the same lines, Fancy Fur (now discontinued) really gets me, as that particular yarn has the greatest color combinations, like stained glass with the black and bright colors, but with all the different textures all at once, I hate how it knits up! So disappointing, such wasted potential...
Yes, these shaggy scarves hide a lot of beginner mistakes, and there's nothing fancy about then, so pattern to remember or anything, so in that respect they might be good for beginners. But all things considered, they are reeeeally hard to learn on. I would NEVER start someone I was teach on a yarn like that. How can you learn how to read your stitches (or even what the stitches LOOK like) if you can't see the under all the fluffiness? Even as a more experienced knitter, it was obnoxious to try and see where my stitches were!
Why do I like this yarn too? Well, they do make quick'n'easy scarves, like I said. More importantly, the colors available are great. I did use one to make a border to a scarf (not a whole scarf) and trim a matching hat. I just loved the colors so much, I couldn't pass it up. That's really what I like about them - the colors. They make great trim, or a carry-along yarn, but the best part is, because they were so popular, these yarns were made in every color and colorway under the sun!
Along the same lines, Fancy Fur (now discontinued) really gets me, as that particular yarn has the greatest color combinations, like stained glass with the black and bright colors, but with all the different textures all at once, I hate how it knits up! So disappointing, such wasted potential...
Next on the list: the whole Noro line.
Noro is famous for its colors; that's the whole marketing push for the brand. Some people are die-hard (dye-hard, ha ha!) devotees of the Noro colors. Personally, there are colorways that I absolutely love from the company. And there are colorways that I absolutely hate.
The Noro pictures I have are from colorways that I like. The ones right below are from my Gaia shawl. In this case, the yarn was a beautiful colorway, and I loved every shade that appeared in it. They all worked. That's not the case in all Noro yarns. You can have a skein in olives and tans and browns and then a bubblegum pink stripe appears!
The Noro pictures I have are from colorways that I like. The ones right below are from my Gaia shawl. In this case, the yarn was a beautiful colorway, and I loved every shade that appeared in it. They all worked. That's not the case in all Noro yarns. You can have a skein in olives and tans and browns and then a bubblegum pink stripe appears!
My Calorimetry head band was done with one skein of yarn (Noro Kureyon, to be exact) and you can kinda see what it is I'm talking about with the random colors. The bright blue lined up nicely on this to Pop as the central stripe in the headband, but if that had been a very bright color that didn't look as nice...?
A final downside (frustration?) for Noro yarns is how scratchy and uneven the wools can be. I know some people like the texture, but as dry as my hands are, the scratchier a wool is, the more frustrating it can be to work with. I'm currently working on a shawl in Noro Matsuri, a cotton/wool chainette yarn which is lovely to work with. But, at the same time, Noro Kureyon can be pretty scratchy. And the thick-thin texture just comes with the single-ply thing, hard to avoid, really, with that sort of yarn. So, can't be avoided, just another note to the yarn, I suppose.
So I guess with each of the yarns I've chosen today, it's all about color. The reason I like them is the color, and sometimes the reason I don't as well. Texture comes into play, too, but for me to feel really so divided on a yarn, the color seems to be a pretty big factor!
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