Downton Abbey Mystery KAL

This project was from a knit-along (KAL) centered around the airing of Downton Abbey series 3.

The yarn:

Lion Brand Magic Stripes.  This is now a discontinued yarn, in case you're wondering.  The first sock yarn LB manufactured during my knitting career (i.e. since 2000).  It was sitting in my stash waiting for a project, and the yardage and gauge worked perfectly for this one.  The colorway is Regatta Blue Stripe, a medium blue (Wedgewood-ish) with repeating stripes of tan, light green, light blue, and white.  It's probably a bit stripey for this project, kinda overwhelming the rosebud lace on the sleeve, but that didn't bother me at all.  Standard sock yarn, superwash wool and nylon.  It was a little splitty to work with, but nothing unusual or too much of a pain.  And once it was washed and blocked, it softened up beautifully.

The pattern:

Jimmy Beans Wool hosted a mystery KAL, releasing a clue each week that series 3 was running.  It was all posted on the blog, with a new clue each week.  They are planning to release it as compiled pattern once the KAL is all done.

The pattern itself is a pair of long fingerless mitts, "Lady Violet's Dinner Gauntlets."  They are lacy fingerless gloves that extend up the arm almost to the elbow, so yes, the 'gauntlet' term is justified.  There are eyelets included for lacing, so they can be gathered and scrunched if you want to wear them shorter.

 

I liked the pattern.  The rosebud lace was a pretty easy lace pattern to read and remember.  The second glove went very quickly as a result - a little over a weekend, start to finish for the 2nd glove (maybe 4 days?).  The postings covered the first glove in clues 1-4 (clue 5 too, sorta, which covered the finishing and the lacing, which is I-cord in the original pattern).  So really, once you've finished the first glove, you can go ahead and reverse everything to mirror image and make the second without waiting for the rest of the clues.

 

I guess my biggest frustration was having it broken into clues in the first place!  Kinda silly, when I knew in advance that the pattern would be formatted like this.  But there you go - the whole Having To Wait thing!  Also, I like charts with my lace patterns (and cables, but no cabling in this project).  I know some find the charts hard to read, but with my backwards leftiness, charts are easier for me than written instructions.  Increases and decreases for me are reversed (mine lean left instead of right, or vice versa), so with charts I can simply "make it look like the picture."  With written instructions, I have to do a little more thinking to make sure I'm reversing everything properly.  I know that a chart wouldn't have really worked with a pattern released like this, giving away too much at once, but for personal preference, I would have liked it.  Maybe they'll add in charts when they release the pattern as a whole.  We'll see!

Raveled here.

Any changes or modifications?

• I made a smaller arm than the pattern called for.  The pattern as written yields a 7.75inch 'sleeve' to fit arms 9-9.5 inches around.  My arm is only about 8 inches, so the pattern would've definitely been too big for my tastes.  To yield a smaller project, I used US2 needles, instead of US3 (gave me 28st = 4inch).  I also only cast on 49 stitches.  Yes, this meant on I was on teeny little needles that I felt would snap at any moment.  But, it meant I had to consciously hold my hands loosely, and it gave me a snugger gauntlet sleeve, much more to my taste.
• I didn't make i-cord for the lacings.  I just don't like the look of that.  So, I used white ribbon, and laced my eyelets up decoratively with that instead.

Last thoughts:

I enjoyed this.  I can always use more fingerless mitts, when my workplace is so cold.  My hands are always freezing at my desk at work!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Wildcard

Just for fun!  I know it's way after the end of the knit-along, but as I am just about finished with this particular sweater (finally!) and it fit with the wildcard topic, I decided to use it as a jumping-off point.

Wildcard – Embellish the story

Embellishments come in all types and forms. Some are more than purely decorative and form a practical function – pretty buttons are as much part of holding a garment together as mere decoration, and some are just there to give a piece an extra ‘something’. Blog about an embellishment, be it a zipper, amigurumi eyes or applique patch which you are either saving to use or have in the past used to decorate a project with. Write about whether you are a very  minimalist kind of knitter with classic lines and timeless plain knits or whether you love all the bells and whistles or sticking sewing and otherwise attaching decoration to your pieces.

 For embellishments, I'm  rather simple.   Nicky Epstein inspires me, but at the same time can be so totally over-the-top bobble heavy that... I cringe, for lack of a better explanation of my reaction.

The embellishments that I do like are pretty classic.  I love clean lines in a sweater, with more subtle design elements than all-over color or bobbles or similar.  Within a piece (as opposed to added-on zippers or buttons or patches or whatever), I like trims at the cuffs or on facings on a cardigan; or accent elements like a well-placed cable or lace or intarsia panel.  Those are the reasons I like Nicky Epstein - her "edge" series of books is a great inspiration for edging ideas to give something more classic a more personal touch.  Norah Gaughan is a favorite designer for that reason - a lot of her designs are pretty classic pieces, but reinterpreted to give them something a little more.

For added-on embellishments, I like buttons.  Buttons can be such a tiny touch of personality to a piece, or a a show-stopping focal point.  Which is where I bring in the sweater I have almost finished:  Cumulus.  I know I started this one way back in November, and the knitting did just about all get done in the KniSweMoNo time frame, but I want to re-work the pockets in a lighter yarn (let's face it, my hips don't need any more bulk) and I also had to search for a good set of buttons for this piece.  So, a few little things preventing it from being a totally FO.  The buttons are proving quite a challenge - the color of the yarn is Pewter, but it's a soft grey color with blue and purple undertones.  In other words, an impossible color to match!  If I use a solid color, it gives the yarn a soft tinge in that color.  Black or purple buttons made it look much more purple than grey, and grey buttons just plain didn't match.  White didn't seem to work either, too stark a contrast, and I couldn't find metal buttons I liked in the right size.  Being a super bulky yarn, the pattern calls for enormous buttons!  So I needed to find 2 inch buttons that worked with a completely unusual color!  It was quite a challenge until I found a set of big enough shell buttons at the LYS in Apple Valley.  The shell buttons have so many subtle colors swirled together that they work beautifully with the crazy yarn.  Score!  Now I just need to figure out how to do those pockets, then attach the buttons, and this piece'll be all done!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 7

I made it!

 

Day seven: 3rd April. Your knitting and crochet time.

Write about your typical crafting time. When it is that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys. What items do you like to surround yourself with whilst you twirl your hook like a majorette’s baton or work those needles like a skilled set of samurai swords. Do you always have snacks to hand, or are you a strictly ‘no crumbs near my yarn!’ kind of knitter.

Tips: Last year we had a topic asking about the actual location of where you knit or craft, this is similar but not the same. Try and concentrate on all of the little aspects that make up your knitting time. Maybe you always head for for your Flaming Lips CD when taking on simple knitting but prefer a bit of Brahms when tackling more intricate work, or maybe you enjoy knitting with audiobooks or complete silence. Perhaps your crochet time is never complete without a cuddle from Tiddles the cat.

Knitting time for me falls in one of 3 places - at home, Knit Nights, and while traveling.  Each has their own subtle differences, of course, allowing for differences in location and company.  So I'll break them down here.

Wherever - the Essentials.  Not really the Environment, so much, but definitely a part of my Knitting Time:

• A tote bag of project and supplies.
• I have a large pouch of my accessories that travel along as well - stitch markers, tape measure, needle gauge, pencil, etc.

At Home:

• A movie going, or a TV show - almost always.  I'm slowly getting into audiobooks, but as I've mentioned before, I'm a visual person, so I zone in and out of my listening.  When I have an audiobook going, it's gotta be a story I know very well or a book I've read before.  That way there are no surprises when I focus away from the story and come back - "Wait, who is this character again?  What just happened?"  The more complicated the pattern I'm working on, the more familiar the story needs to be, so I can tune it out and count stitches without losing the plot.
• Nestled into the couch or easy chair, TV table at the ready for my supplies.  I like having a table at the ready to set cable needles and the pattern and similar essentials
• Defense measure take to protect my project from Scruffy.  He likes sitting in my lap during a project, but he also likes chewing on the yarn, the needles, the needle cable for circulars, the row counter, the stitch markers... anything dangling close to his nose as he occupies the lap - which is pretty much everything but the worked piece.  So, I have to be prepared!

At Knit Nights - usually at a friend's place or at Starbucks (closest we have to a cafe here):

• A drink of some sort.  At Starbucks, obviously something coffee or tea related (my favorites are the Mocha and Caramel Light Frappucinos when it's hot, and Vanilla Chai Lattes or Skinny Caramel Macchiato when it's cold).  At my friend's place, usually a White Russian.  She makes great ones!  No complicated patterns on White Russian Night, though ;)

On the Go - This is usually in the car or the airport.  I just don't take the bus or subway in the areas where I live (not available!)

• Just the tote bag of essentials.  If I'm knitting while traveling, Zach (or someone else, but usually him) is driving, so I just chatter instead of listening to something.

And such is my knitting!  Always need the project and accessories, obviously, but I rarely knit while it's quiet,  needing either chatter or a movie/audiobook going.  And I don't have qualms about food or drink near the knitting.  I do try to keep it neat, though - a mild "no crumbs" rule.  And depending on the project, it might be stricter.  I Do, for example, worked in white cotton, did have a pretty strict no food rule :)

And such is my Knitting Environment!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 6

Day six: 2nd April. Something to aspire to.

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make bu can admire the result of those that have.

Tips: If you think you have learned all you ever want to in your craft then say so. Maybe you have been knitting for nearly 30 years and yet never learned to purl (many my think this is impossible, but I met a woman on the bus who told me exactly this once… Maybe she was following the E. Zimmerman school of thought to closely?).

There are lots of techniques and skills that I wish to learn, but most I still consider on a To Do list, rather than an aspiration.  Things like Fair Isle and entre-lac I know that I'll be able to pick up with a little practice.  I understand the concept behind the effect and have played with them a little, but just haven't gotten to those specific projects that would give me a chance to practice and refine. But these things on my queue just don't have the awe-inspiring connotations of something that I aspire to.  However, there are those techniques and projects that do have that mind boggling effect.  For example...

Shetland Lace!!  Thousands of lacy little stitches blossoming into gauzy white patterns.  Maybe a wedding ring shawl - 6 ft square of lace so fine it can pass through a wedding ring...  I don't know what I would use such a piece for, but they are beautiful and delicate and impressive and I love them.  Definitely something to aspire too.  Maybe for my 50th wedding anniversary?  Only 46 1/2 years to get there - plenty of time! ;)

My biggest aspiration, though, would probably be speed and finishing skills.  Not things like seaming, but simply completion of projects.  I'm still very distractable and regularly subject to Cast-On-Itis, so I'd love to have the focus to just knock out projects.  There are just so many things I want to do on the needles,  not even just all for me, but also projects to teach and ones for gifts and for charity, so I want to have a little more focus and be able to get through my list more quickly.  Not a huge goal, and not one with a specific role model, just the idea of those folk that just settle in and can complete projects so simply :)  For that, though, I think I might just have to be a little more organized and dedicated, but that applies to a lot of aspects in my life right now... reading, work-outs, and yes, my knitting.

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 5

Blast it!  Creativity needed!

Day Five: 1st April. And now for something completely different

This is an experimental blogging day to try and push your creativity in blogging to the same level that you perhaps push your creativity in the items you create.  There are no rules of a topic to blog about (though some suggestions are given below) but this post should look at a different way to present content on your blog. This can take one of many forms, but here a few suggestions:

• Wordless, photographic post
• Video blog post
• Podcast
• Cartoon/sketch of an idea
• Write about a subject from a different perspective (for example, you could write about a day in the life of a knitted sock from the point of view of the sock).
• Interpretive modern dance (why does someone always suggest this?)
• A poem or piece of rhyming verse
• Stop motion animation

Tips: The actual subject matter of the post might be quite dependent on the media method(s) you choose to use and as such there is no specific ‘topic’ to blog on. You could blog about a recently completed project, a knitting experience, a trip to the LYS or anything else that takes your fancy. The point behind this post is to get people thinking about using their blogs in different ways and pushing he boundaries of what they use their blogging platform for.

PS: Yes, it is April Fool’s Day, so have fun with the post.

I decide to do haikus.  Because I can.  And I'm not creative enough for Modern Dance or techincally adept enough for animation or a video post :)

Yarn. Yarn, yarn, yarn, yarn.

Wool, cotton, alpaca, silk.

My stash, so much yarn.

Noro.  Pretty stripes.

Beautiful color repeats.

Why is this pink here??

Cables weave in, out.

Stitches knit out of order.

Pretty knitted knots.

Wedding band lace shawls,

So fine, through a ring they pass,

Beautiful madness.

One more new project.

Hello, my name is Lara,

a cast-on addict.

Misread patterns, or
Projects not quite as planned.
Off to the frog pond!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 4

Over half-way now!

 

Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now?

Whatever happened to your __________?

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

There are a lot of different aspects to look at when looking back at a knitting project and it can make for interesting blogging, as much of the time we blog about items recently completed, new and freshly completed. It is not so often that we look back at what has happened to these items after they have been around for a while.

How has one of your past knits lived up to wear. Maybe an item has become lost. Maybe you spent weeks knitting your giant-footed dad a pair of socks in bright pink and green stripes which he then ‘lost’. If you have knit items to donate to a good cause, you could reflect on the was in which you hope that item is still doing good for it’s owner or the cause it was made to support.

Tips: This topic is similar to one we used for the first Knitting and Crochet blog week. This is purposeful and is intended to help the blogger to reflect on past items and refer back to previous posts and projects once in a while.

I guess my favorite project-with-a-story would be Mom's blue sweater, the one I've made for her twice.

WHICH I STILL NEED A PICTURE OF YOU WEARING, MOTHER! HINT HINT! (End subtle reminder)

But as I just blogged about that in December for Z is for Zimmerman Sweater, I'm going to look at another project instead for this post.

I thought about I Do, the lace shrug that I made for my wedding 3 years ago.  I do still wear it occasionally, and it has lasted beautifully.  I still get compliments on it too!  But with the bell sleeves and overall laciness, it's not a frequently worn piece.  So, aside from the main one, it's not a project that has many stories attached.

So, I decided on my first sweater ever.  (It's Raveled here).  The pattern is appropriately named Our First Sweater.  It's by  Ann E. Smith and was first published in the premiere issue of Knit It!  I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn - "Mediterranean" colorway, if you're interested.  It's browns and soft greens and some terra cotta thrown in - a good fall time colorway.

Why chatter about this sweater now, almost 10 years later?

• It's the first garment I made.  I'd made hats before this sweater, but this was the first project I made where it required multiple pieces, seaming, some shaping, an actual idea of fit. Not that this is fitted, not by a long shot.  It's a big boxy, comfy sweater, no shaping in the body, little on the arms, and just a boat neck opening.  Very easy for a nervous knitter tackling her first sweater (like I was).  And no, I didn't up with the stereotypical one-arm-way-longer-than-the-other sort of dilemma.  It's actually a First Sweater that I'll wear out in public!
• I still wear it.  It's a little baggier than it was when I first made it, but it's still a very cozy sweater for chilly days.  It has lasted very well, actually - a plus to being out of an acrylic yarn.  A little sticky-warm on some days, the flip side of being, but it's perfectly cozy.  It's kinda my go-to Snuggle Sweater, really.
• It's the first project I made where I realized I knit oddly.  The sweater is a stockinette body with garter stitch edges at the cuffs and neck line.  As I was starting it, I realized that I was creating a piece that was the reverse of the picture - stockinette border and garter stitch body.  Upon which, I did a little research and learned that other knitters turn their work, something I still don't do probably 90% of the time.  The projects that I'd made up to this point had been ribbed - K the Ks, P the Ps.  It didn't matter what the wrong and right sides of the fabric were.  With this one, by not turning my work, the "knit every row" garter stitch became my stockinette, and vice versa.  It was a great lesson in learning to read my work :)

And how's it doing after 10 years?  Still alive and kickin'!

It's a little more stretched out after a lot of winters now (you can see how boxy it is below) but since it was never fitted to begin with, that's not too much of an issue.  The biggest thing is that it's a little pilled now.  That's the flip side to using soft and snuggly yarn that's lightly spun like Homespun is. The same thing happened to a scarf I made with Homespun - the areas where it gets the most wear develop little pill of fiber rubbing away with the friction.  So, every so often I take the sweater stone to the bottoms of the arms and along the sides, the areas that get rubbed the most.  And after almost 10 years, still able to wear my first sweater!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 3

Rollin' right along!  Though typing would be easier if the cat wasn't sitting on my arm...

Day Three: 30th March. Tidy mind, tidy stitches.

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Tips: Many people use their blogs partly as an organisational tool – logging and cataloguing projects and newly attained skills, projects and modifications. Did you bear this in mind when you began blogging?

So I have to talk about the size of my stash and how it's organized?  Wow, that's a skeletons in the closet sort of post!  Or tubs of yarn, as the case may be...  And no, I'm not brave enough to photograph it all, but I will discuss it.  :)

Well, my name is Lara and I am a yarn addict.  First step, right?  I will admit that I have a large stash (but what long-term knitter doesn't?).  Part of it is inherited from others downsizing their stash into mine, and part of it is what I've accumulated myself.  Either way, it's enough that it took some thought for organizing.  Needless to say... yeah, I'm on a yarn diet...

I would love to have a craft room with a set of shelves for my knitting books and shelves for some of my yarn - the projects that are next on the queue, pretty skeins that I haven't decided a project for yet, ones that I can grab for quick'n'easy charity projects...  I'd love to arrange them neatly by project, or weight, or color.  I'd love to have them out on display, useful decorations in my own little knitting realm.

In reality...

Yeah...

Well, really it's not quite that bad, but I definitely don't have space in our apartment for a Craft Room totally  set up on my own.  Right now I kinda have 'my room' which is the library/craft room, and where Joey's pen used to be - almost there but not quite.  It's one of the things I'm hoping for when we move this summer! 

I do have my yarn sorted pretty well, though, all things considered. I depend a lot on Rubbermaid tubs :)  There's one for sock yarns (just a small one), and one for acrylics (the charity yarn tub), and two for total projects (complete with copies of the pattern, if I've made them already), and one of odds'n'ends.  I've used Ravelry to help inventory my stash, with reminders which tubs things are in, which projects different yarns will be used for, that sort of thing.  Makes it easy to "shop from home" too - browse my stash to get that yarn store experience. 

Once a project is begun, it's moved to a tote bag.  Makes things easy for Knit Night transportation, as well as keeping project, pattern, and notions all together and free from meddling kitten toes.  It was a hard day when I realized that I'm turning into my mother, organized by tote bags...

I honestly didn't start blogging with yarn or project organization in mind.  Really, I wanted a place to chatter about things that drive my husband up the wall if I talk about them too much, and I wanted a way to keep in touch with friends and family on what we're doing as Zach and I move about.  So, that's what you see here - chatter about knitting, beading, books, movies, running, travel... all the things that I try and stay busy with to help keep myself sane!

As I've gotten into the blogging, though, I've tried to make my posts (well, my knitting posts at any rate) somewhat helpful.  I depend on Ravelry a lot for information about yarns, projects, pattern alterations, that sort of thing.  It always frustrates me when I see project entries on Ravelry that are in my size, with the perfect alterations... and no information on needle size or yardage used or other similarly useful information.  I know not everyone uses their Ravelry pages the same, so I'm not mad, but I don't want to give others the same frustration.  I wanted my Ravelry gallery and my blog posts to be helpful, if there are other folk like me looking for information.  Not that I'm a wealth of information, but I do try to share what I know or have learned.  I try to post lots of pictures of my projects, to see stages of a piece as well as the final project.  I try to give feedback on the pattern too: was it clearly written and easy to follow; did I make any alterations; were there any particularly challenging steps; did I learn something new in the process.  And any links that I found that were useful - both for my own future use, as well as anyone else trying to find the same sort of information.

So, I guess that's my knitting organization, from stash to final posts.  Yarn tubs to tote bags, with lots of pictures in between.  And maybe, that gloriously organized Craft Room waiting ahead in the future :)

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 2

Day 2, here we go!

Day Two: 29th March. Skill + 1UP

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Tips: Don’t be abashed at admitting your own skill and progress. If possible, include pictures of projects that you gained new skills from.

Ok, I just have to state now that I read that prompt title in the Popcap games voice, slightly high and sing-songy, "Level UP."  Signs that you play too many silly computer games, I suppose...

Anyhoo, embarrassing dorkiness aside... I learned a lot last year, mostly because I was able to make it up to Stitches West last spring and take a week's worth of classes!  Some of the things I learned at Stitches I haven't been able to put into practice yet, like steeking, but I still count it as a lesson learned.

So, lessons learned...  For starters, like I mentioned, the steeking.   I haven't dared a whole project with steeking yet, but this was an accomplishment for me just to take the class.  There's something count-intuitive about knitting something (and for steeking, it's usually something detailed too) and then taking scissors to it.  I know in the class I saw that my knitting did hold together after being cut, but I'm still not ready to try a whole project.  Maybe I'll take another class on it, at a LYS or something, and brave it from there...

I also got to take a class on colorwork, where I learned how to Fair Isle and improve my intarsia.  I also played with mitered squares in the class.  All sorts of ways to play with colors!  I haven't had a chance to use these techniques yet, but there are projects coming up on my queue which will use them.  "Patience!," I have to tell myself.  I came back from Stitches having to fight the urge to cast on everything all at once! 

I also had 2 crochet classes at Stitches, HUGE steps for me.  I've always been one of those people who became useless with yarn once 'you took away one of my needles.'  This I've been able to actually put into use in a project, too, as the hat I made for a friend has a crocheted edging and ties.

   

I also tried my first provisional cast on last year.  I had grafted before, several times actually, but had never used a provisional cast-on.  This little headband was a perfect place to practice it - only 6 stitches!

 

Not related to Stitches (other than having roomed with a sock-knitting addict!) is that I gave sock knitting another try, this time toe-up.  Yup, she finally got me to brave socks ;)  I have yet to finish the second sock, as I'm knitting it tighter than the first, so I might frog it and re-do it, so as they match.  Still on the fence, though, as frogging often seems to take a great mental effort ("all that work, just gone!").  We shall see...

 

Also only-sorta related to Stitches were the efforts in dying last year.  Sarah bought her dye kit at Stitches, and we were certainly inspired by all the pretty hand-dyed yarns we saw there!  The yarns below are the one I Kool-Aid dyed, when we were playing to first try dying.  The other 3 are the ones I did with Sarah's dye kit.  You can read more of our adventures with color here and here.  Not really knitting, but definitely fiber related learning!

 

 

Learning to make some of my own knitting accessories was an accomplishment too.  I have pretty stitch markers now!  And yes, learning to bead was a gateway craft into making jewelry for myself, but that's the risk you take.  Again, not knitting learning, but certainly knitting related.  A lot of my notes on stitch markers are here, here, here, and here.  I've just posted pictures of some of my favorites :)

         

So, yes, lots of new adventures last  year!  But that's honestly how I like to craft.  I don't like staying "safe" with my knitting.  I like comfort projects, nice and mindless when you need a break from things, but I like challenging myself too.  I remember that the first few years I was knitting, I would try and choose projects that made me do something new in each - a new stitch pattern, a new garment, a new technique.  Whatever it was, I wanted to learn something in each project.  That mindset still kinda carries over now.  I mean, I could stay with garter stitch scarves for years until I think I'm "ready" for something bigger, but wouldn't that get boring?  And you can always do more than you think you can.  Sometimes you learn that you're not quite ready for something, but you still learn something from the project, right?  And sometimes something that you didn't think you could do, turns into one of those projects that was exactly what you were picturing.  Worth the risk, right?  I just wish I could be that brave in the rest of my life :)

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 1

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...

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!

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!

An interesting Blog-along

Look at this! EskimimiKnits kinda spearheaded this last year and brought it back for this one.  Neat little concept for knitting (or crocheting) bloggers.  Each day of the week has a prompt to work with, plus one wild card topic, in case you have a day that just doesn't work for you.  She's got it all explained on her site.  I think this'll be a good idea for me, brainstorm some new ideas for my chatter and all.  And if you like the prompts, feel free to join too!