Okay, now I’m bored. See how I entertain myself? Fun, though. You should try it – yelling and striking karate poses while your camera timer snaps shots is lots of fun, although it yields surprisingly few useable pictures. I finished my ribbed raglan bolero today (I don’t know what to start now – hence the boredom). Observe the front –
…the back –
Cute, yes? And perfect for this time of year, when one might begin to consider wearing a second (short-sleeved) layer outside (ah, but in the evening. We don’t want heatstroke…) For the first time, I find myself wondering if I should have swatched. What will happen to this particular yarn and pattern stitch when I wash it? Will it shrink? Will it grow? Will it care? I’m not terribly concerned about this sweater, but – let’s just say that suddenly, for no apparent reason, I’ve realized how much time, mony, energy and effort could be wasted without a swatch.
The package was crumpled. The package was late (it had weird redirect sorting stickers on it – I think it got temporarily lost). But now it is here, and the yarn is fine. So all is well! Here we have my recent Knitpicks ‘sample’ order. I placed it over two weeks ago during the summer yarn sale. I’ve been meaning to test-drive some of their yarns, and since they were reduced, I decided to give this particular set of yarns a try.
Here are closeups and some first impressions of these fiiine fibers (sorry about the dark and vaguely blurry pics). First, Spinnaker (100% Pima Cotton)!
I drastically changed my opinion about this yarn once I got my hands on it (the only real surprise in the package). I have to admit, I thought it was an ugly yarn. I mean really – look at this. Or this. Please don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing the matter with the designs. I just feel that the texture of the yarn is ill-suited to these garments. Or perhaps, any garments. However, I laid my eyes on a skein of it and realized that this is an oddly attractive, tactiley appealing yarn. The cotton is very soft, and the bumpiness is pleasing (when it’s not being strangled into a sweater), both to the eyes and the touch. I’m not sure what it wants to be – I’ll have to play with it – but I think…I like it.
Oh, and I’ve heard people say it’s ridiculously expensive for a KP yarn (I thought it myself), but perhaps they didn’t realize that one skein is 200 grams. Most other yarns from Knitpicks are sold in 50 gram skeins. The price (per 50 grams) is comparable to other yarns that they carry. Moving on, though!
75% Pima Cotton, 25% Merino Wool, it has a lovely twist to it. Unlike the shiny-ness and smoothness of the Shine, it’s just a wee bit fuzzy. You can’t really see it, but you can feel it on the strand. And, while it isn’t shiny, it does have a lovely sheen. I can’t wait to get my hands in this stuff. I may actually start stashing this yarn just to have it, something I have never actually done. Knitpicks, you are daaangerous.
This is also a lovely yarn, 60% Pima Cotton, 40% Modal. Smooth, shiny, very soft. I like! I’m sooo pleased with the pliability of the yarn. I don’t have a clue what Modal is, I don’t know why Pima Cotton is special, but it doesn’t compare in the slightest with the cotton yarns I’m familiar with (Peaches & Creme, Sugar’n Cream, etc). I like it, it’s awesome, I could totally see using this yarn for a garment. The sport is eminently suitable for baby items, and unfortunately I can see myself dropping quite a bit of the yarn budget in that department, as well.
Once I get these worked up I’ll post further reviews on them, but I’ve got quite a few things up in the air that (sadly) push these yarns down the list of crafting priorities.
