2kcbwday1: Knitting Blog Week 1 – A Tale of Two Yarns

I decided I would participate in Knitting Blog Week, so this is my first post for the week.

Today’s topic: two yarns I feel strongly about.

Classic Elite Yarns: Desert

I bought 6 skeins of this yarn because it was available online at quite a discount. I also bought it when I had very little experience with yarns, and I bought the skeins based on the deep colours that excited me (in this case, Cranberry and Jungle Green). I had written in my notebook that I was to make a certain pattern with these skeins (I think – I can’t find that particular note anymore. Hmph).

However, when I cast-on with this yarn around Christmas time, I quickly realized that:

• The yarn is all lumpy, meaning edges knit with it will never be smooth. This is a Very Big Deal for an obsessive like me.
• The colours aren’t exactly what I was hoping for. While I’m drawn to the Cranberry, it’s a little too intense, and I find the Jungle Green is just a bit too dark.
• The yarn is made of 100% wool, which I’ve discovered in the past year is actually kind of a problem for me, as I seem to be allergic to wool. This means my eyes go puffy and my fingers turn a bit red when I’m knitting with this yarn. I can’t imagine happily wearing any garment made of this stuff.
• I found I had to pull and yank on it when knitting with it – which caused considerable discomfort.
• All of this sums up to – I just don’t like the yarn.

I had another look through Ravelry for suggested patterns for this particular yarn, and I didn’t see a single one I’d be happy to knit up. So, I decided to relegate Desert to a blanket to put on top of my yoga ball chair, because it makes my bum sweat. At least this way, it’ll only sweat into the blanket. And it’s a way to avoid having the yarn touch my skin at any time as well (apart from the knitting of it). I wouldn’t burden anyone with a gift knit of this stuff! Though another possibility is to unload it on my mum, as she seemed quite happy with other yarns I’ve quite disliked and passed along…

Tess’s Designer Yarns: Microfiber Ribbon

(It irks my Canadianness and Grammar-Naziism to write microfibER and not microfibRE, but that’s the name of the yarn, and so it must be.)

When I attended VKLive in NYC in January with my mum, I discovered the Tess’s Designer Yarns booth on the trade show floor and could barely tear myself away. While I loved all of the available colourways of the yarns they had on display, I absolutely fell in love with the dark purple / turquoise shiny look of the microfibre ribbon. I found it on Saturday… I fantasized and dreamt about it all Saturday night, and by Sunday I knew I had to return to the booth and throw down the $25 for a skein of it.

That’s rather lofty for a beginner knitter, who had a mountain of debt at the time, and who wasn’t sure just what to do with it (the samples at the show were okay but seemed very granny-like in style). But, just owning the yarn inspired me and by the time Sunday’s classes had wrapped up, I’d designed a gorgeous bikini for it (taking into consideration its heavy drape, and all!) – with absolutely no knowledge of knit pattern-making whatsoever.

So… once I learn how to create knitting patterns, I’ll have to find a similar ribbony type yarn to make a test out of it, before I commit to using this skein. Then I can save it for the final product and be happy with the result, and not have to spend $100s on more skeins of it in the hunt to get the bikini just right! (She says to herself, knowing that’s going to happen anyway…)

And that concludes the first post of my Knitting Blog Week! Cheers!

(PS: if you have any suggestions for what I could make out of 3 skeins of dark green and 3 skeins of deep red Desert, I’ll gladly consider them. Keep in mind: I’d have to keep the two colours separate, as these particular shades of green and red combine to make a jarring, horrid colour combination in my eyes.)

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