Friday, February 23, 2007

Rococo A Go Go



Rococo
Diakeito by Dancing Fibers
Fiber: 100% Wool
Gauge: 18-20 sts, 26-28 rws = 4" x 4"
Needle size: US 9
Yardage: 165 yards, 50g
My Color: 104
My Source: The Knit Stop, Indianapolis, IN
Retail Price: 16.00

This is a really nice yarn, much softer than it appears to be in the skein. It did become thinner in spots, but not extremely so. It is a single ply, woolen spun yarn, and would be great for felted projects, as well as reglar knitting. Of course, the striping would turn out much differently in a full-sized garment than it did in this meandering scarf done with short rows.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Multicolor Indeed



60% Mohair, 40% Acrylic
Gauge: US 5-7/4.75 mm
50g / 195 yds
My source: The Knit Stop, Indianapolis, IN
Retail Price: $12.65


This is a beautiful mohair yarn, which is very aptly named. The colors are stunning, and it never fails that someone stops and asks me to see it, even if it is laying in my bag and I'm working on something else. It is that eye-catching. The stitches are even and beautiful, and it feels good to the hand to work with.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Simply Irresistible





Simply Heaven
Color: Hot Pink
100% Spun Silk
From their website: "Our same luxurious Spun silk double ply."
Gauge: 4 stitches = 1
Recommended Needle Size: #8
Approx. yardage = 120yds
Approx. Weight = 100 grams
My source: Knit Stop, Indianapolis, IN
Retail Price: $28.00


They definitely got the name right. This stuff is simply Heaven to knit with. It is a nice, soft silk with a beautiful sheen, and ever so subtle color changes. There will be lots more of this in my future! (This is the Tilli Thomas Evening Bag, where you pick up stitches through grommets of an already finished silk bag lining, and knit the outside of the bag from there down. A quick, simple, beautiful project.)

Friday, February 16, 2007

Awesome Aussi Wool






Oasis Yarn Co.
100% Australian Wool
128 yards, 100 gr skeins
3.5 - 4sts/in on US 9 needle
Color: W03 - Rose Bay
Retail price: $6.00
My source: The Knit Stop, Indianapolis, IN


Thank you, sir, may I have another? I have fallen in love. This yarn is TDF. It is so soft to the touch, yet very nicely firm for these beautiful cables (which come from Nashua Handknits lovely book called Relax, which is what I do when I'm making this sweater-to-be). Don't the cables just pop? This is a new favorite yarn for me.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Dia Who?

Today, I bring you:

Diacosta
Diakeito Yarns by Dancing Fibers
43% acrylic / 47% rayon
148 yds per 40gm ball
5.5 sts per inch
Retail Price: $16.00
My source: Knit Stop, Indianapolis, IN

I didn't love it. It really needs to be a shawl or some other large needle lacy project, which is not what I was doing with a swatch. The stockinette stitch was pretty and had a nice sheen. When I added a few yarnovers, it was nice, but nothing to write home about. Even though I did garter stitch on the bottom, sides, and top, the swatch still rolled. When I was finished, I realized I could not block the swatch, because the yarn is acrylic and viscose. Still, I've seen it in a shawl, and it was very pretty.

I then tried a modular square, with equally fair results. This particular colorway was just a solid color yarn with another solid color thread wrapped around it. However, Diacosta does come in more varied colorways, which would probably be very pretty done modularly, too. The surrounding thread color stays the same, while the inner yarn color changes gradually.

Terra Firma

Here is an unblocked swatch of Terra by the Fibre Company in the Lichens colorway.
The yarn is 60% Merino, 20% Baby Alpaca, & 20% Silk.
100 yards per 50 grams
Gauge: 15 sts/4 inches
My source: Knit Stop, Indianapolis, IN
Retail Price: $16.80

The pattern is Harris Tweed from Barbara Walker's 1st Treasury of Knitting patterns. The yarn has little flecks of what appears to be the silk portion of the fibers, which have absorbed the dye in richer tones than the other two, and this makes it very lovely and nicely varied. The differences in colors give the yarn a nice depth, and the silk and merino give the alpaca some body. That said, it is certainly not as soft as a 100% alpaca yarn, but it is still quite nice. The added body might make it nicer for some sweaters than would a limper full alpaca yarn.

Now here is the blocked swatch. It's nice and soft with good drape. I think it would be really pretty in a modular project as well, to take advantage of the beautiful color variations.



Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Can it Be any Sweeter?


While I'm on the Be Sweet kick, here's another one for you. This one is their Brushed Mohair
Be Sweet Yarn Company
From their website: "Regular weight brushed baby mohair. 50g ball is 120 yards. 3 stitches / inch on US 11 needles. Available in over 60 solid and 14 hand painted colors."
My source: KnitStop, Indianapolis, IN
Price: $15.95

I used the Bright Red colorway. Well, it wasn't my idea actually. I fell in love with a beautiful scarf/stole that my friend, Katie, was making with this yarn, and everytime I went to the shop, I coveted it. When it came on sale, I swooped in for the kill. I bought 3 balls, but only needed two for Be Sweet's own Capelette pattern. I haven't scrunched the ends together and put a flower on it yet, but I will, since tomorrow is Valentine's Day.

This yarn is SO yummy, it's like red cotton candy without all the calories. I swear to you I was tempted to eat it. It is that nice. I LOVED working with it. It's as soft as can be and the color is so completely saturated that is truly a joy to behold. That said, it did add a little bit of color to my wooden needles, so it probably needs a good rinsing and swish of vinegar to make sure it's good and set before wearing with white. But vinegar with cotton candy? It just doesn't seem right.



Monday, February 12, 2007

SWATCH IT!

You know you've been there. You're standing in your LYS fondling a skein of the latest must-have yarn, when the uncertainty strikes you. You think to yourself, "Sure, it's beautiful sitting here in the hank/ball/skein, but what will it look like knitted up?" Well, at last there's a source for you to see for yourself just what that yarn might look like in an actual garment, as well as hear my comments on what it's like to work with the yarn. Just as you can't judge a book by its cover, you can't always judge a sweater by its hank. Now I'll take the plunge for you, and boldly go where someone has undoubtedly gone before, but just hasn't posted about it.

If there's a particular yarn you'd like to see, leave me a comment or send me an e-mail, and I'll do my best to get it done for you.

For my first forray into the swatching world, I bring you:

African Bead Ball
Be Sweet Yarn Company
From their website, I quote: "Boucle baby mohair with African beads hand tied throughout. Spun with a thin metallic strand. 50g ball is 120 yards. 3 stitches / inch on US 11 needles. available in 17 colors."
Retail price: $33.60
My source: The Knit Stop, Indianapolis, IN

I won't always include company information, but I felt this yarn deserved it. Many of you may not have even heard of Be Sweet yet, and their mission is so lovely that I thought you might appreciate knowing. I quote from the yarn label:

"This yarn was hand spun and dyed by women in South Africa under a job creation program that has offered opportunity in an economically depressed rural region with a 75% unemployment rate and little opportunity aside from hard labor in pineapple fields...Enjoy this beautiful product knowing that you have brought hope into a South African community and that a portion of your purchase is helping support the local school."


They don't say this, of course, but knowing this might also make the pricepoint a little easier to take. After all, you're not just knitting yourself something beautiful, you're creating jobs and supporting a school! Now that's the kind of yarn justification I like!



This yarn begged to be something more than a swatch, and when I thought about it, I decided it would make a great looking necklace. So after searching for a pattern, I happened upon this one for the Knecklace on Knitty.com. With this yarn in the dark blue plum colorway, I only needed to cast on about 128 stitches. The Knecklace required only 20 grams of fiber, so you could make a matching bracelet if you wanted, as there would be plenty of yarn left.


I was pleasantly surprised to find that my size 5 needles didn't get caught in the boucle loops nearly as much as they had with other boucles. It was great having the beads already strung on and ready to roll, though I must say, for this particular colorway, I would have preferred some more matching colored beads, rather than these crayola crayon colored ones. The trade-off of not having to string the myself beads made it worth it, and the Be Sweet website shows some other colorways with much prettier beads. The beads moved nicely out of the way when I was knitting, and really caused me no trouble at all. The mohair itself is nice and soft, and the only less-than-lovely feeling I had at all was an occasional drag on my very dry hands by the little metallic thread. But even that wasn't too bad.


The yarn did show a little more fuzziness when I pulled out the dropped stitches required by the pattern, but it's mohair, so this is to be expected. The fuzz blurred the effect a little, but I think it's still a pretty little necklace. Judge for yourself: