1.08.2006

 

Some of My Favorite Yarns

Stats:

Yarn name: Merino Kind
Weight: DK
Manufacture: Ornaghi Filati
Size: Bulky: 137 yds/50 gm (1 oz) ball
Fibers: 100% wool
MSRP: $9.00 per ball

This is a very luscious, yet crisp, crepe textured merino that takes color vibrantly and is so, soo soft. It has just the right amount of stretch to spring. It is more expensive than I would pick for a whole sweater, but there are others not on such a tight budget, so I can tell you that the stitch definition such a yarn produces would be wonderful for a spring lace sweater or a cabled, snug-fitting vintage cardigan. The link for color samples of this yarn offers a better price when buying a whole bag, if you decide to make a sweater.


Stats:

Yarn name: Chinchilla
Weight: Heavy worsted
Manufacture: Berroco
Size: Worsted: 77 yds/50 gm (1.75 oz) ball
Fibers: 100% rayon
MSRP: $7.00 per skein

First of all, even though this is the second Berroco Product Review in a row, I am not getting a cut from them. Actually, since I have collected vintage knitting pattern books over the years, I am well aware that Berroco is one of the U.S.'s oldest fashion yarn firms, and Vintage Knits is a great place to see some of those old patterns, as well as to get the yardage equivalents for the Berroco yarns no longer in existence.

That said, this yarn first caught my attention in the Patternworks catalog a few years back, as they would send you a free Chemocare cap pattern with every order, if you requested it. What a great idea! When I met Chinchilla in person, I could understand why it would be a favored choice for these caps, as it is so very gentle.

This yarn is entirely rayon, which means it is a natural fiber, along with wool, cotton and silk. Of course, there is more processing involved in making cellulose from rayon than handspinning some wool in the grease, but there certainly is a special place for this yarn, particularly for those with allergies to wool, or skin sensitivities such as those undergoing chemotherapy and losing their hair. Although it is classified as a heavy worsted weight yarn, it will not be a very stiff sweater or scarf, because of the crushability of the chenille, and it is not overly "furry" like some of the eyelash types.

This is a little keyhole scarf I made last year from Chinchilla, very soothing and non-irritating around the neck.



Stats:

Yarn name: Bling Bling
Weight: Worsted
Manufacture: Berroco
Size: Worsted: 92 yds/50 gm (1.75 oz) ball
Fibers: 60% cotton, 38% acrylic, 2% metallic
MSRP: $15.00 per skein

This yarn is a little pricey, but adds a lot of glitz when used for accessories. The aluminum looks like bright sequins, without the trouble of knitting them in! The yarn is classified as a worsted, and knits up to a worsted gauge, but feels a little looser, a little limp, without the same body of a worsted wool. However, that would make it very drapey if you decided to splurge on enough yarn for a metallic tank top, for example. I know I won't, being the jeans type, but it did make a great little cap for my DD:




As you can see, she chose black, with silver sparkles. This yarn comes in a narrower color range, and my personal favorite was cream with gold sparkles, but this is a close second, and would make a very glamorous top or wrap. A wrap would benefit from larger needles and a tank top or tiny sweater from a denser gauge.


Stats:

Yarn name: Cestari
Weight: DK
Manufacture: Chester Farms
Size: Worsted: 290 yds/4 oz per skein
Bulky: 125 yds/4 oz skein
Fibers: 75% cotton; 25 % wool
MSRP: $7.99 per skein

I have hesitated to review a yarn that you, dear reader, might not ever be able to find, not wanting to discourage a fellow knitter. However, I stumbled across the one skein of this yarn I purchased at Black Sheep Gathering last summer, fully intending to use it to make a little purse, just as I was finishing up my lacy scarf, and decided that the color and texture would be wonderful to show off in another version of the Fiber Trends pattern (actually, these scarves are more like little, drapey shawlettes than scarves, and hug the neck wonderfully this time of year).

This is the tip of my triple eyelet garter stitch scarf in Cestari.


Cestari is a DK weight yarn that combines the best qualities of both wool and cotton. There is the crisp texture of cotton married to the warmth of wool, and the "scrunch in and snuggle" factor of cotton, enhanced by the way that wool takes the heathered dye. All of the colors in this line are very soft, almost faded away, and have names such as burgundy heather (shown above), mint, lilac heather, and raspberry.

The yarn is made by Chester Farms, a family operation (Cestari is the ancestral version of their family name) which also offers sheepskin items and animal toys through their website. It is important to connect with the producers of all of the items we choose to consume, and I was very pleased with how much their website told of the family farm heritage involved in producing this yarn. Chester Farm also offers several other unique combinations, including a yak/cestari wool blend, and a mohair/cotton/cestari wool blend. You can even purchase lamb from them. They are located in Churchville, Virginia, and their yarns are available in 137 yarn shops across the country, so they may not be as hard to track down these days as in the pre-Internet knitting vacuum. I will be keeping them in mind when planning one of my next sweaters!


Stats:

Yarn name: Cascade 220
Weight: worsted
Manufacture:Cascade 220
Size: Worsted: 220 yds/100 gm skein
Bulky: 125 yds/4 oz skein
Fibers: 100 % wool
MSRP: $6.60 per skein

I have already featured Lambs Pride as one of my favorite yarns to make an item to felt, but I have to say that Cascade 220 is the nicest one to knit with for the pre-felting process. It has the softest hand sliding through the fingers, doubled as I usually do to produce a thickly felted fabric post-washing, and comes in heathered colors, which also makes it extra-special. The felted fabric produced is crisper than that with the added mohair content, so a lot depends on the final effect you desire. This is also a workhorse of a worsted, and would be especially nice for childrens' sweaters, as it isn't as "scratchy" as some of the other wool choices while every bit as warming.

It is a great deal, offering more yards for less money than Lamb's Pride worsted at the standard retail price, while still being a high quality wool. The wool is from Peru, where Elann's Peruvian Highland and Knitpicks Wool of the Andes come from, and while all three are similar in knitted or felted appearance, I would prefer this one overall for an all wool, handwash garment.


Stats:

Yarn name: Lamb's Pride (Worsted and Bulky)
Weight: worsted/bulky
Manufacture:Brown Sheep
Size: Worsted: 190 yds/4 oz skein
Bulky: 125 yds/4 oz skein
Fibers: 85% wool, 15% mohair
MSRP: $7.00 per skein

Lamb's Pride is one of my all-time favorite, workhorse yarns. It is great for felted bags, beanies, mittens (which will full as they get worn a bunch for snowball fights), slippers, even jackets and sweaters. I love the 15% mohair content and the single-ply, slightly unspun texture, duplicating a rustic handspun. I have used it so much that I am somewhat surprised I haven't featured it before. However, I have made two hats in the past week from the bulky, which I had bought by mistake back last spring while working on my striped traveling bag, and was so delighted with the results, I was tempted to keep one for myself. However, they are part of the Knit Unto Others KAL work I have been doing, so off they go to keep other heads toasty warm this winter.

This is a "pocket" slipper, made from Lamb's Pride Worsted (called that because it is small enough to fit in your pocket!) Posted by Picasa


Detail of hat made using Bulky Posted by Picasa


There is now even a Lamb's Pride Superwash! I have not tried this yet, and it does not contain the mohair, so I am guarded.


Stats:

Yarn name: Rustic, now called Sport
Weight: DK weight
Manufacture:Elemental Affects
Size: 2 ounces/110 yards
Fibers: 100% Shetland wool, grown in Montana
MSRP: $8.00 per skein

If yarn came in varietals, as wine does, this would be an example. A special yarn developed by Judith McKenzie, using fleece from Shetland sheep raised in Montana, it is both soft and "crunchy", which is the word my niece coined a few years back to describe our hair when we unbraided it after a day playing in the snow. She was describing the wavy texture created, and this yarn has it, while still sliding through the hands gently.

I discovered this yarn at last summer's Black Sheep Gathering, and purchased enough to make a few hats. It is distributed by a very small company located in Desert Hot Springs run by Jeanne DeCoster, who offers a few nice patterns on the website employing this yarn, now termed "Sport". A few of you met her at SOAR a week or so back... she is very sweet, and works hard to promote the unique characteristics of the Shetland fleeces.Of course, I had already fallen in love with the little sheep and their multi-colored hues (all the available yarn is undyed, in the various colors produced by the sheep themselves, how cool is that?!), so I was an easy sale.

Here is a closeup of Rustic, showing the wavy texture within each stitch, as well as the Moorit colorway. Shetland sheep are a very primitive breed, producing two types of wool, and the softer fine wool can be "rooed" or plucked directly from the sheep, rather than the usual shearing procedure, if the grower watches for the "break", a point in the fleece growth where there is a natural weakness, allowing the hair to come loose.


If you are looking for something that looks particularly casual or rustic, but still has a soft hand, this yarn is an excellent choice.

Stats:

Yarn name: Rowan Classic Cashsoft Aran
Weight: Aran
Manufacture:Rowan
Size: 50 gram/95 yards
Fibers: 57% extra fine merino wool/33% microfibre/10% cashmere
MSRP: $7.99 per ball

I had promised a Product Review of Rustic, from Elemental Affects this week, but in researching where you could get this lovely yarn, discovered that it is not listed under the same name on the website. I have contacted the company for an explanation, and will have to share that with you at a later date... no sense getting you excited about a yarn no longer made, right? Instead, I am featuring this Rowan staple, which I love so much right now that I am even considering making a sweater for my (usually) wool-allergic self!

I am recycling this photo from yesterday's post, mainly because I am in the process of setting up a separate page for the Product Reviews I have been writing, so that they (eventually) will all be in one place.

This is the yummiest, smoothest, and crispest yarn... my DS has exquisite taste and is great fun to take to the yarn stores as I travel around, since he always "scouts out" the softest and lushest yarns there. It doesn't take much cashmere, only 10% to give it the smoothee-soft hand, although in this case that is helped along by the one-third microfiber included. The yarn has plenty of the stretch we associate with wool, but reminds me of soft, dense things like butter and ice cream. The colors available are very lush and rich, and there is a great pattern book, Rowan Classic Weekend with designs using this yarn, that has me contemplating a hoodie or vest out of it. For my style of loose, continental knitting, it makes up more like a worsted, but most people would find themselves using larger needles and making up one of these designs very quickly.


Stats:

Yarn name: Sunsette
Weight: Worsted
Manufacture:Plymouth
Size: 50 gram/88 yards
Fibers: 60% rayon, 40% acrylic
MSRP: $4.49 per ball

I discovered this yarn at the Reno Ben Franklin store, where there was far, far more than the usual Lion and Red Heart that this chain usually offers. The store was amazing, with cubbies of yarns separated by colors, featuring Debbie Bliss, Elsebeth Lavold, Rowan, Katia, Skacel, Plymouth, and loads of other brands generally only available at a dedicated yarn shop. I had dropped by looking for a violet cotton blend to use as the inner band for a wool hat... it has rained heavily several times here, the temperatures are dropping steadily, and snow is predicted tonight. I had also crossed over Yuba Pass the day before, viewing the first dusting of the season.. definitely time to pull out that Shetland wool I had been saving for a winter beanie.


Although the lighting doesn't do justice to the lovely shade of muted violet, it does capture the crinkly yet smooth texture of this springy, shiny, mostly rayon yarn. Posted by Picasa I had been looking for cotton with lycra, similar to the Schulana Supercotton I featured in a previous Product Review, but I have a great fondness for all things rayon, and find that rayon yarns have a warming property to them that cottons lack. I have already completed the inner (no-itch) band for the hat, and will post photos showing how this nifty technique (actually a turned hem) allows people like me, with skin too sensitive to wear wool around the forehead, can still benefit from a warm woolen topper for winter.

I really enjoyed the feel of this yarn as I knitted with it. It slides easily through the fingers, and has a gleam to it that would make an excellent tank top or cute little sweater for fancier wear. Sadly, Yarndex indicates that this yarn is being discontinued this fall, so keep your eyes out for it to appear at a great closeout price on Elann and other bargain vendor sites, and snatch up enough to make yourself a lush little sweater.


Stats:

Yarn name: Susanne's Ebony Knitting Needles
Manufacture:Klass & Gessmann
MSRP: $16.99 for one circular 24 inch, size 8

"What?! Monday's Product Review not ready till Tuesday? Off with her head!" cried the Queen of Hearts. "Wait... first, let me at least tell you about the most amazing knitting needles ever ...", I wailed.

On Saturday during our visit to Heartstrings Yarn Studio, I noticed a box of unusual circular knitting needles ... they were black. Lucky for me, there was a little store-made sign saying they were ebony, as I can't read German... they are "Susanne's Edelholz Rundstricknadel/Flex-Stricknadeln", for those of you who can. Now, I have always been somewhat skeptical about items made for crafters out of exotic hardwoods, thinking that someone had decided to use more expensive materials to get more money out of us. However, I was attracted to these, and decided to get a 24 inch long size 5 mm (US 8) since I would get the most use out of that size, given the sizes available. I had finally found a birthday present for myself, and they cost roughly the same as Addi Turbos, so didn't really seem to out of line to me. The knitting tips are made from ebony wood, and attached to a plastic cable with gold metal (brass?) fittings that felt very smooth.

I took them home and started on the mystery project below, using some mystery yarn I purchased at the same time.. and from the very first insertion of needle tip into knit stitch, I was in love. These needles have the right heft, the warmth of wood that I love about my bamboo needles, and yet feel warmer and smoother going in and out of stitches than any other needles I have ever used (and, remember, I have been knitting for 46 years - since age 5, on almost every kind available). They also make a very lovely, satisfying clicking sound as I knit with them, and put me right in the meditation zone I so enjoy when knitting projects that allow concentration on the process more than the pattern. I began reconstructing my project list in order to plot out what I could make using them next.


I am not telling you what I am making till next week's Product Review covering this unusual yarn. Posted by Picasa

I did a little searching, and discovered that you can purchase these lovely needles in several sizes online from Patternworks: here's the needle chart. Their price of $15.00 a needle is a little better than the $16.99 I paid, but that includes Heartstring's shipping, instead of me paying Patternworks, so it's all good. If you want to start dropping hints to family members about special holiday gifts, these are certainly the perfect item for that list.


Stats:

Yarn name: Ocean
Weight: Bulky
Manufacture:Skacel
Size: 50 gram ball/80 yards
Fibers: 61% cotton, 29% tactel, 10% nylon
MSRP: $7.95 per ball

This is a very tactile woven boucle yarn, dense but very light thanks to the tactel and nylon in its composition, which should also make it somewhat more water-repellant than cotton alone. I didn't realize how chapped my poor hands had been getting from the frequent handwashing we practice at the children's center until I sat down Friday evening to begin whipping up a baby hat for my colleague, Jamie.... the yarn kept catching on my skin, even though it wasn't splitting as I knit it. It would also make a great, fast-knitting lightweight sweater for someone allergic to wool.


Here is the finished baby hat, modeled by my favorite Steiff bear, who is holding a bit of the leftover yarn, so that you can see the great color repeat. Posted by Picasa

I am a little concerned that this fiber combination lacks the long-term elasticity needed for a hat, and realize that this one will have to wait for the newborn to grow into it in several months, but I do love the variegated look.


Stats:

Yarn name: Peace Fleece
Weight: Worsted weight
Manufacture:Peace Fleece, Porter, Maine
Size: 4 oz. skein/200 yards
Fibers: 30% mohair/70% wool
MSRP: $7.50 per skein

Peace Fleece is one of my all-time favorite yarns. I love to use worsted weight yarn for practical items such as sweaters and hats, and discovered Peace Fleece many years ago, long before Internet yarn ordering was possible. Every Peace Fleece order that came to my door arrived after mail communications on both parts in those days, and usually I ordered a special item or two as well, such as hand-painted knitting needles or a Russian wood painted sheep or two.

It has been twenty years since Peter Hagerty and his wife Marty first began buying wool from the former Soviet Union to combine with U.S. wool, building a peaceful blend and starting people-to-people peacebuilding. Back in those days, I learned of their endeavor through the Catholic peace and social justice movement, as I was working hard on peace issues and the nuclear disarmament movement. I loved the concept, and also the yarn they were producing... a particularly soft hand, unusual colors, often with flecks of other colors mixed in. They have since expanded their line over the years to include DK weight and many fine, classic patterns.

You are probably wondering why there are no photos, if I love this yarn so much... well, the lighting is too poor to get you a photo of a sweater I have had completed for about a dozen years. It started originally in 1975 as an Aran stitch sampler poncho made from Unger Rygia; I couldn't stand how difficult and time-consuming the basketweave stitch was and put the project aside for several years until discovering Elizabeth Zimmerman's book, Knitting Without Tears while working as a school library aide back in 1988. I decided to re-invent this project as a Tomten (Surprise) Jacket, and needed more yarn to make the garter stitch sleeves. Peace Fleece was my choice.

From there, I went on to start (and mostly finish) a barn coat for my DH - he expanded a bit in size in the process and I realized midway through that the coat was going to turn out too small, hence it has been residing for several years in the cedar chest I inherited from my great-aunt via my mother. He has gotten quite trim this work season, and I think I might pull it out and see if I can salvage something after the holidays. I know there are other Peace Fleece items floating around this place, but I couldn't put my hands on anything.

Please, if you are interested in Peace Fleece, buy it directly from the company, not through Ebay or other third-party sources... the money that the Hagertys earn continues to support their peacebuilding mission. They support flock and small yarn production in the middle east and several other countries, and work with worker cooperatives to assure that the people producing the wool (besides that from their own farm) make a fair wage. I hope I have inspired you to try their lovely wool.


Stats:

Yarn name: Angora
Weight: Worsted weight
Manufacture:Elsebeth Lavold
Size: 50 gram skein/91 yards
Fibers: 60% angora/20% wool/20% nylon
MSRP: $6.98 per skein

This yarn is simply luscious, and has a great hand when knitting it too... doesn't slip, slides softly through your hands, comes in intense colors, and is even currently on SALE at Elann. The only drawback to that statement is that Elann is only offering four colors, none of which are the ones shown in the photos below. That said, the angora blend is still less expensive at the full retail price of $9.95 than other angora options. As most true fiberholics already know, angora comes from the angora rabbit. What you may not know is that it is an extremely warm fiber, and has a different structure than wool, lying flat without the scales that create the crinkly loft in many wool yarns. This works to advantage in producing a smooth surface, even with the fluffy angora hairs that pop up. The sale angora at Elann would make a fantastic shawl or stole or scarf... there aren't many skeins left, so don't tell anybody :)

Posted by Picasa



 Posted by Picasa


Stats:

Yarn name: Den-M-Nit Pure Indigo Cotton
Weight: Worsted weight
Manufacture:Elann
Size: 50 gram ball/100 yards
Fibers: 100 %cotton
MSRP: $3.25 per ball

This is a fascinating product, just from the point of view of someone like me, who is interested in the history and development of textiles. According to the label band, it is made in the UK especially for Elann, and is "rope dyed: its dye coats only the surface of the yarn, ensuring that with wear and washing, the yarn's white core will be exposed, enhancing your garment with a genuine faded jeans look.

Indigo is one of the primary dye plants, from earliest times, and its dyeing process is unique, in that the color "blooms" as air hits the finished product when pulled from submersion in the dye vat (where it looks green, not blue!). One of the qualities of working with a rope dyed yarn is that the color comes off on your hands as you knit. Another thing to watch out for is that the finished object will shrink by 10-15% in the dryer after the first washing. I bought a few balls to make Cloths for Katrina, and plan to give the washcloths a good soaking in very hot water to bleed off any excess dye, then throw them in the dryer... if they shrink too much, they will have to become baby washcloths! Although classified as a worsted weight yarn, I found that it seems "stringy" in my hands as I knitted it, and the weave seemed loose, however, I can tell it will fluff out a bit as it is washed, worn, and aged.

I found a great site with lots of information about using indigo dyed yarns for you to get more information. Trying interesting new yarns like this one will keep knitting an adventure!


Stats:

Yarn name: Cotton Twist
Weight: Worsted weight
Manufacture:Berrocco
Size: 1.75 oz. hank/85 yards
Fibers: 70% mercerized cotton; 30% rayon
MSRP: $6.95 per hank

This yarn has a high sheen, and picks up the light really beautifully. It has a definite twist, which comes with a lot of mercerized cottons, however, it is also easy to split the thread while knitting, a feature of the rayon portion which drives me nuts! I bought a bag of this in a discontinued shade from Elann earlier this spring, intending to use it to make a spring Clapotis, however decided it was much brighter than I wanted when it arrived and we met in person. I set the bag aside, but began making an easy tank top in August. I am not entirely happy with the way it made up, as I had to drop down two needles sizes, instead of my usual one, to get the correct gauge. The company recommends size 8 but that produced a very sleazy, loose fabric lacking the body a garment needs. I got the required gauge and started on the top, but still have the feeling of the weave being a little too loose; only wearing and washing will tell how this fabric holds its shape (or not). Berrocco claims that you can machine wash knitted garments on delicate that have been placed in a sweater bag, then lay flat to dry, which will be a plus.


Here's a photo of my Cotton Twist top, almost completed. I have since finished the knitting, and need to edge the neck and armhole openings to match the bottom edging, which is a heavy rayon perle cotton in one of the shades of blue. Posted by Picasa

Sallee is making a summer stole from the same batch of yarn from Elann, and I am mailing off my leftover hanks to her. I do think the results will be lovely, but am not sure the shine is worth the work. All that glitters is not gold.


I know this title sounds like a diet-buster, but these are both worsted weight cottons produced for practical, washable items such as washcloths, and the Cloths for Katrina group has lots of people using them right now, so I decided to share my thoughts with you.


Cone of Peaches and Cream in background, with partly completed washcloth draped over, and Sugar N' Cream in the front. Posted by Picasa

Peaches and Cream:

Stats:
Manufacture: Cotton Clouds
Size: 16 oz. cone/840 yards
Fibers: 100% unmercerized cotton
MSRP per cone: $14.95

The color range in the cones is pretty limited, but I have made 6 washcloths from one cone so far, and am only about halfway through it. The texture is rougher than the Sugar and Cream below, but durable. Perfect for this application.

Sugar N' Cream

Stats:
Manufacture: Lily
Size: 16 oz. cone/805 yards (also available in smaller balls)
Fibers: 100% natural cotton (natural is the word used by JoAnn's site)
Jo Ann sale price per cone: $10.49

Sugar N' Cream comes in lots of solid colors when you buy the smaller balls, and in ombres as well, although for some reason the latter has less yardage per ball than the solids. I find the Lily brand to have a softer, fluffier hand, and the washcloths at our house have been made from it for years. It softens with repeated washings.

There are other brands of this same product, such as Lion Brand Cotton (which used to be called "Kitchen Cotton", and Bernat Handicrafter, but I have not used either. There is also an even fluffier cotton from Bernat, called Cottontots, that I have never found, but will have to order online and try out. One knitter in the Katrina group insists that this makes the softest facecloth of all. Are you dying to get started on some cloths now? Hope so....


Stats:

Yarn name: Wool of the Andes
Weight: Worsted weight
Manufacture:Knitpicks
Size: 50 g. ball/110 yards
Fibers: 100% peruvian wool
Ben Franklin price per ball: $1.79 per ball

I picked WOTA to feature this week for several reasons. First, the point in starting this weekly yarn review feature was to share my experience with a yarn in hopes of helping someone else decide if it was a good choice for them. I have used this yarn on several felted items since I first discovered it last winter, and have been pleased with the results. The wool is soft, felts up quickly and densely when used double and Knitpicks now has a range of 36 different colors. I do think it might run a little, but then hot water might do that to any number of items.

The second reason is that winter is coming and this is one of the most affordable worsted weight yarns I have found. It is very comparable to Elann's peruvian wool, and slightly cheaper per skein, giving you an affordable option to whip up a winter sweater or make some Christmas gifts.

Also, I have been gathering together a few items to send to Margene and Susan for prizes for the Knitters' Disaster Relief Fund effort they have been mounting, and included four skeins of WOTA in Evergreen... one of the hazards of ordering yarn online is that you can't really tell the color accurately, and have to hope you guessed right. Well, I didn't with this particular color. I would suggest purchasing the yarn color card for $1.50 next time you order from Knitpicks, as this is a real workhorse of a yarn that you might find you want to use for a lot of different items. It is also possible to purchase WOTA in 220 yard, undyed hanks, so that you can create your own colors. How cool is that?! If you haven't ever done any dying, I recommend it highly - either with plant dyes, Kool-Aid, or even powdered commercial dyes.


This is one of the felted bags I have made using WOTA. Posted by Picasa


Stats:

Yarn name: Crystal Palace Kid Merino
Weight: approx. fingering weight but can be used in wide range
Manufacture:Straw Into Gold, Richmond, CA
Size: 25 g. ball/240 yards
Fibers: 28% kid mohair, 28 % merino wool, 44% micro nylon
Ben Franklin price per ball: $5.49 per ball


This is a lovely little yarn that I found at my local Ben Franklin a few months ago. I wanted to use it as a substitute for Rowan Kid Silk Haze to make a scarf to sell at the crafts coop, since the price was so good. I like the feel of the mohair, and it is really a laceweight, so makes a very fine lightweight scarf and would work well for less complex lace patterns in shawls as well. Someone more patient than me would also find that using size one or two needles and making a denser fabric would allow you to use this yarn for a sweet little top.


Although the color is more bluish in this photo, it does show the texture of the yarn well.... a very fine, fuzzy yarn. Posted by Picasa


This is a better color representation, and shows how, even though fuzzy, this yarn would make nice stitch definition if you wanted to use it for a shawl or scarf. I am making a variation of the Airy Scarf pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I wanted it in stockinette instead of garter stitch, so I am keeping the two stitches at either end of the row in garter to help keep the edges from curling, and am spacing my eyelet rows 10 rows apart. Posted by Picasa



Stats
:

Yarn name: Schulana Supercotton
Weight: Worsted
Manufacture:Schuler & Company, Italy (distributed in US by Skacel)
Size: 50 g. ball/90 meters/98 yards
Fibers: 70% cotton, 30% polyester-elastic
MSRP: $8.95 per ball

I found this yarn in a tank top kit at my LYS, Meadow Farm Yarn Studio this spring, and really loved working it up into a top. The fabric is dense and springy, and even though there are a multitude of individual strands, it DOES NOT split, something very important to me for ease of knitting. I liked it enough to grab a few other balls off of Meadow Farm's one-skein leftover sale table this summer. It has the right quality to use for a variety of items. I used some of my leftovers from the hot pink tank top to make a cute baby hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, and will use it for more baby hats to put in the crafts shop, and for a non-itch hemmed inner band on beanies for winter (this is a pattern I found at Black Sheep Gathering, designed by Curraheen Farms, breeders of Icelandic sheep, but you could modify a favorite hat pattern: just start with the yarn you want to use for the inner band, knit two or three inches as desired, join using the hem technique, and then proceed with the yarn of choice for the hat - great for people with sensitive skin).

You can view the shades available at Yarndex, a really cool resource that gives info and shade charts for a huge number of yarns.

The downside: while as a fiber artist, I really like this yarn, I am aware that cotton in general takes a huge environmental toll, and the polyester probably isn't recycled. I suspect my love affair may be short-lived, if I can find a more earth-friendly yarn with the same qualities.


Here, my HH's antique Steiff teddy models the baby hat made from Supercotton. His teddy girlfriend is modern and pink, and over the years we have developed a ritual where the person who has to leave home for a few days will put the two teddies with the pillows on our bed, keeping each other company and helping the stay-at-home feel less lonely. Posted by Picasa

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