Monday, March 28, 2011

a tale of two yarns


Knitting and Crochet Blog Week day one: Part of any fibre 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.

For me, it's sock yarn that does it. Over the last few years I've knit a wide variety of sock yarn, and I've learned a few things about my likes and dislikes along the way. Not just that I like a bit of nylon so that all my hard work doesn't wear out straight away. And not just that I prefer wool as the main fiber - I find it most comfortable, warm without being too hot, and nicely stretchy for a good fit. My hardest learned lesson is to walk past the tempting displays of colourful hand painted or self patterning yarns in favour of subtle multi-tonal yarns.

Take, for example, the yarns pictured. The Kroy yarn has so much colour and so much pattern that it's destined to become a pair of basic kids socks in the next day or two. Stockinette or rib; that's all I can think to do with self-patterning yarn. For the Diamond Soxy yarn, because the shade changes are so muted, I can take my pick of all the interesting sock patterns out there. Maybe Miriam by Monica Jines? That looks like a fun pattern!

3 comments:

WildflowerWool said...

You can never go wrong with sock yarn!

Deb - Mom of 3 Girls said...

I haven't tried the Patons Kroy sock yarn yet, but I've been eying it for a while. :)

Caffeine Girl said...

I am SO with you on knitting socks with yarn that has some nylon. I made a beautiful pair of socks with Malabrigo's sock yarn -- 100% wool -- and they are showing serious wear less than a year later.

My personal preferences these days are for Opal and XXL Trekking. They are beautiful yarns that wear like steel!