Yarning for Something Better

I said at the conclusion of my last post that I was going to talk about a tool next. I have all my photos ready to go. But it occurred to me that I should discuss the reason I decided to invest in the tool in the first place.

One of the things I discovered with alarming speed is that I hate cheap yarn. Hate. It. I have no desire to create ill will. But if you read my earlier posts, you may have noticed what my tiny stash consisted of. And it is heavy on Lionbrand (I won't do them the discourtesy of linking to them). Which I now consider pretty much scrap.

I dislike it for so many reasons. For one thing, it just feels rough on my hands. Both the Fishermens Wool, and the Amazing make my hands dry and raw as I pull yarn across them in the course of knitting. It also breaks ridiculously easily, often when I was frogging, and not even tugging hard. And it tangled on itself. Its fuzziness made it difficult to clearly see stitches. As I was just figuring out how to recognize stitches and mistakes in pieces I was working on. I needed yarn with less fuzz, greater strength, easier on my skin, and that created distinct stitches..

But with so many migraines, it is hard for me to get out to yarn stores. And having quickly discovered how much yarn was going to cost if I was going to turn up my nose at Lionbrand, I didn't like being unable to feel the yarn before purchasing it.  Nonetheless, I needed yarn,

So I took a deep breath, and plunged into the world of recycled yarn.  One place to look for recycled yarn is Etsy, which has a multitude of stores. These are people who buy commercially made sweaters they find at thrift shops (there is a knack to knowing what to pick apparently). They then frog them for the yarn, wash it, and wind the yarn into skeins.  You can get very nice quality yarn very inexpensively. Also, some of them are spinners, and use the yarn they get from different sweaters and spin them together for unique and beautiful yarns. Also you can find hand-dyed yarn very inexpensively.

This is my favorite hand spun yarn so far.  I am making a very textured scarf (most of what I do is scarves still, remember) for my sister's birthday in November. I am going to finish it long before then, but I realized I have to start working on Christmas/Chanukah presents immediately.

This picture was when it was only about 50% done, I am more like 80% now. I am still quite slow. And sorry, blurry, plus I learned why white isn't a good color for cameras. The right side gives you a clearer view of the texture, the pattern is The Rolling Plains scarf:

I'm pleased with it, I admit. I lurve the yarn, it is so soft, and the texture of the pattern just feels lovely. I think this is pretty enough that even my fashionista sister will be happy to include it in her wardrobe.

But I went on a bit of a yarn buying binge when I discovered these shops. I don't always use the same seller twice. Nothing wrong with their yarn, but nothing special either. Others I peruse, and purchase something useful but not very exciting now and again.

But there are two stores that are a challenge to my budget. Not because they are overpriced, but because I always make huge orders.  my two "superstar" Etsy shops are NeedleclicksEtc (the woman who made the above handspun), and a shop with an unlikely name and gorgeous hand-dyed yarn, sby4718. They are largely the reason I am knee deep in skeins of beautiful yarn.  Oh, sure, there was that other boring yarn before. But now I have yarn I just go to look at because it's pretty. New experience. True story.

Yet all those lovely, lovely skeins left me with a problem....

Casting On

Once upon a time, I wanted to learn how to knit. But distance prevented one grandmother, and temperament the other, from teaching me as a child. I've always been too shy to ask people to teach me, because it seemed as if it would require so much of their time.

Right after my 48th birthday last September, I realized that if I were ever going to learn, and become reasonably competent, the time had come to figure out how.  I was surprised to find that Santa Clara Adult Education included knitting for all abilities, including novice. I promptly signed up, and my foray into knitting began.

I really enjoyed knitting from the get go.  I still cannot figure out how something so frustrating can be so enjoyable.  I began with knitting and purling, of course. When I first made several inches of stockinette, I was thrilled by the texture of the fabric.

The class was basically a stitch 'n bitch that had two instructors there to help decode whatever tangle any of my classmates got themselves into. A lot of them were very talented. They all pitched in to educate me about the basics of knitting.

Soon I felt ready to start my first project.  This was the beginning of a lot of learning through trial and error.

I first planned to make a very simple shawl, the Tweedy Shawl pattern that is free on the Lion Brand Yarn site.  I bought a skein of their Fishermen's Wool, and some size 8 circular needles, as suggested by my instructors. I began the shawl, and quickly realized I had taken on too ambitious of a project. It wasn't that the pattern was difficult, so much as it was many columns, and very long. It was just too big of a project if I wanted the gratification of a finished object sometime in the near future. As a new knitter,  I wanted to make sure I got the reward of a finished object reasonably soon.

So after not that much Googling, I came across a pattern called The Bad Math Scarf. But the yarn for the shawl definitely was not good for a scarf, which lies against skin. In fact, none of the yarn I had seen at the local Michael's box store seemed all that soft, or pretty.  That is when I learned about what knitters refer to as LYS, for Local Yarn Stores. These are usually small local businesses.  The one nearest me is the eco-friendly Green Planet Yarn. It was there that I was initiated into the usual knitters' obsession, yarn.

I like to be as green as possible, and will talk about that in another post.

For the next 6 weeks, I struggled through my first scarf. This is when I began to learn about frogging, which is the term that knitters use for ripping apart a project to try again, or to use the yarn for another project. I got a third of the way through the scarf, and was so unhappy with the many mistakes, and how it looked, I ripped it all apart and started over.

I now know that a lot of the stitches are twisted, but it is a fairly well done scarf. My teachers actually seemed astonished at how good it is. My guess is that I tolerate fewer mistakes than the average new knitter, being very detail oriented (which is a kind way of saying obsessive).

I used the colorway Primary Red, from the Berroco Comfort line of yarn.

I think I will stop here for now.