Tale of Two Yarns

In an effort to keep up and kick start my blogging with some more readers I am participating in the second Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week.   Each day there will be a different subject that knitting and crochet bloggers will be typing about.

The first subject being a "Tale of Two Yarns."

Yarn is one of my favorite things...well...in the world.  I love yarn store.  I love the variety of fibers that I get to experiment with while doing needle work.  I was talking with a student about fibers and we agreed that we all start out with very commercial, often times acrylic, yarn.  Then, the artist grows, as well as their skill, and all of a sudden you want to good stuff.  What exactly is that?  It depends.  I find that I am either looking for yarn and then finding something to do with it OR finding a project and then looking for yarn.  But with the queue that I have on Ravelry, I often have an idea of yardage floating around my head so generally for me...yarn first.

One such instance is Cascade Eco Duo+.  If you love neutrals at all, you simply have to touch it.  Then, once you have touched it, you buy it.  It wasn't one of those instances that I would buy yarn just because I love it then stash it.  This yarn I used immediately.  I made a hat out of it and tried my hand at my first cables.  The hat is so incredibly soft.  I often tell people to touch it because it feels like a kitten. For the sake of being critical and subjective- I will say that while I love the yarn for the hat that I made, it is not an everyday yarn.  This is the kind of yarn that you would use for a specific project.  A sweater would be wonderful, but it would pill a lot.  A cowl would be soft and glorious.  But because of the fuzz, I don't recommend it for long term wear and tear.

The next yarn that I am going to highlight is Madelinetosh Tosh Merino DK.  Frankly, I love a lot of their yarns.  I chose this one in particular because I prefer to work in DK vs. fingering.  The other reason I chose Tosh Merino DK vs. Tosh DK is because what I am learning about myself is that I love single ply yarn.  I find that I am drawn to that over a plied yarn.  I have plenty of plied yarn, but majority is single ply.  While I am not generally a fan of superwash yarn, this is indeed superwash merino.  I think that lends itself well to making it an absolute favorite, versatile, everyday yarn.  The first project was a hat.  The next project with it will likely be a shawl.

You may notice a trend hat, hats, hats.  I find that hats are a good way to test out a new yarn.  And then you can build up a supply of last minute gifts while you are at it.