Wednesday, October 10, 2007

I hate this yarn




This is not something I say lightly- I think I've only hated one other yarn (Cascade Fixation Sock Yarn). But this Himalayan Yarn Co 60% wool, 40% recycled silk? I hate it. Hate it with the fire of a thousand nuns (as they say at TWoP). The colors are beautiful, I'll give you that. In fact, those tweedy bits were what drew me to the yarn in the first place. But it's scratchy (absolutely not next-to-skin). And even worse, the thickness is totally inconsistent (something that wasn't apparent when I bought the yarn. At $9@. 13 skeins). It goes from bulky to nearly fingering which plays absolute hell with the size 9 needles and the intarsia pattern. I have to cut the really thin parts out, and the silk content is high enough that I'm not able to spit-splice the ends, so I have even more ends to weave in.


That said, the sweater is going to be beautiful, and I really like the pattern. And I'm done with the fronts and about half of one sleeve. I'm sure this yarn is perfectly suited for some projects, but I'll never knit with it again.

BTW- these pieces have been washed, just to see how the yarn bloomed and to flatten them out, but they haven't been blocked. The armholes really do line up, and they will look okay after blocking.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds great wool and silk, but I get that's about it. The result is beautiful.

Kathleen Taylor said...

I think the sweater will be lovely when it's done too. But as they say, life is too short to knit with yarn you hate. So that'll be it for me and wool/recycled silk (unless I really really examine the yarn before buying, which I didn't do with this stuff).

Anonymous said...

I am impressed that you are finishing it considering how much you hate it!

It is beautiful tho and will be worth it in that way!

Kathleen Taylor said...

I'm thinking of it as sort of a challenge- besides, it's a Christmas present, and I paid a bundle for the yarn, so I need to get *something* out of it. But I suppose I wouldn't continue on if the sweater itself wasn't so pretty. It is going to be lovely, it's just not going to be one of those projects that I look back on fondly.

Anonymous said...

I hope you don't mind I am coming in late on this but I love the colors of it. Never tried that yarn so I can't comment. I am knitting a vest in Takhi Donegal Tweed and it has a slight thick thin texture that I didn't expect. It seems so popular and I am disappointed with it and it is soooo expensive.