I promised I’d write a bit about my new yarn from KnitPicks, so here we go. First the standard disclosure: I kind of work for KnitPicks, I’m a test knitter there. They send me yarn and a pattern and I send it back to them and they pay me to do this. That said, I ordered a ball winder, their new lace blocking wires and a couple skeins of the new organic cotton yarn last week. The ball winder is your standard plastic hand cranked winder, like any other that I’ve seen, except the fact that theirs is a weird purple color and it comes with a handle, which is removable. I played around with it for a while the other day, I wound some lace weight wool, lace weight silk, and this worsted weight cotton above. I could fit a full skein of the lace weight yarn on the winder but, as you can see, the worsted had to be split into two cakes. The winder is easy to clamp on to a table or desk and the crank handle is a good size for my small hands and cranks very easily. I didn’t try the handle, but it attaches to the bottom, where the clamp goes and you can hold the winder instead of clamping it down. I don’t think I’ll ever use it but it’s kind of neat.
The blocking wires are your basic 32 inch metal wires that came with a little package of T-pins. I used the set this morning to block my lace scarf and they did fine. I don’t really know what else to say about them except it would have been nice if they came in other sizes and with a yard stick like some of the other sets do.
The cotton yarn is really nice. It’s soft and sturdy feeling and didn’t bother my hands as I knit with it, no cramping. I knit the swatch on US8 needles and it it has a nice feel, it’s drapey and soft. I think this would be great for people who make dishcloths, which I don’t, but I would like it as a little spring cardigan. The colors are natural, no dyeing, it’s just the color of the cotton, and very muted. The lighter color is called Malted Milk and the darker is Toffee. I like the darker color better, but that’s a personal thing. This also comes in sport weight and I think I’d like to try weaving a little scarf out of it.
I did some spinning yesterday, I started with this roving, the brown, purple and blue in the middle, that had felted while it was being dyed, and ended up with these singles. I fluffed out the roving the best I could and split it in half, where I two separate roving with one repeat of purple, brown then blue. I then split one of those halves in half again, this time length wise. I spun one half just as it was, with one repeat of color and the other half with two repeats (purple, brown, blue, purple, brown, blue). The singles came out extremely thick and thin, with parts that were almost too big to go through the orifice of my wheel. I plied them last night and I’m waiting for them to dry now, pictures tomorrow, The yarn is just crazy, lightly fulled with very thin and very thick parts. It’s so pretty.
Now, just to show you what I put up with all day, here’s Sally spying on our neighbors. She does this all day, except when there is another dog outside and then she barks.
