It’s been a while since I’ve posted and I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been knitting a lot but I’m afraid its far more mundane than that.
I’ve been going to the gym before work each morning since September 2010. This means getting up at 5.20am and getting home around 7.30pm. It’s a long day, and while I enjoy the gym I don’t really feel like writing a post when I get home.
One of my new year’s resolutions is to post weekly, so lets hope I can stick to that.
Over the month of December, my favourite yarn shop Morris and Sons (www.morrisandsons.com.au) had its six-monthly sale. There was heap of sale yarn which is mostly discontinued colours and ranges from Australian Country Spinners’ brands Cleckheaton, Patons and Panda.
I’ve made the mistake of buying packets of these yarns in their previous sales; carried away by the massive discounts of around 70%. I say mistake because all I do is take the yarn home, put in into my stash and then forget about it. Actually, I don’t forget about it – I ignore it. If I think about this great bargain yarn then I end up feeling guilty for having bought something that I will honestly never use.
This time I resisted. Instead of the sale packs of yarn, I focused on the fact that everything else in the shop was 20% off. I stocked up on their own brand of Paddington which is a 80% bamboo and 20% merino in a 6ply weight (that’s a light DK for US readers). It’s a beautiful yarn and makes lovely baby clothes as well as adult tops and dresses. Being mostly bamboo, it has nice drape and is cooler than pure wool for the warmer months.
I also splashed out on some discounted Noro yarns. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Noro. I want to love Noro a lot more than I do. The colours are great, the texture is fascinating and they have lots of different weights and blends. But every time I buy Noro yarn I’m at war with it in just a few days. The colours seem weird and scary and I’m convinced that it’s too scratchy to ever wear. The romance wears off very quickly and the Noro goes back into stash.
Despite this, I persevere. I bought four skeins each of Silk Garden and Kureyon. Silk garden is a 10ply/aran weight blend of 45% silk, 45%mohair and 10%lambswool. Kureyon is pure wool in a soft, slubby, lofty single ply.
I hadn’t tried Kureyon before so that was my first victim. I played around with it without any real plan. Knitting a bit of garter stitch, a bit of stocking stitch, a bit of lace pattern. Nothing looked good. I decided I was trying too hard – I didn’t need a complex or clever pattern for Noro, the colour did all the work. So I stopped trying to be more clever than the yarn and thought up one of the simplest, but boldest stitches I could.
Things started to fall into place. The incredibly simple stitch pattern and the scary-coloured yarn just seemed to work together. I couldn’t put it down until I’d used up all four skeins and made a scarf.
Although the colours still scare me a bit (and you’ll see what I mean in the next post), I’m very happy with it. I hand washed the finished scarf twice and the softness improved dramatically. Noro yarns often feel very scratchy on the skein but after a few washes they soften up really well. I have no concerns about wearing this against my neck in winter.
I feel like I’ve conquered my fear of Noro – well, for now. I still have four skeins of Silk Garden that need a purpose in life.
