I noticed a trend with a lot of my patterns. I tend to use inexpensive, easy to find, yarn. I tend to default to KnitPicks. It’s easy to find online for yarn info, not too expensive, durable (so it can take multiple rip outs of a design), and decent yarn. When I go to test a pattern design, I don’t want to use crazy expensive yarn. My design doesn’t always work out on the first… second… etc. try. (arrrg) So ripping out expensive yarn isn’t something I want to do. It can ruin the yarn and who wants to do that when you splurged and bought that merino/cashmere/silk blend that you just had to have? Right??
So when you see that my designs reference KnitPicks and wonder if I do splurge on the more expensive stuff, know that why yes, yes I do. My yarn stash has some pretty pricey lovelies in there. So expensive in fact that I’m afraid to knit with it. Because then it will be gone from my stash and it’s meant to be there to be MINE MINE MINE forever. I love that any knitter reading this will completely understand where I’m coming from and not think I’m a lunatic yarn hoarder. We all are.
I am a major yarn snob. I love soft, shiny, cloudy, squishy, yummy yarnz. My best pair of socks is made out of a merino/cashmere/nylon blend. Once I put those on my feet it ruined all of my other socks for me! Ok, not ruined. Let’s not be dramatic. But it certainly took them down a notch. Unfortunately, this favorite pair of socks now has to be darned. The pads of my feet like to wear my socks down. They aren’t worn through so I can save them with some duplicate stitching, thank goodness I caught it in time. But it makes me sad… meaning I should go get more of the yarn. Note: This is an excuse to buy more yarn. Duh.
Speaking of the yummy favorite sock yarn, it’s Woolen Rabbit’s “Lucent.” I made one of my Flutterby Dreams shawls out of it in the “Lady Slipper” colorway too. It’s so soft and lovely and I want to wear it and my socks ALL OF THE TIME. Lovely dreamy yarn…
You can catch a glimpse of “Lady Slipper” towards the back.
Back to designing with more affordable yarn. So, this is a good tip to any new designers out there. I’d recommend something that can take a bit of a beating and still look and feel nice in the end. Yarn with a bit of backbone that you’d want to have your back in a bar fight. THAT kind of yarn. It’s going to stick by you and help you through the rough times along with the good times.
You want yarn that’ll hang in there and in the end, when you finally have the design where you want it, it’ll shine.