Monday 28 March 2011

A tale of two yarns

Quoth the raven, no more bloody laceweight for me
Right! It is the first day of knit and crochet blog week (2kcbwday1 !), if I make it for all seven days I will open a bottle of wine, if I make it for all seven days saying something coherent I may even drink some of it. Today I have to tell you about two yarns I love and/ or loathe.

Well, readers, at the risk of being controversial, this is my most loathed yarn. I am prepared, I am prepared for the hate mail because I must tell you the truth even though it may be unpopular.
Staring excommunication from the Sorority Of Knitters straight in the face
Yes. Malabrigo Lace. Now, sometimes I say about things I don’t like ‘perhaps it is me’ and I don’t really mean it. But this time I do. This yarn is a complete delight: it is so soft, it is like knitting a cloud. Touching it is like laying your cheek against the ear of a baby unicorn. It is beautiful yarn and to those of you who can knit laceweight without wanting to run around screaming I recommend it to you without hesitation. I myself have now accepted emotionally that I would rather do almost anything than knit laceweight. I would rather go to the dentist. I would rather go out for dinner with Partner’s mother. I would rather wear things made of pleated polyester from the Marks and Spencer Classic Collection. I am done and although this yarn is exactly like knitting a cloud of wonder and delight it is going on ebay. Hooray! I say, because that leaves me more money for...
is that some beige we see? Surely some mistake
unspecified scraggy colourful balls of wool from the John Lewis sale bin. This is my favourite kind of yarn: wool, in saturated colours. I prefer (this is shameful too), at least aran weight and preferably chunky. Because it knits up quicker! Indeed, my absolute dream yarn would be a soft-ish 100% wool, aran weight, ethically produced, in a whole host of different saturated colours. And sold by Get Knitted, because they post orders almost instantly and also send you a free biro. And it would come in balls not skeins as I do not like having to wind things myself as the less time I spend with my knees apart, winding furiously while watching Judge Judy the better. And it would cost £1.20 for 200 metres. That would be my perfect yarn. I am suspecting the ‘produced ethically’ and the ‘£1.20’ are not entirely compatible, but, this is a yarn fantasy and I do not have to let reality intrude. Although if any yarn producers are reading this then you are very welcome to pick up my idea and run with it as I am sure they say in Who Moved My Cheese.

In the meantime it’s Kemps and the John Lewis sale bin all the way for me!

12 comments:

Vivianne said...

I don't suppose you'd care to do a trade for the Malabrigo ? Soap and/or reading ? Lemme know :)

Faith (the Vampire Slayer) said...

I love your picture of the yarn from the sale bin. I have this fantasy of diving into a bin of yarn like a pile of leaves and just rolling in the wool.

Amy said...

I love fat and colorful wool too!

Anonymous said...

Can I trump Vivianne's offer with a set of stitchmarkers and errr some scraggy balls of wool :P

I never got a free biro from Get Knitted :( I am a sad little bunny

Ms C @ HappyElastic said...

I never got a biro either. You must be special!

Where the nodding violets grow said...

I know what you mean about the sale bin. It is really exciting looking for lots of treasures. I confess to having got a Get Knitted biro in my order. The color of the Malabrigo is lovely

Gracey is not my name.... said...

What is a biro? I bought some Mal lace last year, but have not used it. That is a gorgeous color! I, too, like thicker yarns, more instant gratification! And thick, color saturated yarn is the best!

Anonymous said...

So to be fair, you don't like the weight of the Malabrigo you have, not the yarn itself! You should get yourself some heavier weight MMMmmmm......Malabrigo so you can share the feeling all our Malabrigo lovers have! I once hated lace weight too so I feel your pain. It took a while for me to overcome that hatred.

Susie said...

This sequence of comments amused me:

1/ We never got biros!
2/ Aha I did get a biro!
3/ What is a biro?

Thank you all for making me laugh ;-) (and Gracey, it's a ballpoint pen/ Bic ;-) ). Actually, once I even got a candle. Getknitted and their random freebie allocation. I don't know.

Suddenexpression, yes, you are right, it is definitely the weight not the yarn. I should get some worsted, I would probably love it.

Vivianne, actually I would be up for swapsies, I will email you, thankyou ;-). Steph... actually I have got more than one skein of this Malabrigo so if you've got the stitchmarkers and yarn scragginess I might be up for it too ;-).

Anonymous said...

Ha! I love all your specifications for your dream yarn. As far as GK goes, I only received a free biro once, and a lollipop once. Can't complain I s'pose!

resa said...

Oh, lace weight. I love to see objects made of it and wouldn't mind having a few of my own but to actually use it? No, no, not for me. But you very much should try out the worsted weight Malabrigo. All of the lovely qualities of your lace weight without the same frustration of 'great googly-moogly this is tiny.'

And I have to say... I share Faith's fantasy of yarn pile leaping. I can't say that I was aware of it until right now, but there it is.

Alice the fiber fiend said...

As one who knits at a glacial pace, I'm right there with you... (but I prefer the hook...)