Yarns Part 2-Expensive

These are some projects that were made with more costly yarn. The question is, Is the experience or the outcome worth the price?

This hat was made with Naturwolle/Muench Yarns BlackForest , which I bought from Jimmy Beans Wool (they send you candy with your order). At $25 for a skein, it was the first really expensive wool I bought. The hat came out pretty but a little big. Was it worth it? I don't know, but I feel special when I wear it.

 This is Noro Kureyon. I think I bought it from Jimmy Beans. It runs around $9 for a 110 yard skein. Noro is magnificent yarn. The colors and transitions between colors are breathtaking. I feel like I'm making art, not a crochet project, when I use it.

 This one is Blue Sky Alpaca Sportweight in red, and a little amber. I think I got it from Amazon. It runs around $9 for 110 yards. The color I used seems to have been discontinued, the closest one now is Scarlet, but I like this one better. It's not as much fun to wear as it looks, but the yarn feels luscious.


Next is Manos. I think this is my favorite yarn. It's made by a fair trade women's collective in Uruguay, and no two skeins are the same. I love the way the shifting colors turn out in a spike stitch. It's a rich looking and feeling yarn. It's $12.50 for a 150 yard skein.

Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend Multi in Woodland

 And Manos again in Autumn

And this is Mission Falls Merino~$7 for 136 yards. The colors are intense and lovely, but it's not that  different from my beloved Knit Picks Swish DK, which is less than $4 for 123 yards.


Bottom line, I do enjoy working with expensive yarns, so from an experiential point of view, i.e. as meditative therapy, they're worth the price. They certainly seem more luxurious, but maybe I just want to think that because I want my money's worth. I think they separate less when you're working with them than, say, Lion Brand or Red Heart. I guess it's just a matter of your project, your mood, and how much pocket money you have.

Yarns-part 1

How do you chose the yarn for a project?
Do you go with whatever the pattern uses?
What if you aren't using a pattern?
Do you prefer costly or inexpensive?
Does it depend on the project?
Or who it's for?

I mentally separate projects into 2 categories: 1. Warrants expensive yarn, and 2. Doesn't warrant expensive yarn. I'm carefully avoiding the word, "cheap", because I have some great quality yarn that didn't cost much.

I'll tackle category #2, inexpensive, in this post, and the costlier yarns in my next post.

I have a couple of go-to solutions. The first is Knit Picks DK Swish.

It's merino wool, it comes in lots of colors, it's soft, it's machine washable AND machine dryable, and the price is great. I love it. I have a ton of it. I use it for most of my "experiments", even ones I know I should use worsted for. Knit Picks does have worsted wool in the same colorways, I just feel like I should use up some of my DK before I buy more.

I've made a lot of things with it, including my pillow-in-progress:

  This hat:

And this baby blanket:

The second is Lion Brand Yarn, which I often don't like that much. However, their store is right near where I work, and I just can't stop myself from walking in there. It offers the immediate gratification I can't get from an online site like Knit Picks. It also gives me the opportunity to touch the yarn before I buy it. I've made some nice things with their yarn.

This bag:

was made with Lion Brand microspun in "sterling". It works up slightly shiny, which is just right for an evening bag. But it tends to separate a lot when you crochet with it.

I've also used some yarns from Red Heart. I made this baby blanket with their Soft Yarn:

It's nice and soft, but it lacks the specialness of wool.

And I made this throw:

with their Super Saver yarn. The fabric it creates has a nice feel to it, but I hated working with it, because it's quite rough-I found it uncomfortable for my hands.

That's it for today. Next time: Costly Yarns

The Pillow

 

 

 

This is my attempt at a throw pillow. I had a little, unrefined pillow from Ikea, just waiting to be put to good use, 

 

 

 

a bunch of yarn in different colors leftover from my niece's baby blanket, 

 

 

 

and my in-laws were coming to visit. Thus, a crocheted pillow.

First, I made up a pattern for the hexagon.

 

 

 

Then, I got bored with the color combination I was using, so I decided to make each side of the pillow different.

 

 

 

 

Then, I couldn't decide how to attach the hexagons, so I did that differently on each side, too. 

 

On the purple side, I wove the individual pieces together after they were all finished. 

 

 

 

On the pink side, I attached the hexagons as I made them.

 

 

 

Now, I'm in the process of weaving in the loose ends-my least favorite part of crocheting.

 

 

 

The pillow was inspired by a beautiful pillow I saw on flickr, with lovely cable stitching between hexagons, and some contrast color edging.

Here's my current dilemma: 

I need to figure out how to attach the top and bottom parts. Should I continue in the light blue color, or change colors? What kind of stitching should I use? Should I include edging? And finally, should I have a button closure, so the pillow can be removed, or should I just close the whole thing up, since the yarn can be machine washed and dried anyway?

Any suggestions would be welcome. Also, I'd love to hear about similar conundrums.