Trish Knits.com

Wow… today is the last day of Blog Week! I am sad to see it end, but, at the same time, I confess that I am a bit relieved as well. I never have been a daily blogger, and I have no intention of maintaining this week’s hectic pace. In fact, most of the time I don’t have nearly enough to say, so it has been very helpful to have pre-defined topics. If Blog week ever happens again, so long as it’s not next week? I’m definitely in.

I think today’s topic, “A Good Yarn,” which is kinda sorta supposed to be about a favorite yarn, is one of the hardest so far to write. How do I choose a favorite? Isn’t that like trying to choose a favorite child, or a favorite flavor of ice cream?

The truth is, I never met a yarn I didn’t like. I love them all, for different reasons. I have knit with everything from the cheapest dishcloth cotton to the yummiest of cashmere. I admit that I have not tried quiviut yarn yet, because at roughly $90 an ounce, I can’t afford to fall in love with it! I even must confess that–don’t tell anyone, please–I don’t hate acrylic yarn. In fact, before I became a knitter, I don’t think it occurred to me that I would ever want to knit with anything other than acrylic, mostly because of the ease of care.

But, I have changed my ways. I have so many types of yarn in my stash now, that acrylic is probably the least among them. So, when I looked around to determine a favorite yarn, if I could possibly have such a thing, it was a good, basic wool.

One such example is Cascade 220. I call it my Workhorse Yarn, because there’s almost nothing that can’t be made with it. I love it for hats, because the wool is so warm. And I love it that it comes in so many wonderful colors. It’s like having the whole Crayola Big Box. Didn’t you feel special when you knew that you had all the colors? That’s kinda how I feel about Cascade. I have collected the colors over time and I love having so many to choose from, no matter what whim hits me when I want to knit something. I especially love hitting the once-a-year Webs sale, when this yarn becomes especially affordable. (Pssst… in case you didn’t know, that sale is on… NOW!)

There are other yarns that also are good, sturdy wools I love. Most notably, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, which is a fabulous wool at a fabulous price, and Brown Sheep Lambs Pride, which contains a little bit of mohair. This is my favorite yarn for making my felted hats, as the mohair gives a slight fuzzy halo to the hats. I think the mohair adds to the elegance of the felted items.

This weekend was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which is my favorite event of the year. The weather was about as hot as I ever remember for this early in May, but I was really thankful that it wasn’t raining. I saw lots of friends, enjoyed great food, heard some fabulous traditional music, and oh, yes, some yarn followed me home. I’m still working on my photos from the event but I hope you’ll be hearing more about that in the next day or so. Until then, I bid you goodnight.