This week, while at my LYS I fell in love with a new yarn. As I held it I instantly knew it’s potential. It comes in lovely 50g skeins, so I could really squish and caress, and yes, this stuff is amazing. Why didn’t I see it before? Because I was like a schoolgirl, with a schoolgirl crush on elite British wools, I guess that I had my eyes closed.
I bought four skeins for barely more than $20, and brought them home in their cheery little orange paper bag. It felt wonderful. I showed it to Jeff , who is my scratchiness barometer (that is, he is an extreme case of FOSW ~~ fear of scratchy wool) and he was impressed with it ! So in recent days I have been thinking about my new find. I have decided that as a developing designer, it is important that I am ‘yarn conscienscious’, yet not yarn elitist. Well, in most cases. That is, in most cases I will design something entirely for itself, using a yarn that I feel compliments the design, and also that I feel is easily accessible, and easily affordable. ((Though , still, there are those special design occasions to showcase beautiful specialty & heritage yarns, for which I am very happy to be elitist . . . lol )).
A challenge indeed. One of the reasons I have liked Jamiesons Of Shetland Spindrift, a 2ply fingering yarn, is because it is not expensive, but very affordable, considering it’s imported from the actual Shetland Isles. However, I have learned by observation, that not everyone has easy access to this British wool , even though it is growing in popularity as the boundless community of the internet brings us knitters together globally.
I am talking about a very popular yarn which I never noticed because I was maybe being a bit of a yarn snob. Yet at the same time, I developed this closet tendency to buy inexpensive yarn on-line. Strange indeed. Though I adore the ease of my on-line purchases , I do happen to live up in the backwoods, and it’s not always cost-effective to drive to the next county to purchase exactly what I want. I have had a yarn epiphany regarding this LYS exclusive . . .
I’m talking about Cascade 220 yarn folks, in fingering weight. 100% Peruvian Highland Wool. 50g skeins = 273 yards / 250 meters. 2 ply. About $5 per skein. What I have here is four neutral undyed colors in Jet, Charcoal, Doeskin, and Natural.
Striking resemblance to the yarns with which I created my Vineyard Rows Highland Bonnet .
My Vineyard Rows bonnet (tam) however, will remain a Jamiesons Spindrift novelty , as it is inspired so much by Scottish Highlands that I believe the Scottish wool is completely perfect, but I will list the Cascade 220 fingering as an alternate yarn on it’s pattern pages.
You can guess that the next up & coming thing I am working on , will be a Vineyard Rows design, and in the yarn which is beautiful yet humble and very likely at your own LYS. I still have a crush on Virtual Yarns Hebridean and Jamiesons Of Shetland, but perhaps I’ll broaden my more local horizons , this side of The Pond. I tell you, Peru really has it going on these days when it comes to yarn !
