Sunday, February 1, 2015

Knitting -- new yarn

OK I told you about the Perly Perle so that you could get some in time to try a summer tee.
It knits fine; you could also crochet some fairly nice tablewear with it in dozens of colors.

Now I'll tell you about Wool of the Andes which is 100% Peruvian wool.
A lot of people have wool allergies or sensitivities, like some relatives of mine.
If it's really an allergy, you don't want to use Wool of the Andes.
If wool prickles you, you might want to try it.
I bought 4 balls of the worsted weight to see how many socks I could get out of them.
It looks like I'll get two pairs.
I used the crew sock pattern I bought years ago, which I have memorized.
If you could spend 8 hours a day at it, you would make up a pair in less than a week on this yarn.
I love the softness.
There are dozens of colors; the Blossom Heather I used is a lovely pink.
There are 3 weights and my plan is to replace a couple of experiments that used a rather prickly wool
with things in Wool of the Andes, like a garter-stitch all-knit light coat with a hood.

By March I'll be able to tell you how well this wool wears; soft as it is, it might pill up quickly
and those pills mean that the yarn is wearing out
and that would mean you want to save it for things you wear on special occasions.
According to reviews on the website, however, it felts well and felt is more durable.
p.s. if you've never felted your knitting before, do NOT buy the Superwash versions of this wool.  Superwash is deliberately made to avoid felting.
p.p.s.  This would also be good yarn for making felted laundry balls because it's not very expensive given the quality but, again, do NOT buy the Superwash version for that.  More on those in another post.

Stay tuned!
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

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