Dye For Yarn Merino/Baby Camel yarn review

December 3, 2013 by 9 Comments

The lovely ladies at DyeForYarn/DyeForWool very kindly sent me a hank of yarn to review here on my blog.  They did not pay me for my review, so everything written here is my honest opinion about this yarn.  The yarn is their Merino/BabyCamel fingering weight yarn in the colorway Dyeing Rose (click here to be taken to their Etsy page for this specific yarn, in all the lovely colorways!).

first impressions

The yarn shipped very quickly all the way from Germany!  It arrived in a beautiful hank.

reviewhankIsn’t it gorgeous?  Here’s a close-up of the tags:

reviewtagsYou can see that this single-ply fingering weight yarn is made of 55% Merino superwash and 45% baby camel.  The hank is 100g and 480m (525yd).  These hanks are currently selling for $25.13 USD, which is a very reasonable price for the yardage you get and the fact that this yarn is hand dyed and everything.

Here it is after I used my new ball winder to wind it into a handy cake (and I should mention that there was not a single knot to be found in the whole hank):

reviewcake

working with this yarn

I knitted a hat with this yarn (more details on the specifics in a bit), and I very much enjoyed the experience.  The yarn is soft (a pleasant but not necessarily common attribute in wool yarns), and it has a beautiful, ethereal halo.  There was a little shedding of fibers during the knitting process, but it was not bad at all — it didn’t even make me sneeze and it didn’t get fuzz all over my clothes like some yarns do.  Since I used the magic loop method, I pulled the first/last stitches of each half of the hat tightly to try to avoid ladders up the sides of my hat, and the yarn turns out to be very strong.  This makes it a higher quality yarn in my estimation, since other single-ply yarns I’ve used have been pretty easy to pull apart.

the knitted product

reviewfinished4

The hat pattern is called Plume Beanie and it is free to download on Ravelry.  It has a very long ribbed edge which is meant to be casually folded/pushed on top of itself, and a lace pattern that is not too complicated.

reviewfinished2

I went up a couple of needle sizes to obtain the correct gauge, although I think I still slightly undershot it and would use one more size up if I made it again (details here on my project page).  Even so, the finished hat is amazing and the pattern was the perfect choice for this yarn.  There’s even over half of the ball left, so I’ll be able to make something else too!

reviewfinished1

the verdict

This is definitely one of the best fingering weight yarns I’ve ever used, if not THE best.  The next time I need some more fingering weight yarn, this Merino/BabyCamel yarn by DyeForYarn will probably be what I go for (perhaps in another beautiful colorway, or maybe I’ll try their other yarns, too)!  The owners Nicole and Cordula are so nice and prompt, which only adds to my desire to shop with them again.  To you dear readers I say give it a go — it’s worth every penny!

reviewfinished3

I hope you enjoyed my first official yarn review, thank you so much for stopping by!

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a hat and my new job

November 20, 2013 by 16 Comments

I started my new job this week, and it’s going very well!  Thank you all for your encouragement and kind words last week when I was so nervous.  I’m still a little nervous because there are still so many things to learn, but the people I work with are great and I’ve enjoyed my days there so far.

My needles have been busy but I can’t share everything yet — I’ve finished some Christmas presents but the intended recipients might just visit my blog here!  My dad probably won’t, though, so I’ll chance showing you his Christmas present:

gsb2It’s a very stretchy hat knit on US size 10 needles with chunky yarn (I used Berroco VIntage Chunky).  The pattern is called Giftie Slouchie Beanie and it is free.

gsb1

It looks good on men and women, and I’m in the process of making a green one as well (but I’m not sure who that’ll go to).

My Mom’s Christmas present is finished but I can’t share it yet because she might see it here.  I’ve also started a project that’s sort of a secret — it involves a big yarn review at the end!  So basically I have a few WIPs, none of which are the Christmas ornaments I told myself I’d make to give as gifts…

Just as a reminder, the drawing for the giveaway will take place on the 25th — that’s only 5 more days!  Don’t forget to enter!

 

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answers, thrumming, and a full day

November 12, 2013 by 11 Comments

The local public library in my new town is HUGE — I got a library card and immediately went to the knitting section too see if I could find the books some of you recommended that I check out after my last post (when I asked about double knitting).  The books suggested were not there, but I found this:

IMG_2352It’s a very large and heavy book written pretty recently, and it does indeed have a little section about double knitting — turns out the recommended way to cast on for double knitting is the tubular cast on, which is also good for k1p1 ribbing.  Yay answers!

The book, however, did not have a section on thrumming, which I learned about the other day and REALLY want to try.  I’d never heard of it, so I’m going to take the chance that some of you might not know and explain what it is.  Thrumming is when you work short pieces of wool into the stitches of a knitted object, such as a mitten or a hat, so that the loose ends are on the inside and provide ultimate insulation.  They usually make some sort of dotted pattern on the surface, and you don’t have to tie them off or anything because the loose wool fibers entwine on the inside and keep everything in place.  Click here for a photo example of thrummed mittens on the inside, and for a tutorial on how to do it.

Thrummed mittens would be completely unnecessary here in South Carolina (unless I decided to camp on a mountain with no fire for days on end), but I might make some anyway just for the fun of it.  If I don’t end up doing that, I’ll eventually try to make a similar pair of mittens to the ones pictured above (the pattern looks like a good one for a first pair).  You can apparently even use the thrumming technique with crochet!  Have any of you tried thrumming before?  If so, what was your experience with it?

My day did not start off well — I woke up late for something important, which was very embarrassing and did not at all look good.  Then I got my first allergy shots at my new clinic here in town.  After that was the library trip, which made the day better, then dinner at Panera Bread (it’s one of the few restaurants that’s not awkward when you go alone).  Once I’d been home for a little bit, some Mormons came knocking door to door to talk about their beliefs, and I didn’t want to be rude so I talked to them for a while (even though I’m not interested in becoming a Mormon).  They were nice but it was a little weird.

Well, that’s all for right now.  I’m off to browse through Ravelry and maybe start a knitted hat for a Christmas present.  See you next time!

 

 

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need some advice & life update

November 7, 2013 by 30 Comments

Hello everyone!  Do you know anything about double knitting?  I’ve never made anything by double knitting before, so I don’t know how to do the cast on edge properly or the decreases on the inside layer of, say, a hat.  Any recommendations?  I believe there are probably many ways to do it, but what do you think is best?

I thought about just knitting a regular top-down hat and then switching colors at the end, going on to create a mirrored bottom-up hat that’s attatched tot he first, making a bullet shape.  Then I could just flip one of them inside the other and get the same effect!  That seems like taking the easy way out, though, and I want to at least know how to do it properly before choosing how I want to do it.

In other news, I finally got a job!  Yippee!  A real, full time job in the counseling field)!  It’s at a nonprofit place nearby that predominantly does psychosocial rehabilitation, I believe, serving a majority of bipolar and schizophrenic clients that have been referred for this specific kind of help.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing precisely, so I’m incredibly nervous.  Something was mentioned about a caseload of about 15 a week and groups of up to 50 people.  I think I’m going to freeze up from nerves, I really do (because I myself have social anxiety which often makes coherent speech in front of strangers nigh impossible, turns my face into a beet, and makes me forget what I’m doing).  Mom says, however, that there will surely be a short training period so that I can get settled in.  I think I am going to go through some of my more relevant textbooks from grad school and refresh my knowledge and skills base, just in case.  I swear, I’m more nervous now than I was when I was waiting to hear yes or no!  I start on the 18th so the next week and a half will be nerve wracking, I’m sure.  Time to pull out some distracting activities (or as we say in the counseling field, coping skills)!

Thanks for stopping by — I hope to see you back again soon!

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Navajo 3-ply tutorial is up

November 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

There is now a tutorial for the Navajo 3-ply method available.  This method allows you to use 3 strands of 1 ball at once, eliminating the need for multiple balls of yarn when tripling up.  It works with both knitting and crocheting, and is ideal for when you have a ton of fingering or lace weight yarn that you don’t know what to do with.  Turn it into worsted or bulky yarn with this method!  To view the tutorial, you can find it under “crochet tutorials” in the drop-down menu bar, or you can

click here

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoy the tutorial!

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