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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giveaway winner announced!

November 25, 2013 by 7 Comments

It’s time for the drawing for NYAC’s second ever giveaway!  Congratulations to the author of the blog

happytomakeyou

winnerTo the winner: please e-mail me at davish14 (AT) winthrop (DOT) edu and include your full name and address so that I can mail you your prize!  Please do this by Thursday Nov. 28, or I will need to draw another winner.  Congratulations again!

Thank you everyone for entering, and if you were not the winner, there’s always next time!  I love having giveaways so there will be more chances in the future for sure!

 

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loopy doopy misery and fun

November 22, 2013 by 24 Comments

Being sick sucks.  Something came on all of a sudden yesterday and I had a fever during the night.  Now I’m just stuck with a runny nose and clogged sinuses, which usually leads to chronic ear infections.  I’m on a decent number of medications and am feeling a bit loopy.  Kinda like “WHEEE!” and “UGH!” at the same time.

On the bright side, I think I’m going to love my job!  We get free lunches every day, flexible schedules, insurance benefits, paid vacation time and sick days, and my coworkers are great, not to mention the interesting times with clients!  I don’t often do selfies but here’s me at my desk!

first week of workThe lime colored Patagonia vest was from the thrift store that our program operates, but it’s closing so one of my coworkers snagged this for me!  They’re already accepting me and it feels so nice to be liked!  🙂

So do you have things that you specifically like about your job, or are you working in a place that makes you unhappy?   And how many of you are stay-at-home moms or “housewives?”  I’m just curious because it seems to me that ladies who are all about family consumer sciences (that’s what they call home-ec these days) or being at home are the ones who knit and crochet the most (although I have seen a couple of business women knitting in public over the years).

Speaking of knitting in public, I saw a lady knitting in the waiting room of the allergist’s office yesterday.  I kept trying to watch her because I was curious, but I think she noticed and thought I was staring at her in a way that connotates that knitting is stupid (which, as we all know, is not the truth).  Do you feel like people look at you in a snobbish way when you knit/crochet in front of others?

Well I’ve rambled enough — there wasn’t even anything project related in this post!  That will be remedied next time.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you 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!

Filed Under: announcements, crochet, knitting Tagged With: , , , , , ,

a finished cowl & other fun stuff

November 3, 2013 by 21 Comments

A third chunky circle scarf has joined the ranks of yarncrafted items in the front closet:

chunky circle scarf 3 1Yep, the pattern is good enough to make at least 3.  Granted, at least one will be a Christmas gift, but I don’t want to let go of this one because grey is my new favorite color.

chunky circle scarf 3 2This one was made with Cascade Yarns Heritage Paints, which is a fingering weight yarn.  The pattern calls for either 2 strands of worsted held together or chunky yarn, but I used the Navajo 3-ply technique to triple-strand the fingering weight yarn, making it suitable for this project.  I may do a tutorial on that if anybody is interested, so let me know!

Yesterday Chris and I went to the Renaissance Festival with a bunch of friends.  It was really fun, but I only got a few pictures.  My favorite is from the falconry show, where many raptors were brought out and flew across the audience.  This one is an eagle owl:

photo 4 (2)The friends we went with also gave me some yarn-related birthday presents which I thought I’d share with ya’ll (this is the same friend who made the yarn bowl for the giveaway).  A wonderful ball winder, which I have already used:

photo 2 (1)She also gave me a needle gauge and some needle holders, which should make things a lot easier!  Did you know that, while KnitPicks needles are my favorite, the interchangeable ones aren’t stamped with their size?  Now that’s not a problem!

photo 1 (1)After arriving home from our visit to the Renaissance Fair with our wonderful friends, we were getting out of the car and found this little girl outside with no tags:

photo 1 (3)She looks like a little pittie/lab mix, and she’s sweet as can be!  We asked around and I think she belongs to some neighbors we haven’t been able to catch at home yet, so she’s inside with us.  She’s not housebroken, she’s covered in fleas, and she was very nervous about being in a house with new people, but I pulled out the trundle bed and some washable pillows and blankets and slept with her last night.  She and our dog Zero are getting along fine, but if we have to keep her for the rest of the day we’re gonna have to give her a bath in Dawn dish soap (which kills fleas better than actual flea shampoo).  I hope she’s OK with water.

Well that’s about it for today, I think.  See you soon!

 

 

 

 

 

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