Tuesday, March 13, 2007

A little yarn love

I'm one of those seemingly rare knitters who doesn't have a stash problem. In fact, my stash of sock yarn doubled this week when two new skeins came into my life! New yarn is pretty rare chez Brainy, so I'm going to share the love.

First, I bought this skein of Colinette JitterBug for myself at local yarn shop Mouliné earlier this week:


It was love at first sight. The colourway is "Toscana" (#55); the yarn is washable merino. I did some tweaking in Photoshop to get as close as I could to the true colours, but the olive green is actually warmer than it looks in this picture. (The colours look nothing like the product shot on the Colinette site, which is bizarre.) It's gorgeous. Gorgeous!

Then, much to my suprise, reader Sandra sent me a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in return for a small favour:


Again, I tweaked; again, I didn't get it quite right: the colours are actually a tiny bit darker than this. Beautiful. The colourway is "Bitterroot Rainbow"; the yarn is 60% superwash wool, 25% mohair, and 15% nylon. It is so soft! It's my first Bearfoot, and I keep picking up the skein and squeezing it and petting it. Love it.

Now I have four skeins of really great sock yarn in my stash (the other two are Fleece Artist merino that I've been holding onto for more than a year), so I'd better get knitting! As I said, I rarely buy yarn, but I'm making an effort to add quality to my stash. My natural tendency is to be cheap, which means I often end up with something that isn't quite what I actually wanted. But I buy yarn so rarely, and I love knitting so much, that I am really trying to splurge a little bit. It's worth it -- looking at my beautiful four-skein sock-yarn stash makes me very happy, and four skeins is plenty to have on hand.

By far, most of the socks I've knit have used sturdy, practical, inexpensive yarns (e.g., Patons Kroy, Regia 4-ply). That stuff is great -- it wears really well. And because I'm cheap and thrifty, I've always kept the leftovers, even though I had no idea what I'd ever use them for. (What? Not another pair of these eyesores?) And then Robyn came to my rescue! She's making one of these amazing mitred-square baby blankets, so I passed on all of those leftover bits of sock yarn to her at last week's knitting get-together. I loved being able to pay it forward, after Nicole and Jenny both sent me fabulous worsted-weight wool leftovers for my crocheted blanket. And, of course, I loved getting rid of yarn that I wasn't going to use. I'm happy when things that come around go around.

23 comments:

Mona Schmidt said...

I have the exact same colourway of Mountain Color Bearfoot sitting on my shelf waiting to be used - it's one of my favourite sock yarns!

Holly Jo said...

You'll love the bearfoot. It is one of my favorite socks yarns - the colors are unbelievable and it wears well. The fiber combination is perfect.

Anonymous said...

bearfoot is a fantastic yarn. you have something to look forward to! i love jitterbug with all my heart - i have one hank but lust for all the other colours as well. it's just a bummer the meterage is so crap.

Anonymous said...

I am happy to hear that you could return the karmic favor! Now I want to see more pictures of that blanket or I might have to make one myself. No one wants that, especially the UFOs I have vowed to finish this month.

Nadia said...

I'm getting in that kind of "small but favourites" mood too, especially with my wardrobe. Too much stuff crowds the brain.

normanack said...

I'm in the process of mercilessly weeding my quilting stash. It feels so good to get so much fabric that I'll never use out of the house. It was a burden; now I feel free.

Chris said...

I feel a wee bit faint about the size of your sock yarn stash.... Such restraint!

LaurieM said...

I really enjoyed scrolling through your list of completed socks. Nothing wrong with any of the yarns you've used! All your socks look great. Except for the monsters. Shudder. A baby blanket is a much better choice.

Do you ever actually wear the monster socks? Or does your hand cringe away from selecting them out of the sock drawer?

Anonymous said...

Oh yes! Get knitting on that Fleece Artist Merino! I made a pair of socks for my daughter from it and was so sad when it was over. Total Pleasure!

Anonymous said...

ew the picture on the colinette site is horrid, i'm so glad yours isn't that color!!! :) as i'm sure i've told you i've found that having a stash does not mean you ever knit from the stash and then it just hangs around your neck dragging you down like a big bag of gold you threw away and never got a sweater for it. i'm getting rid of it as much as i can bear to so perhaps i will actually use up what i have left.

Adrienne said...

BEAUTIFUL!!! I need some lol

Ruby Banshee said...

Hey! I happen to love those eyesores.

I've knit a couple of things with Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and they're two of my favorite knits: a simple feather and fan scarf sadly lost in Portland, and the Child's Placket Neck sweater. Congrats!

Ruby Banshee said...

Hey! I happen to love those eyesores.

I've knit a couple of things with Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and they're two of my favorite knits: a simple feather and fan scarf sadly lost in Portland, and the Child's Placket Neck sweater. Congrats!

Ruby Banshee said...

Hey! I happen to love those eyesores.

I've knit a couple of things with Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and they're two of my favorite knits: a simple feather and fan scarf sadly lost in Portland, and the Child's Placket Neck sweater. Congrats!

Anonymous said...

I LOVE that Jitterbug stuff. When it came out, I SWORE that would be the only sock yarn I used. Yeah, well, we know how that story ends.

Stacey said...

Nice new additions! I am the same way - I don't buy often, so when I do, I like to make it something good!

spajonas said...

oooh, what a gorgeous stash addition! i know that, even though my stash is large, it makes me quite happy to look at it, organize it, and take pictures of it :) crazy, i know. but i love color and texture!

K. said...

I totally fell for the Jitterbug yarn too...it's so shiny and spiffy...*sigh* I also got some Mountain Colours Bearfoot, but I'm looking for a good pattern to show off the sexy color...if ever you see one, I'm all ears!

knittingphilistine said...

the Toscana is YUMMY! I haven't ever tried Jitterbug, because, well, I can tell nothin' from those horrible images on their website. Next time I am craving, though, I'll know to choose Toscana!

maryse said...

i love the toscana color -- i've seen it in point 5.

and i love your stashbuster socks. they're awesome.

Anonymous said...

That green is lovely.

Anonymous said...

Bearfoot is the freaking BEST. My fave sock yarn EVER. Washes softer and thicker as you go...... And I have that color waiting to be knit up.

Anonymous said...

The jitterbug is gorgeous!