sweet and sour
sorry for the bad title, but it kinda explains how I feel about that sock yarn I showed you yesterday. you know the one that's harder to find than the holy grail or the city of atlantis. yeah. that one.
I originally started to knit the pomo socks from knitty, without swatching. that was a waste of time, the cuff was way too big on 2.75mm and I got lazy and didn't want to swatch. this yarn goes from being nice to knit with to being a pure pita. can you guess why? that pic on top shows you the FIVE plies this yarn is made up of! can we say splitty!? on top of that each ply is made up of two plies. did I mention this is cotton (96% cotton 4% elite)? I've gotten used to working with the plies, but I can still see the working yarn splitting before I knit it. sour.
I don't know what the suggested needle or gauge is since none is mentioned on the ball band. compared to str lightweight(left) and koigu (far right) it seems to be your standard sock weight, except it doesn't compress nice and tight like wool. (sour) after the first needles failed, I chose to knit with 2.5mm (addi us 1's) and ended up getting 7.25-7.5 spi. the resulting fabric is soft and a little firm, but not annoyingly so. sweet.
I tried to pick a stitch pattern that wouldn't involve too many moves since I've noticed this yarn makes my wrist hurt (sour). I randomly picked the one you see because it's interesting without too many acrobatics, just a few ssk's and m1's. I was surprised to see how even my stitches look, I always hear how unforgiving cotton is. (sweet) the stitches only get ugly when the plies spread in an increase or decrease stitch. I like what I've worked out so far, but I think I'm going to flip the pattern to change the curving. I find myself staring at the sock with the toe as the top d'oh! this is going to be a slow moving project, but something tells me that it's going to be fun.
two more random notes:
so far there's no circular pooling (sweet)
the yarn isn't machine washable (sour)
Comments
Sometimes yarns that are hand dyed just say machine washable because they are afraid that the colors will bleed and then people will get mad at the company. The yarn itself might be washable- did you do a swatch? Your sock looks awesome although I'm sorry to hear about all the sour. The color actually looks like it should be called sweet and sour, with the blue being sweet like cotton candy, and the green being sour like that Rowan Cork color. Even though you mentioned all the bad stuff about it, I still want some! PS I've been stalking your website for that stripety sock yarn you have been teasing us with.
Posted by: Illanna | May 16, 2006 05:39 PM
you mean don't right? :) yeah I figured that, but remember that str is superwash. just wish this one would just say it. I'm also guessing it's all the plies that make it a bit dangerous to throw it in the wash.
Posted by: yahaira | May 16, 2006 05:46 PM
I hope it turns out sweet in the end! It looks really good now.
Posted by: jillian | May 16, 2006 05:54 PM
and yet cascade fixation (cotton/elastic) is marked as hand-wash also, but i machine wash it. Maybe they are worried about the elastic breaking down? Do you have enough to do a machine-wash-swatch?
Posted by: holly | May 16, 2006 05:56 PM
I think the final product will be sweet! The colors are awesome.
Posted by: Jennifer | May 16, 2006 06:59 PM
Sorry about all the up's & downs with that yarn!!
It sucks when working with a yarn is hard on your wrists!!
Posted by: Leah | May 16, 2006 07:00 PM
I don't like splitiness. I hope the current project stays on the sweet list long enough to be finished!
Posted by: amanda | May 16, 2006 07:18 PM
What's the final score there?!
Posted by: Chris | May 16, 2006 07:33 PM
cotton not machine washable? huh.
Posted by: gleek | May 16, 2006 08:25 PM
Uh oh :-P
Posted by: Iraida | May 16, 2006 08:48 PM
^ adding to my first post, cotton sock yarn? My experience with cotton has never been good. I can't imagine that stuff on my toesies
Posted by: Iraida | May 16, 2006 08:50 PM
um, yes the final score? must we wait? I am current on the fence fixation wise soooo, I understand!
Posted by: Joelene | May 16, 2006 10:57 PM
I also scoured the earth for some of this yarn. Finally found some and am now working on a pair of socks. I share many of your same sentiments on the sweet and sour nature of the yarn.
Posted by: diana | May 17, 2006 06:25 AM
Ugh - what a battle! But, the resulting sock so far looks great!
Posted by: Stacey | May 17, 2006 08:52 AM
Sweet and sour is a perfect name for that colorway, anyway. I can imagine those candies in a limey green. For what it's worth, the resulting fabric looks great and I hope you'll end up happy enough with your socks!
Posted by: Karma | May 17, 2006 10:49 AM
Well so far it looks fab (sweet) and sounds fun to knit (sweet). More sweet than sour I hope. And I agree that would be a great name for that colorway!
Posted by: aja | May 17, 2006 11:27 AM
just cruising through and i saw your splitty yarn, and figured i'd mention this:
sometimes i find that if a yarn is splitty as i'm knitting it, i start from the other end of the yarn. the splittyness is sometimes due to the natural twisting of the yarn which occurs as you're knitting, and if you start at the other end, you'll be twisting it back up, instead of sending a twist along the yarn in the reverse direction of how it is spun. i hope that makes sense!
Posted by: amber | September 27, 2006 02:47 PM