Sat 30 Oct 2010
I had a plan. I’d take a short break from sweaters, and then work on one of the two projects next in the queue. Well. As soon as I’ve said that out loud, we all know that didn’t happen.
Instead, I received a package in the mail on Thursday, and have been enthralled ever since. The package contained yarn from Ruth at Impulse of Delight. I’ve been following her website and eyeing her yarn for about 2 and a half years now. Her sense of color is amazing, and there are many, many colors that I would love to knit with. In fact, there aren’t many colors in her store that I wouldn’t love to knit with. Each colorway is inspired by a photo, and I just love watching how they develop into yarn.
The trouble is, I have a lot of yarn. I have many, many projects to work on, and I’ve never had a specific idea in mind for this yarn. Also, it’s a bit expensive for my taste. I sincerely believe in paying people what they feel is a sustainable working wage, but there’s also a limit to how much I want to spend on a sweater, and there are many, many yarns out there to try. It’s also not as if her business particularly needs my support; her sweater quantities don’t come out very often, and when they are available they sell out very, very fast.
I’m not one to pounce on a project without considering, so I often choose to let the opportunity pass and wait for a different day. (This quality has saved me more stash enhancement than any other, and I am deeply grateful to my creative process for beginning with words like “ponder” and “reflect.”)
Recently, though, I’ve been more and more tempted. At this point, I’ve been pondering for a long time, and I love the yarn. It’s been harder and harder to resist.
About a month ago, there was a big shop update with a lot of sweater yarn. I was tempted. I passed. It was hard. And then, there was a sale.
After much dithering and discussion with my most powerful enabler, I decided that the time was right (even if I do have 4 or 5 things already lined up and waiting), and I went for it. I bought the Beary Surprise colorway, in worsted weight. You should go to her website to see the colors, because they are apparently too deep for my camera to do them justice, and the pictures below are really nothing like right.
I expected that the yarn would arrive, be petted, and put lovingly away to steep in the stash until I found a suitable project for it. Instead, it came in the door and immediately demanded to be wound into a ball. And then, since I already had a ball of yarn, I figured I should probably do some swatching.
I am discovering that this yarn is very definite about its desires. Before I’d even finished winding, I knew I was looking for something nubbly, or at least something with a lot of texture. The blackberry (or trinity) stitch jumped out at me from no fewer than three stitch dictionaries, so I started with that.
I love the feel of the fabric, and I like the pattern when it’s stretched, but I’m not sure I love how it interacts with the colors. They seem to lose some of their nuance all balled up like that. I’m also not sure that I’ll have enough yarn for such a dense texture (I’m slightly close on the yardage; I went with one skein less than I’d usually buy, because I always seem to end up with an extra skein, and this is a pricey sweater as it is.)
The trinity stitch could work well as a border on a simple stockinette fabric, though. Then I’d get the texture and the simple play of colors in the knitting. (Do you sense the vacillation? Hope it’s not making you seasick…)
I wasn’t quite sure that was the perfect stitch pattern, so I headed back to the stitch dictionaries and found this one:
It’s an interesting slipped stitch kind of pattern, but it ends up looking a lot like little cables, without using the yarn that cables would require. Both this and the trinity stitch look a little lacy when blocked out, and I really like them both. I love the feel of the trinity stitch, but I think I like the look of this one better. This would be an overall pattern, where the other would be just an edging. They’re both beautiful, and they both work really well with the high twist BFL yarn.
I’m very, very torn. Any thoughts?
The slipped false cables works really nicely with the colors, but I love how the trinity stitch lets you lose track of the stitches and just respond to texture and color. I agree wholeheartedly to the idea of broad edgings or hems in either of these stitches.
Also, aren’t blackberries a sort of Beary Surprise?
I like both of those, although I think I’m partial to the trinity stitch. I agree though that it would be better as an edging. The yarn is so lovely, too–I love the color.
Lovely link, thank you!
Just based on the stitch, I like the slip stitch one better. I like the fact that it looks like cables and it appears to give the colors more of a soft bleeding into each other feel.
The trinity stitch might be overkill on the texture, but it makes the colors look wonderful.
Overall, I’d have to say the slip stitch. Lovely yarn though. Will have to look into getting some.
I like the slip stitch better because it displays the colours better IMHO. Less pilling, too, I should think, than with the nubbly surface of the trinity stitch.
I like the look of the trinity stitch, maybe a pattern like Surface in Knitty? The yarn is great – we love the same color palette!
Thanks for posting. (I love the blackberry – especially the texture.)
I’ve got the same yarn in stash and it’s cool to see how it knits up – without having to do the work 😉