Katy Ereira

2KCBWDAY1 - A Tale of Two Yarns

This blog post is part of the second annual knitting and crochet blogging week. I know, I know, I'm a day late in starting, but it was my housemate's birthday yesterday so I wouldn't have had time. Anyway...

Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

Yarn #1 - Manos Del Uruguay

I purchased two skeins of this yarn from Loop a couple of years ago whilst in London. I have thus far done nothing more than roll into a ball and briefly play with one of them - I simply haven't yet found a project worthy of their use. I briefly contemplated arm warmers, and am currently contemplating a hat - if you have any recommendations of (small - 2 skein or less) projects you think would suit this yarn, let me know!

What I love about this yarn:

• It's my favourite colour.
• It's hand spun, and you can clearly see where the yarn varies in thickness which produces a strangely textured fabric when knit.
• It's hand dyed which means there are subtle variations in colour throughout each skein and between different skeins - I think this equates to character!
• The company Manos Del Uruguay employs nearly 1,000 women in 17 rural villages around Uruguay, providing much needed employment opportunities.
• It is pure wool, extremely soft, and the materials come from agriculture in the same communities where the yarn is spun.

Yarn #2 - Mohair

This is more of a gripe about a certain kind of yarn than any specific skein I possess. One of the first yarns I ever tried crocheting with was mohair--a mistake! I originally purchased it after playing with plain white yarn so that I could try something more textured, but as a novice it made the learning process harder than it needed to be. It's so thin and fluffy that it is extremely difficult to see individual stitches and thus making it difficult to know where to crochet! I imagine that it would be easier to knit with mohair, but I still have two skeins of the stuff lying around in my stash that I haven't touched since. Recommendations of nice projects to try with mohair appreciated!