Day 1: A Tale of Two Yarns

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.

I have been having the hardest time with this post. I think it's mostly because I wanted to make something more out of it than just talking about 2 yarns. It's only the first day and I'm already stressed about this blog week.

I started knitting about 6 or 7 years ago. I can't remember exactly. I just remember that it was sometime after my youngest was born. He's 7 now so......

I started out probably just like everyone else. I bought the stuff at Wal-mart, some needles and several books. That was not a great experience. I finally broke down and took a class that the local school district was having in the evening.

I learned on acrylic yarn and didn't give it much thought back then. This was back when 'fun fur' yarns were all the rage and I knit sooooo many things out of that. *I'm shuddering inside* Don't get me wrong...that stuff had it's day, but you can only knit so many furry scarves.

Along with the fur yarns came ribbon yarn. (Not to be confused with sari ribbon yarn which in my opinion is totally different).

I really wanted to love this stuff. It was different and it came in so many pretty colors. No matter what I did with it though, it never worked for me. I couldn't get it to lay right or work on the needles. It frustrated me so much. But it was more frustrating having this yarn I wanted to use give me fits.

As I'm a glass half full kind gal most of the time, I forced myself to find a use for this yarn because I couldn't just leave it be. After much thought I realized it was perfect for wrapping things. This yarn is inexpensive and there is so much of it that it puts rolls of true ribbon to shame. I have been wrapping packages, presents and hanging tags with the same three skeins I bought now for nearly four years. That is a heck of a lot of ribbon. :o)

In the middle of this trying, acrylic yarn time, I found my true yarn love.....sock yarn. The funny thing is I don't knit socks.

One trip to a brand new local yarn shop and my fate was sealed. All of those colors! I wanted them all and I had absolutely no idea what to do with yarn that tiny and fragile.

Over the years I have learned how many things there are that you can knit with sock yarn and not have to make socks. This love of sock yarn is in fact what prompted me to start our yarn business. I can never have enough of these hand-painted lovelies.

If I had to choose a favorite sock yarn (which really is very difficult to do), I'd have to go with just a basic 100% superwash merino. It knits up fabulous, look and feels great, and the best part is it's washable. It's my go-to for baby things.

There are many, many fabulous yarn makers and dyers out there, but I will always be partial to my yarn just because I made it and every color was some how inspired by my family, my farm and my life.


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