Two Yarns

I’m delighted to be participating in the second year of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week.  I enjoyed it so much last year.  Thanks, Eskimimi!

My relationship with yarn has been different from most people’s for about five years – ever since my daughter began professionally dyeing yarn.  At the beginning, I used quite a bit of her yarn but was still using other yarns, but for the last several years, I have essentially used only yarns from Twisted Fiber Art – lucky me!  So these days, the only yarns I can really relate to are Meg’s yarns.

When I checked Ravelry to see which yarns I’d used a lot, I found one that seemed the right one to blog about in spot number one – Kabam!  This is a fingering-weight yarn consisting of 60% merino wool, 30% bamboo and 10% nylon.  I have made many pairs of socks from Kabam.  One of the ones I really enjoy is this pair, for Franklin:

This pair is made with two of Meg’s self-striping colorways (Netherfield and Kismet).  One of the features of this pair is that, due to the two-color brioche stitch, the texture is lush and slinky.  I love how they feel!  I think Kabam, with its bamboo content is great for this kind of stitch.

In addition to the self-striping colorways Meg dyes, she also dyes what she calls Evolutions, which many people seem to call gradience dyeing.  Kabam has been available in Evolutions for some time now.  I was lucky enough to get an Evolution in her Blaze colorway, enough to make a shawl.

The bamboo combined with wool makes a warm but light fabric which feels beautiful to wear.  I love Kabam for lots of purposes.

Another yarn that I love is called Catnip.  This yarn is a single ply, Aran weight 50% merino, 50% silk.  It makes splendid scarves and shawls, and I used it to make a blanket that I just love.

Meg’s self-striping colorways are so much fun to use with mitered squares!

When Meg first started dyeing Evolutions, we were looking for something to show off the style.  We decided that I should knit the then recently released (but already very popular) Fetching fingerless gloves with Catnip.  Meg dyed two matching Evolutions (which was a pain – she now only makes longer Evolutions than those) and I knit the first Fetching.  It did feel marvelous – this yarn is soft as can be!  But the mitt was shapeless and way too loose.  I had discovered something that a silk/merino single was just not ideally suited for.  So although I will be using Catnip lots more, I will think carefully about the characteristics I want in the final product before I start!