No prizes for guessing that my favourite colour is red!
My go-to yarn - the yarn which is my starting point when trying to find yarn for a new project - is the highland wool (100% wool, approx. 550 m/100 g, where the colours are mixed from several colours before spinning to give a deeper colour). The main part of my estimated more than 6 kg highland wool is Blackhill Højlandsuld, but I do also have some Holst Yarn Supersoft and Jünik Supersoft. In total, I have 46 different colours, albeit only a few metres of some of them.
This yarn is fairly cheap, the main reason for this being that it contains spinning oil. It's possible to wash out the oil before knitting, but since I'm not sensitive to it, I don't. The presence of the spinning oil means that the yarn blooms when washed and becomes softer. If you prefer purchasing this type of yarn without spinning oil, Isager's Highland Wool is a luxurious (and more pricey) option. To the best of my knowledge, Garnudsalg's Blackhill Højlandsuld and Jünik are from the Scottish spinning mill J.C. Rennie, whereas Holst Yarn is from English Knoll Yarns. You can buy both of them in more places than the ones I have linked to above - Google and Ravelry are your friends. I find that the former is bit easier to wash the spinning oil out of as well as wee bit softer and hence my favourite.
When in need of a yarn heavier than this light fingering yarn, I do one of two things depending on the yarn weight and type of fabric needed: 1) use more than one strand, or 2) combine it with another, thinner yarn. Doing the latter gives me the opportunity to mix with either alpaca or silk mohair for a more drapey and fluffy fabric. For this, I have fairly large stashes of lace alpaca and silk mohair, too:
The lace alpacas are either Isager Alpaca 1 or Blackhill Superfine Alpaca. The silk mohairs are Isager Silk Mohair (by far the most luxurious one), Rowan Kidsilk Haze, or Blackhill Silk Mohair.
It all takes up some space, but I really like being able to rummage through my stash and combine colours (it's not always easy on a screen - especially not with the highland/shetland wool yarns which are indeed made from several colours and therefore made to match with yarns that share one or more of the same solid colours; I remember Kate Davies blogging about this at some point, but I cannot find the post again). Furthermore, I like to be able to start a new project whenever I want without having to wait for new yarn to arrive, let alone time to go to a yarn shop.
3 comments:
Det er så dejligt at kunne hente på hylden, når ideen er der :) Garnudsalgs priser muliggør også en vis lagerbeholdning af lækker uld, lige nu frister de dog næsten over evne.
You might have mentionned it somewhere, but I probably missed it then. When you knit for little ones like your son, do you use superwash wool or the same wool you are using for yourself? I am expecting my first and am often told handwashing stuff will be crazy. I however think it doesn't matter, it's so easy to wash wool garments.
Though I like alpaca, I too tend to use more and more natural and basic yarns. Thanks for your lovely posts!
@Emily: I use the same non-superwash wool for the little one, since I believe he deserves the best and that is not a superwash wool ;) I wash all my knits on wool cycle in the washing machine, so it's not really a hassle to wash them along with my own wool and silk clothes.
If some of his woolen clothes do get - ahem - faeces on them, I first wash off the worst by hand in cold water, then let it lie flat on the floor of the shower, poor boiling water over it and let it lie there until it's cooled down, and finally wash it in the machine on wool cycle. As long as there is no motion or soap, the wool won't felt at high temperature, so I find that this is a good solution for baby clothes.
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