Review: Moonshine

I am a yarn and fiber nerd.  I freely admit it.  So when I saw the interesting construction of Moonshine, I had to give it a try.  Moonshine is 73% nylon, 10% kid mohair, 9% wool, and 8% metallic, however the different fibers aren't simply blended together.  The yarn is two plies, one of which is actually a knit tube.  This ply is smooth and shiny, and contains most or all of the nylon and all of the metallic fibers.  The second ply is much thinner, and a blend of most or all of the wool and all of the kid mohair.  This leads the yarn to be smooth to the touch, yet have the fuzzy halo of kid mohair.  It's very soft, and the little glitzy bits of metallic fiber are a fun compliment, rather than an unnecessary distraction as metallic fiber often is.  The color repeats are quite short, which means less chances for unpleasant pooling.

The one downside I can find to this yarn is that, like all mohair yarns, it is incredibly difficult to frog.  Seriously, that halo is like freaking glue once a stitch is formed. But that's the way all yarns with halo are, so if you want halo, you're just going to have to be darn sure what you're doing with it before you start.  My advice is to get an extra ball for swatching, because you're going to want to do as little frogging as possible.

Do you have something you want me to review? Needles? Yarn? Notions? Drop me a line! marusempai at gmail dot com Put "Maru reviews" in the subject line.

Review: Panda Cotton

In all honesty, I think I like every Crystal Palace Yarns yarn I've tried.  Panda Cotton is no exception.  It is a fingering weight 59% bamboo, 25% cotton, 16% elastic nylon plied yarn.  I think it's an excellent choice for wool-free socks -- it is soft and springy and durable.  I freely admit that my Panda Cotton socks aren't very old, but they seem to be showing wear at a rate comparable to any of my wool socks.  It also comes in 50 g (as opposed to 100 g) balls, which I think is a perk.  The smaller put up makes it easier to get exactly how much you need if you are doing a larger project, yet isn't so small that it causes problems in smaller projects.  The yardage is pretty good at 182 per ball.  This is slightly less than most comparable wool yarns, however I've found this to be pretty standard.  Cotton just weighs more per yard than wool does, as far as I can tell.

Do you have something you want me to review? Needles? Yarn? Notions? Drop me a line! marusempai at gmail dot com Put "Maru reviews" in the subject line.

Swordtail Shawl

Now available for sale!  My inspiration for this pattern was a picture of a beautiful Thai butterfly, the five barred swordtail.  I used different height stitches within a single fan to create a lovely crisp looking lace.  Crocheted in Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Silk, it takes three balls of the main color and one of the contrast color for the suggested size at gauge, however because it is worked from the center top out, it is easy to change the size to suit your taste.

Yarn review time!

Yarn support is the BEST part of being a designer.  It is like Christmas early!  My most recent batch has been Panda Silk from Crystal Palace Yarns.  It is a fingering weight, 52% bamboo, 43% machine washable merino wool, 5% combed silk blend.  Also, I might add, delightful to work with.  This time around, I'm designing a crochet shawl in it:

 It's lovely and soft, and that silk gives it a nice sheen.  I've had no problems with splittiness, either, and it has excellent stitch definition.  Wide range of colors.  Admittedly I selected this yarn myself, specifically for this pattern, so I may be a bit biased, but I love this stuff.

Silk, glorious silk!

Silk is, without question, one of my very favorite fibers.  Nothing quite says "luxury" like a little silk  Which is funny, given that silk is basically caterpillar spit.  It is made from the cocoons of the silk worm, a little caterpillar that eats mulberry leaves.  It is not a vegan fiber.  The first step in the process of turning cocoons into yarn is dropping them into BOILING WATER!  Needless to say, the little larva isn't coming out of this one alive.  After that, either an end is picked up and the cocoon is unreeled from there (reeled silk), or the cocoon is stretched out over a frame.  If you're a spinner you may recognize this part -- it's where we get silk hankies, caps, and bells.

The biggest misunderstanding about silk, I think, is that everyone thinks of it as an extremely fragile fiber, handle with care.  This is both true and false.  Individual silk fibers are actually incredibly strong, as long as they are dry.  They are just incredibly fine, so they catch on things easily, and shockingly fragile when wet... especially if it's hot water.  That's why they dunk the cocoons in boiling water before they unwind it.  It opens up the fibers and softens them.

What does this mean for us silk users?  Well, silk does have to be washed very carefully, lest it break.  I treat silk like I do fine wool that I'm afraid will felt.  No agitation, no wringing!  The other option is to get it dry cleaned.  Once it dries (flat!), however, silk is pretty durable.  I think that silk blends are great, for example, for a very special baby item that you wouldn't mind hand washing.  My youngest's coming home sweater, for example, is a silk blend.

Pure silk is also very expensive, generally speaking.  There are some exceptions.  If you were to say order your silk from eBay, where there are a number of sellers from overseas who carry 100% silk yarns, you can get a real steal.  That being said, it's difficult to say if it's really silk, or if it's actually rayon.  Of course if you conclusively proved it to be rayon, eBay's fraud department would help you out, but it's difficult to prove one way or the other.  That being said, there are a number of very affordable silk blends.  I'm very fond of Misti Alpaca Pima Cotton and Silk, and of Crystal Palace Yarns Panda silk.  Both give you that sheen and silky hand, without the crazy price tag.