Yarn Review: All for Love of Yarn Seella

You may have noticed something new on Knitty.

I designed those socks!  And they are in Knitty, and this is super exciting!  (Hi everybody from Knitty!)  They also happen to be made out of one of my very favorite yarns, All for Love of Yarn Seella.  "Seella" apparently means "strong" in Russian, and at 75% BFL (strong!) and 25% nylon (strong!), this yarn earns it.  I have another pair in this same yarn that I have dried in the dryer, and they come out looking brand new.  I can frog it as many times as I like and it has never gotten ratty on me.  This is seriously yarn of steel.  But it does not feel like steel - it is still luscious and soft on the toes.  And of course it comes in Angela's special non-pooling variegated colorways, for added awesome.

My pattern is socks knit sideways - so the cables run the other way.  I love non-standard sock construction, but I won't just do it for fun, I need a good reason (because there are reasons that toe up and cuff down are standard!).  I'm really pleased with how these turned out, and the cables were interesting to make.  Plus they look awesome with my Sunday shoes.  So they are called Socks of Angst but I don't think they caused me any, what do you know.

Yarn Review: Skeindalous Eartha Sock

So, this company's logo is really entertaining to me.

It comes in really nice colors too, and is super soft.  At 65% merino, 35% bamboo, that's not surprising, and it is lovely and shiny too.  The thing that surprised me is how well it is standing up to my usual ridiculous amount of frogging.  Still knits up just as pretty on the third go!  It is however a little on the splitty side, which is not super surprising as the twist is light for a sock yarn.  Not terrible - but you have to be careful if you're doing crazy decreases or dropping down to fix something.  It would make quite a stunning shawl, as well - nice and durable, but with the softness and drape of a yarn with a less firm twist.  It is also on the lighter end of fingering weight - you might want to knit at a slightly smaller gauge than usual.

Speaking of crazy decreases:

The next pattern in Home State Botany: Colorado - Columbine - is currently in testing, and came out really nicely.  It is also in preorder, and the final pattern should be ready early November!

Yarn Review: Your Mom Knits Lolo

The next pattern in Homestate Botany: Colorado - Indian Paintbrush - is actually already finished.  And even out of testing.  Slowly but surely, I will catch up on all my stuffs.  For this one I used this super awesome yarn:

Oh wait that was just the packaging.  Isn't it *cute?*  It was like Christmas in my mailbox!  I love it when yarnies add these extra little touches.  Also, it came with a super cute "Your Mom Knits" button:

Cute button is cute!  I freely admit I have no use whatsoever for little buttons like this, but I still like it, and it is currently displayed on my Yarn Along the Rockies tote with all my other useless buttons that I like.  And of course the yarn is really pretty, too:

This yarn is actually a little more variegated than it looks in the skein, which scared me at first - I have been burned trying to design in variegated yarn before - but this turned out really pretty.  You can still see the stitchwork, but the yarn is super fun all by itself, too.

My one issue is that this yarn did not take frogging so well.  That being said, I did frog it A LOT.  Seriously, I restarted that first sock literally four times, and one of those was from after the heel turn.  Those first few yards got a little thingy.

All in all though, I would use it again in a heartbeat.  It is super pretty, the finished fabric is really nice, and the customer service really takes the cake.  You just might want to be a better (or at least less error-prone) knitter than I am.

Playing Catch Up

I swear I am still alive and mostly unwounded, even.  I have however been very busy.  Aspen is out of testing, and turned out very nicely.  Thanks again to all the wonderful peeps who helped me out!  I have also released the second sock, Indian Paintbrush:

Again, yay testers - I couldn't do this without you!  I also owe y'all a review of the yarn I used, Your Mom Knits Lolo.  Short version: super scrumptious.  The third and final pattern in this book - Columbine - is coming along, albeit more slowly than I would like.  Which brings us to why I'm only mostly unwounded.  I'll spare you the details, but my right hand had a bit of an accident with a steak knife, so knitting is quite painful right now.  Fortunately typing is not a problem, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on the computer side of my work.

Also, this came out this month:

I may be slow, but I'm also in Interweave, baby!

Lovely, lovely socks...

I know I've been quiet awhile... but, I have a new sock pattern to show for it, at least.  My Branches and Blooms socks are a fun combination of cables and lace, for a sock that has some substance as well as being lacy.  Plus, they're the polar opposite of boring.  :)  On Ravelry for $1.99.

Knitpicks Chroma... I got the new yarn!

I have to be honest, I feel pretty special for actually getting  Chroma in my yarn support package.  The reason is I know several other designers who submitted proposals for Chroma that got something else, plus it is a BRAND NEW yarn line so they're probably swamped with requests for it, which leads me to believe that they're being choosy about who they actually give it to.  If you know for a fact that I'm mistaken, I suppose you can tell me, or you can just let me continue to feel special.

Anyway, Chroma is a single ply, 70% wool 30% nylon blend yarn.  It is self striping, with those long slow color transitions that are so popular right now.  Think Noro, but less rustic.  It is very soft, and so far has NO hay in it.  Maybe I'm the only one, but I find a lot of hay in Noro.  The colors are lovely and rich.  It comes in both fingering and worsted weights.  One thing I can say is even tho it's a wool nylon blend in fingering weight, I don't personally recommend it for socks.  Partially because it's my personal policy not to knit socks out of non-superwash wool, and partially because the fuzzy texture of Chroma, inside a shoe, sounds like felt and pill city to me.  It does make lovely accessories, however, and is very pleasant to work with.  It has a little bit of the thick and thin thing going, but not enough to mess with your gauge.  As with all self striping yarn, I particularly like it for things that have shaping with increases or decreases... I like how the stripes bend around the corners.

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.