Sunday, February 11, 2007

Acrylic

Yeah, the right needles help. But there's still something less than satisfying about knitting with acrylic yarn. This Baby Yoda sweater is coming along nicely--back done, right front done, left front well under way. But it doesn't have the sensuous appeal of knitting with wool. Is this irrational snobbishness? Maybe--there is certainly wool yarn that is rough and unpleasant. And this yarn--Caron Simply Soft is in fact nice and soft. And my knitting looks very smooth and appealing. But the pull just isn't there. I don't look forward hungrily to picking it up each time.

I am dying to finish this and start on another pair of mittens. I bought 4 skeins of Patons 100% Merino wool at Michaels for $4 a skein. They didn't have any really pretty colors left, but I got 2 skeins of charcoal gray and 2 skeins of a warm dark brown. I'm thinking men's mittens. Perhaps I could add a bit of red to the cuff to spark it up, if desired. Christine wants me to show her how to knit mittens with 2 circular needles, so I need to cast on another mitten, right? (I was thinking of doing a third blue mitten for Kristen, but if she brings them home in March, I can just tear out the top and add a half inch there. No need to do the whole mitten over again. Also, I am thinking that I should take out the thumb on my original mittens and make it all stockinette, now that I know an easier way to do it. The rim of purls around the base of the left thumb are kind of annoying.)

It's raining and gray here today, and this is the last day of my l-o-n-g winter break, so I think I'll go to Barnes and Noble and drink coffee and knit this morning. Finish the Baby Yoda! Be ready to start something new! (I still want to try again on the cable technique too, and maybe make that shawl with cabled pockets. But if it's for Mommy, she's kind of allergic to wool. And I really don't want to invest the time in Jiffy Yarn. Maybe I can find some alpaca or something that would make it pleasant and non-allergenic.)

No comments: