Falling in Love with Color

Hey Everyone!

A few months ago I went a bit crazy shopping for sock yarn, and bought a whole bunch of the KnitPicks Palette yarn in many different colors. Most of which have either been in the earthy – natural range that remind you of being outdoors, and remind me of hiking in the woods. Most of the rest of the yarn are jewel tones, which are some of my favorites.

I am currently working on a pair of socks, for myself, using the KnitPicks Palette Yarn in Larch Heather, and I am loving the color. To me this green reminds me of being out hiking in the woods, and the color of the moss and other plants that I have seen growing in the woods.

While I am not usually one to pick out the earth tones to wear, especially since they are not the colors that look the best on me, I am having fun with colors. I am picking out ones I like that I wouldn’t normally wear, for socks. Beings that I intend for most of these to be Boot Socks to wear with hiking boots, and in the cooler weather, they will be covered up anyone. I figure, who cares if they don’t go with what I am wearing, they are just socks, and if no-one likes them, that is their problem. Though I do own a tank top that is a similar color to the Larch Heather, that I typically wear under cranberry colored tops.

I may have mentioned this in other posts, but I used to like to wear a lot of pink when I was younger, before I really was able to embrace the outdoorsy girl thing. Now that I have gotten older, and have been buying most of my clothes myself, as well as the yarn to knit up items for myself. There are still some pink things here and there, but they aren’t pastel pink, or hot pink, they are more of a darker pink, tending more toward cranberry or raspberry. I also like to wear a lot of blue, dark teal, and turquoise. I also prefer the natural colors (off white, tan, and brown), in addition to the greens and blues for accessories, beings that they go with pretty much anything. They are also a bit of color without being all like “look at me, look at me”.

I also like using the Palette yarn for socks, it knits up so well, and quickly. Beings that it is what I have gotten onto for Socks, I can buy any color I want, and use the pattern I came up with for any of the colors and I get consistent results. I like that I know I will get consistent results with this yarn. When I had been working at the knitting studio, we had some yarns, that were the same brand and same line, but different colors would knit up differently. I like knowing that I can go into my stash of Palette yarn, grab any color I want, and it will knit up the same way as the first pair I knit up. I can combine colors and one won’t be thicker than the other, or looser than the other when using the same needles, and that the stitches and gauge will be even across all the colors, no matter which one I use.

The Nordlys Yarn Saga: The Conclusion

Hey Everyone!

I finally finished up the pair of socks I have been knitting up from the Viking of Norway Nordlys Yarn. It took me more than twice the amount of time to knit up this pair of socks than a pair using KnitPicks Palette Yarn takes me. This pair of socks took me 17 days to knit up, and a pair of socks that I am using the Palette yarn for takes about 6 – 8 days to knit up. I was so ready to be done with this yarn, it wasn’t funny. I am seriously hoping this is the last part of the saga for this yarn anyway. Four parts in a continuing saga of how much a certain yarn was bad, is more than enough, if you ask me. 

I know I wrote up a negative review on this yarn about a week ago. That review is still relevant a week later. Besides the clumps, it also was a bit thinner in some patches, and it was hard to knit with. It was also hard to catch the full stitch or fully knit a new stitch because the yarn was being such a pain in the rear. 
I can still say that I don’t recommend this yarn, especially at the price I paid for it, to anyone. 

For wool sock yarn, I will definitely stick with the KnitPicks fingering weight yarns. 

The finished product:

This is how much was left after I finished the pair of socks:

I am keeping it on hand just in case it doesn’t hold up and I have to unknit a part of a sock and reknit it up with new yarn. 

The socks are currently sitting in my  wool socks to be washed bucket, until we get another nice, warm, dry day, so I can wash them and put them outside on the line to dry.

I have since started another pair of socks, this time using more of the Palette yarn I have. 

Late Night Knitting Progress

Hey Everyone! 

I was up late again this evening, and it is early Saturday morning as I am writing this. It is just after midnight. 

I am still working on the pair of socks, for which I am using the Viking of Norway Nordlys yarn. 

I cannot wait to be done with this pair of socks. This yarn has been the bane of my existence for the past couple of weeks. I am so ready to go back to using the KnitPicks Palette yarn for my socks. 

Yesterday was such a beautiful spring day, and felt more like late spring. It was a perfect day to wash socks in the morning and hang them out to dry all day. 

Beings as the 10 day forecast calls for weather that is not conducive to drying socks outside on the line, it will give me more time to knit up at least one more pair, if not more before the next nice day. 

I have several balls of colored wool yarn, that isn’t grey, that didn’t fit in my sock yarn tub that I want to get knit up before I dig into what is in the tub. In between knitting up the six or so pairs of socks, I also want to try to get the other projects I have going finished up as well, to get them off my project corner, and at least into the wash bucket, to be washed and blocked. 

Hanging Socks out to Dry

Hey Everyone! 

Today is shaping up to be the warmest day of the year, and possibly the first 70 degree day we have had since last autumn. 

While I had hoped to have 2 pairs of socks to wash today, but life happened and things came up, so I am still working on the second pair of socks I had planned to wash and put out to dry today. 

Beings that it sunny and nice today, I did wash the pair of socks I had knit up out the KnitPicks Palette yarn in Hazelnut. They are currently on sock blockers, hanging out on the line drying. Even though I was only able to have one pair to wash and line dry today, I didn’t want to waste the one nice day we have had in a few weeks, and according to the 10 day forecast, the only real nice day we are supposed to have for another couple of weeks. 

I always wash my woolens after I get them knit up, as there are waxes and such still in it from the processing. There is also usually excess dye still in the yarn. There was a fair amount of excess dye in this pair of socks that I just washed. 

As of writing this post, I am finally working on the heel flap of the second sock of the pair of socks that I am knitting up out of the Nordlys Yarn. I am glad that I am finally making some progress on this sock. 

Washed socks are always softer than unwashed wool. I have been using Eucalan Wrapture wool wash on the  wool items I have knit up. 

I know autumn is about 5 months away, but now is the perfect time to work on socks and other accessories that will come in useful next autumn and winter. 

The Nordlys Sock Yarn Saga Continues

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Yesterday, I had written a yarn review about how the supposed sock yarn I am working with is really a fine roving yarn rather than an actual sock yarn, and that it is rubbish.

I had gotten to about row nine on the cuff of the second cuff, and had worked through about 4 or 5 sections of nasty slubby-ness, and it looked absolutely awful (never buy Viking of Norway Nordlys yarn). So I cut the strand of yarn I was working from, and just pulled that portion off the needles, and started over.

This is what parts of the yarn looked like as I was pulling it out from the middle of the skein. not only does it look weird, but also felt weird to work with. With the larger chunk in the top picture, the yarn that came after the chunk was way to thin, and the thin stuff after it did not feel like it would hold up with normal wear. The fact that whoever spun the yarn didn’t take the time to make sure the yarn was spun evenly, and then sent low quality yarn to the consumer, and then where I bought it from marked up the price to twice as much as the yarn sells elsewhere rubbed me the wrong way. Where was quality control, to see that this skein of yarn didn’t make it to market? I know now, that I will never buy any type of yarn from Viking of Norway yarns, and I will never by yarns from Fabric Depot again.

This is what the largest glob of slubby rubbish looks like close up, once it was worked up in the sock. It makes the sock look like rubbish, and unprofessional. Once I got a bit past the biggest glob and saw how bad it really looked, I was like “ugh, that’s bad, I  wouldn’t even give that to charity or someone I didn’t like.” I don’t care how much I like or don’t like / care much about the recipient, I care about the product I am working on looks. What I knit is a reflection of me, and I am not going to have what I knit look like rubbish just because the yarn is. I have a reputation to uphold and protect, and I am willing to take time to cut the yarn past the bad section, and start again to make sure I knit up a nice looking product.

This is what the restarted second sock looks like. It definitely looks exponentially better that that first one.

While I definitely not at all a fan of this yarn, in fact I hate this yarn. I am at least going to make the socks that I am knitting up with it look respectable.

One thing I have learned through knitting and in life, is when you are trying a yarn you have never used before, and it turns out to be a crappy yarn, make the best of it, and unless it is literally falling apart with every stitch, do the best you can with it, make something that looks nice, and never buy that yarn ever again. Not all yarns get to be Todd and Duncan cashmere from Scotland. While Todd and Duncan Cashmere is not meant to be used as sock yarn as it is too delicate, expensive and fine, it makes the most beautiful, comfy and cozy sweaters and shawls. It was my favorite brand of yarn to work with while I was working at the knitting studio.

 

Yarn Review: Viking of Norway Nordlys Yarn

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It’s been a while since I have done a yarn review. 

I am not usually a person who rails on companies with negatively, unless there is a good reason. Even if a yarn isn’t my favorite, I will state that, and that it is solely my opinion. 

Though, I am currently working with a yarn, knitting socks, that is complete and utter rubbish. I will preface this, with saying that this was the first “sock yarn” I had ever bought, ever before I figured out how to knit socks. Big mistake #1 was buying the yarn at an actual fabric store, mistake #2 was not researching before I spent the money on it. I live in a state where we don’t have sales tax, and I spent $14.99 on it, when in other places I saw was under $8. 

So I bought a skein of Viking or Norway nordlys sock yarn. Let me say this; it’s not real sock yarn, it is Chinese slubby rubbish. 

I have been knitting for almost 20 years, and used way more types of yarn than I can remember. This yarn is the second worse yarn I have ever used. The worst yarn I have ever used has been was some Chinese “cashmere”. Who knows how much actual cashmere it actually is. 

Casting on the first sock, had to be done 3 or 4 times, as the fibers kept pulling apart. This yarn is a loose roving, not a proper yarn, and there have been 5 or 6 larger extremely loosely spun, and have almost pulled apart. This yarn is a slubby yarn. Slubby Yarn is a yarn where the thickness of the yarn changes consistency throughout the strand, that is what this yarn is doing. 

I am extremely perturbed by this yarn. I spent about 3 times as much as I do for enough KnitPicks Palette Yarn to make a pair of socks, for Yarn that is of a greatly inferior quality. 

I will never buy another skein of any Viking of Norway brand Yarn again. Why waste the money for rubbish yarn, when I can get better quality of yarn for less money? 

KnitPicks Palette Hazelnut Socks

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I finally got my pair of socks using KnitPicks Palette yarn in Hazelnut done last night. For using the KnitPicks Palette yarn, it took me a bit longer than normal to get them done because we have had company staying with us this week and I haven’t had as much time just to sit and knit as I do when Company isn’t staying. 

The power was also out yesterday, putting the pressure on me to get the second sock done before it got too dark. Knitting by pale lamp light isn’t good for the eyes and it is hard to see why you are working on. 

I really love the Hazelnut color. It is a brown, but it’s not a dull brown, as it has a bit more of an orange-y red hue to it, rather than more of a blue or green hue. It’s definitely a warmer, richer color, which I definitely like. 

So far, the KnitPicks Palette yarn is my favorite sock yarn. It is easy to work with, it’s not super expensive, and comes in a ton of colors.