A Tale of Two Yarns (2kcbwday1)

All week I’ll be participating in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, which is challenging knit and crochet bloggers around the globe to write on the same topic each day for a week.

Today’s topic asks us to choose a yarn we love and a yarn we loathe and describe them.  I’ve been deep in thought today trying to come up with a yarn I loathe, and I guess it shows how deep my yarny addiction goes that I’ve yet to come up with one.  In my opinion there is no such thing as a bad yarn, it is just a matter of finding the right project for what you’ve got. So I’m going to steer the prompt in a slightly different direction: I’m going to talk about yarn value, as in how I think about the cost to pleasure ratio of the two yarns I’ve chosen.

I love both of these yarns for different reasons. One is a fairly expensive yarn that I find worth it and the other is an inexpensive yarn that is surprisingly awesome. Let’s get started!

1. Spendy but worth it: Tosh Sock

Tosh Sock in "Tern"

With a retail price of about $25 per 400 yard skein, this stuff is a pretty rare pleasure around here (at least as long as I’m on my current grad student budget).  Nonetheless, it is a rare pleasure that I don’t mind indulging in when possible.

Why? The first reason is the color range.  I love that this yarn comes in so many sophisticated colors and almost all of them are these subtle, dynamic semi-solids (my favorite). While this makes them extremely difficult to capture in photographs (see exhibit A above…), in person, even neutrals that would be boring in most yarn lines are simply stunning. Add to the great range of colors the smooth, but elastic fingering-wool base yarn and I’m a goner.

Even though this particular yarn is marketed as a sock yarn, I don’t anticipate using it for socks too often. It is simply too soft and I think socks out of this would be a constant darning project. Spending $25 for socks I have to repair constantly does not seem like good value.

One skein of this yarn is perfect, on the other hand, for a small shawl. When I think of knitting a lace shawl out of this, the price tag doesn’t seem to look so scary.  A neutral lace shawl will last many seasons, if not years, and be wearable in many different settings. The likelihood I will ever need to repair it is pretty small.  For me, Tosh Sock is the perfect yarn for a special lace shawl.

2. Inexpensive but surprisingly nice: Berroco Comfort

Berroco Comfort in "Barley"

I first came upon this yarn while searching for materials for my sister’s wedding afghan this summer. Since she lives in the hot Southwest, I was looking for something not wool, which would be too hot, but not 100% cotton, which would be so heavy and really kill my hands. I also needed a yarn that could withstand machine washing and drying. Comfort fit the bill and I ordered it, though I was slightly worried that the acrylic/nylon blend would look and feel like plastic.

I was so pleasantly surprised by the quality and luxurious feel of this yarn! It somehow manages to be both soft and durable (no pilling), fairly cheap ($6 for 100g/210yd ball) and quite high quality, and also produce a silky, drapey fabric without stretching out.  All this and it comes in a great range of colors, including kid-friendly ones, man-friendly ones, and some very pretty heathers. If the yarn snob in you has been turning your nose up at this when you see the “A” word [ie. acrylic] listed on the fiber contents, I strongly urge you to take a second look.  This is the ideal yarn to use for making gifts for non-knitting friends and family who like their dryers, in my opinion.

So there you have it: a tale of two very different kinds of yarn and I love them both!

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