A Tale of Two Yarns 2kcbwday1

Likes and dislikes are such a personal thing. Even more so when it comes to yarn. Sometimes, you get a yarn that is almost universally adored, except for that one person who just isn’t into it. Or you're that one person who adores it while most knitters wouldn't touch it with a ten foot knitting needle.

For me, it's very easy to forget the individual brand of yarn that I just don't like because I might knit with them once and never touch them again. If any of my long time knitting friends warn me that a yarn is just awful, I'm not too keen to run out and buy it. And, even though I rarely knit swatches in my personal knitting life, I do do all the swatch knitting for Knitty.com so I get to test drive a bunch of different yarns before spending money of them.

But with all that in mind, you know what I do dislike? ...cotton. Ugh! I will knit with it, I have some in my stash, but UGH!!!! I hate the way it disintegrates in my hands when I knit with it, and the way it sticks to the needles once my hands warm up. It splits, I get frustrated. To add to my disdain the one brand of cotton that I could bear the thought of knitting with was Mission Falls aaaaannnndddd now they're gone. (I'm not sure how big a deal that was outside of Ontario, but there was great mourning for the loss of them here.) Fortunately more and more companies are producing Eco-friendly yarn, so that will stop me from going on a 20 page tirade about the environmental impacts of cotton production. But really, I have yet to find a cotton that I want to pick up and put to my cheek, or throw myself into the middle of a pile of a roll around in. (I wouldn't want to have to pick all those little fibres off my clothes.) It just doesn't work for me. I want to like cotton. I try to like cotton. But alas, I just don't like knitting with it.

Leave it to Reever

So what do I like knitting with? Indigodragonfly yarn. It's that simple. If a yarn thief ever broke into my stash, I would let them take it all, expect for my Indigodragonfly yarns. It's really just the whole package that Kim presents. First, her colourways are stunning. Even the "mistakes" are beautiful. I recently bought two skeins of "Leave it to Reaver" because they were unrepeatable and I loved them. (Though I did have to negotiate with another knitter. She took the lace weight and I bought the Merino Sock.) The names she, or just as often her fiance, gives the colourways are witty and smart and memorable. (That one above is a FireFly reference.) I can always remember the name of the yarn I am knitting with if it's hers. Really how much fun is it to say "oh this is Tardis or yes this is Tiny Bloodsucking Dancer." Kim is very picky about the bases that she uses for her yarn so not only do you get a beautiful dye job, you also get a good yarn. I do in fact own "When I Bit Into Him I Tasted the Ocean," (that's a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference, for those of you that are keeping track) in three different weights. (I just had to.) And she's custom dying it for me in a fourth weight. Oh yeah, did I mention she custom dyes yarn? Okay, at this point I have to stop myself from going on for days about how much I love this yarn. But I think you get the point.

And, if anyone out there knows a good cotton, pass the name on to me. I'd love to give it a try.