I have been reading "The Knitter's Book of Yarn" and learning things. My yarn of choice for this sweater has so far been Briggs and Little. They're 100% wool and they have lots of colour. When I say lots, I don't mean as much as a good Jamieson's, say, but there is a decent selection . They're MUCH cheaper than Jamieson's. Much. But, the yarn is thicker and the end result is therefore very different.
It's tricky, this thing of getting yarn. I am lucky enough to live in a part of the world with many knitters and I therefore enjoy having 3 yarn stores within walking distance. The walking distance is important because I have neither a car nor a license to drive one. The yarn stores inevitably have some stock overlap (I think they all stock Cascade 200, for example) but they have quite different flavours and different specialities.
The oldest of the three yarn stores is to the north of me and is like the stores of my youth. There are too-narrow aisles lined with box-style shelves filled with many different kinds of yarn. Many of the yarns in the old store are of the kind that grandmothers like. There is more acrylic by weight in this store than in the other two combined. However, they also stock things that I like. Things that are widely commercially produced and not exactly the darlings of the trendy set. There are fewer artisanal yarns at the old store, but they do stock some.
The newest of the three yarn stores is downtown and, basically, I don't like it. There is a big empty well in the centre of the store and my colour sense is completely in opposition to the colour sense of the people running the store and the whole thing feels oddly sterile. I believe they have successful knit nights and lessons so I am apparently alone in finding the place to be unwelcoming, but there you go. They do have a reliable supply of addi turbos and T-pins so I sometimes go there for basic supplies. But I have been there meaning to pick up needles and come away with nothing. Not even the needles I meant to get. It's just ... offputting. They have a habit which irritates the hell out of me and is probably really nice for newer-to-knitting customers: They suggest substitutions for EVERYTHING. If I walk into a shop and ask if they've got, say, Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, it's because I want that book, not a Harmony Guide**. If I go looking for Cascade 220, don't bloody suggest manos del uruguay because it ain't the same. Specifics, people. Sometimes they ARE important.
The third yarn store is a bit of a journey to get to (I say it's walking distance, but that's not strictly speaking accurate right; you can't walk there) and I don't get to it as often as I'd like. It's my favourite of the three. It has beautiful yarns, lovely, welcoming decor, nice notions, a really splendid straight-needle collection and taste like mine. Just writing that sentence made me realise that I need to get myself over there soon. But, they're not catering to the fair isle set. It's where I got my unutterably exquisite camel-and-silk skein, though.
There is a fabulous yarn store which does cater to the fair isle set. They have a lovely display of 50g baubles from Nebraska in gently varied hues. However, it's driving distance. It's in a beautiful farm building and it's designed in exactly the right way to trigger me to part with my money. I'd like to get there more often, but it's good that I don't. They have splendid wools of many different descriptions and a constantly changing stock. They also sell spinning wheels, looms, and dying equipment. It's a temptation, always. Anyway, I don't see myself managing to go to that place, get a nibble of yarn for swatching, swatch, make smart choices and then go back to get the right amount of the right yarn. It isn't in the cards.
So, instead, I am dreaming of a trip to the older of the three local stores during which I'll pick up a large quantity of Briggs and Little at prices which would make a grown sheep weep. I can swatch and experiment to my heart's content. Later, if it's amazing and I feel strongly that I need to knit a more delicate garment to get it right, I will go back to the drawing board and design myself something in a pricier yarn. In the mean time, I have some B&L skeins around, I should play a bit with them to see how silly the whole notion is. If it's going to produce a blanket that no one in their right mind would wear, I will change it up. Alternately, if it's going to require that I have only 2 stripes in an enormous pattern, I'll have to re-think the whole thing.
We shall see. Still dreaming, not doing, I'm afraid.
** I just bought my first Harmony Guide (lace) and I hate it. I won't be buying another. After the delightfully chatty way of Barbara Walker and learning to expect stitch libraries to be organized intelligently, I can't stand the unembellished alphabetical (honestly, who knows what stitch patterns are called?) arrangement. I don't like the wools they chose for the pattern illustrations, either.
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