Friends & Goodies
This week I met OlgaJazzy here in Los Angeles where she has been visiting following the earthquake in Japan. Today and tomorrow she is having a trunk show and book signing at Wild Fiber for her book Ori Ami Knits. Olga was the one who sent me an invitation to Ravelry in the very early days, and I am glad that I finally had the chance to meet her in person. It was a fun day and I wish I hadn’t left my camera in the car. Maybe there will be a next time. On other knitterly news, I received some goodies from Quince & Co., a small yarn company in Portland, Maine.
Goodies from Quince & Co.
I ordered one skein each of three of their yarns — Chickadee, Tern, and Sparrow — plus their color card.
Quince & Co. color card
Last night I made a few swatches with
Chickadee, an all American wool that feels very soft and bouncy, quite a change after knitting for the past few months with Holst Garn Supersoft, which fulls up only after washing. My first swatches surprised me because Chickadee shows every little unevenness and seems a lot less forgiving than the yarns I am used to. It’s possible that I was particularly inconsistent in my knitting and I also let the swatches soak only five minutes instead of the customary half hour, so I have to knit more with this yarn to know for sure how it fares.
Quince & Co. color card
is a fingering weight yarn, 75% wool and 25% silk, that feels very much like
Chickadee in terms of softness and I would not have guessed the silk content by looking at it and touching it. I’ll try it out this weekend.
Chickadee swatches
is an organic linen spun in Italy from linen grown in Belgium. It looks beautiful and I had to get a skein even though I have no project in mind and I know that I don’t enjoy knitting with linen because of its lack of elasticity. What
can I say? Sometimes I just give in to temptation research.
Tern and Sparrow
One thing I like about these yarns is their lack of scent. Another yarn I tried recently — Harrisville New England Shetland — I can’t really work with because of its scent, most likely a fragrance added to the wash. Odors are something I fight with on a daily basis because a lot of chemical substances give me instant headaches. I wonder how many knitters choose their yarns based on their odor or lack
of it. Am I a party of one?
Posted by Francesca
CillaAnn
You are not alone on being chemical sensitive to yarns. It seems as I get older my sensitivity to smells has gotten a lot worse. At this point I have just about stopped buying any hand dyed yarns. Not sure if it is the dye or what the dyers are using. Pluckyknitter’s are pretty scent free at least for me.
Love the two yarns you swatched.
fleegle
KnitPicks yarns seem to have a very chemically odor.Glad I’m not the only one who can smell treated yarn.
Annie
No, you are not alone … I have chemical sensitivities too and have been known to reject yarn if it has a scent I cannot tolerate. I also have to be careful with some of the hand dyed yarns as they can set off a bout of contact dermatitis … sadly the skein of Knitting Goddess yarn I’m working with just now has done so, but it’s divine so I shall persevere.
I found that the Tern I bought knitted up beautifully evenly … I’ve only swatched so far but used rosewood needles and was really pleased with the result. My only problem is deciding what to knit with it ! I’ll be interrested to hear how you get on.
Oh, and I sooooo know what you mean about giving in to, um, research ;o)