So, I've ordered some sample skeins of pakucho.
I've been meaning to for ages.
I forget exactly how I came across this yarn, and started admiring it, but I was totally enamored of the fact that the cotton naturally grows in its own variety of colors - that is, shades of cream, tan, cocoa, and green. These had a really nice gentle sheen to them, as well as being appealing.
I had to find out whether they were as soft as they looked, so I decided to order a couple sample skeins, and at worst they'd turn into basket liners and washcloths for my home.
Further encouraged by my reading, I found this review by the inimitable Clara Parkes on her Knitter's Review site.
After searching around on ravelry, I found a supplier in the States (it's an import from Peru): www.ecobutterfly.com
More on this later...
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Recent events...
Well, I've survived the holiday rush, relatively unscathed (i.e., I took a few days off for a restful staycation, and slept!)
Some projects were completed, other started, and still more added to my ravelry queue in the faint and distant hope of ever getting around to casting on, let alone completing them. Still, I'm diligently working on a cardigan for the dad, and I completed and mailed out to my baby niece a new little sweater with giraffe buttons, and I'm assured that alias-Pnut is conducting rigorous product testing at this moment! I've found a pattern in the Knitter's Book of Yarn (KBOY) that I think will be a good use of my stashed crochet cotton from ages ago, so I started that pattern as well, in part to learn / practice a Figure-8 Cast On. I'm not sure I like that method, but I can see its utility in this case. I had to hold off on adding the stitch-markers until later in the process, because working with the tiny yarn and tiny needles (I used #2s) in this case was simply too unwieldy when you add markers to the mix. After working through the first several "rounds" I'm pleased with how quickly it builds up and am looking forward to finishing it fairly soon.
In more recent events, I heard about - at the last minute - a fun event: Clara Parkes, the author of the KBOY, a really cool, wonderful, informative and fun read about the how, why and what of yarn and fiber, was going to be in Boston to give a talk at a meeting of the local fiber guild: Common Cod. The weather turned out to be clear, but bitter cold and windy. The crowd (and there was a crowd, I'm happy to say) were all busily knitting - making me and my knitting and hiking buddy, Chiquitita, wish we'd brought our own projects. The sound of knitting needles occasionally falling to the floor punctuated the talk, and it was funny to sit high up in a full auditorium, to watch the talk over the he
ads of knitters occasionally stretching an arm up to draw more yarn out from their working skeins. The talk was fun and hilarious, and we filled room 123 of the MIT Stata Center ( a fairly large auditorium-style class room).
Clara not only discussed yarn and fiber developments, but informed us about her recently developed "theory of stashitivity"...she's a great speaker, and stayed not only to answer questions afterward, but also to sign copies of her books (and had even brought a couple to sell, for those of us who were honoring last-minute requests from relatives for a copy...like, my mother). Thanks and kudos go out to the organizers of the event (Common Cod and I believe MITKnit? ) for organizing the event and the space. I'll definitely be back for other events.
I'm beginning to enjoy attending some of these talks more and more: it's inspiring and encouraging not only to see photos of yarn and projects, but to get a chance to speak with fellow fiber enthusiasts, compare notes, and have a good laugh.
Hopefully, the posts will be a little less intermittent now that winter's here.
Some projects were completed, other started, and still more added to my ravelry queue in the faint and distant hope of ever getting around to casting on, let alone completing them. Still, I'm diligently working on a cardigan for the dad, and I completed and mailed out to my baby niece a new little sweater with giraffe buttons, and I'm assured that alias-Pnut is conducting rigorous product testing at this moment! I've found a pattern in the Knitter's Book of Yarn (KBOY) that I think will be a good use of my stashed crochet cotton from ages ago, so I started that pattern as well, in part to learn / practice a Figure-8 Cast On. I'm not sure I like that method, but I can see its utility in this case. I had to hold off on adding the stitch-markers until later in the process, because working with the tiny yarn and tiny needles (I used #2s) in this case was simply too unwieldy when you add markers to the mix. After working through the first several "rounds" I'm pleased with how quickly it builds up and am looking forward to finishing it fairly soon.
In more recent events, I heard about - at the last minute - a fun event: Clara Parkes, the author of the KBOY, a really cool, wonderful, informative and fun read about the how, why and what of yarn and fiber, was going to be in Boston to give a talk at a meeting of the local fiber guild: Common Cod. The weather turned out to be clear, but bitter cold and windy. The crowd (and there was a crowd, I'm happy to say) were all busily knitting - making me and my knitting and hiking buddy, Chiquitita, wish we'd brought our own projects. The sound of knitting needles occasionally falling to the floor punctuated the talk, and it was funny to sit high up in a full auditorium, to watch the talk over the he
ads of knitters occasionally stretching an arm up to draw more yarn out from their working skeins. The talk was fun and hilarious, and we filled room 123 of the MIT Stata Center ( a fairly large auditorium-style class room).Clara not only discussed yarn and fiber developments, but informed us about her recently developed "theory of stashitivity"...she's a great speaker, and stayed not only to answer questions afterward, but also to sign copies of her books (and had even brought a couple to sell, for those of us who were honoring last-minute requests from relatives for a copy...like, my mother). Thanks and kudos go out to the organizers of the event (Common Cod and I believe MITKnit? ) for organizing the event and the space. I'll definitely be back for other events.
I'm beginning to enjoy attending some of these talks more and more: it's inspiring and encouraging not only to see photos of yarn and projects, but to get a chance to speak with fellow fiber enthusiasts, compare notes, and have a good laugh.
Hopefully, the posts will be a little less intermittent now that winter's here.
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