A tale of two yarns - 2KCBWDAY1

Part of any fibre enthusiast’s hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose two yarns that you have either used, are in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is you love or loathe about them.

So, let me tell you the story of 2 yarns of which one I lurve a lot and one I lurve not so much. Its not a secret that I love Noro yarns and I got the chance to try Noro Kureyon recently. I've been wanting to get my hands on a Noro yarn and I snapped up 8 skeins of Noro Kureyon in 2 different color-ways in a Ravelry destash. I'd heard so much about Noro Kureyon before meeting it in person..that it is rough..has vegetable matter in it.. has unreasonably high number of knots in it.. but, nothing held me back from wanting it.. I bought the yarn in July 2010 and got the yarn in my hands in Feb 2011. I waited 6 months for this yarn to reach me..and, boy! was it worth the wait?!

I made the most obvious object out of 4 skeins of it.. The evergreen Noro Striped Scarf! The scarf was all about the yarn and nothing about the pattern. It was a different experience for me, letting the yarn do the talking rather than the pattern. The results were stunning as expected out of Noro. Its was truly hypnotic to watch the yarn change colors. It was like magic! I call the scarf my Psychedelic scarf. I know its very difficult to get matching skeins in Noro yarns although the colorways match. But, I realized that I had almost similar skeins and decided to stripe it in the opposite direction after the half-way mark and I kinda achieved what I wanted to. Can you see the colors striping symmetrically opposite to each other? I am thrilled with the scarf although it will be another few months before I can use it in hot and dry Bangalore.

So, let me move on to the yarn that I lurve 'not so much'.. Yes. I am looking at you, Wollmeise Sockenwolle  80/20 twin. It was a very generous RAK(Random Act of Kindness) by a lovely Raveler and I was thrilled to get it in mail. Who would've dreamt of getting a skein of Wollmeise as a RAK?! Such is the kindness abound in Ravelry.. But, I digress..  I kinda had great expectations on this yarn after reading the many rave reviews on the web and maybe thats why I felt a bit let down by it..The yarn has a cotton-y feel and, it kind of twists onto itself. I started a Pogona with it..and, gave it up because of the zillion stitch markers needed for the pattern. Definitely a problem with my personal preference and not with the yarn.

Then I started the kernel scarf  with this yarn and gave it up after knitting about half a feet of the scarf as I didn't like the look of it.. Then, I started the Checkerboard lace scarf and no, that didn't work out well either. Back to the frog pond again.. So, I've put the yarn on timeout now as it doesn't want to be anything I want it to be. Do you have any suggestions for a skein of Wollmeise Sockenwolle 80/20 twin yarn? It can be anything..as scarf , a shawl or something else.. Leave a comment and let me know.. My poor brain is clueless about what to make with this yarn.

-Josie