Yarn Along #12

I'm joining in Ginny's Yarn Along this week.

The other day, as I was perusing the knitting book shelves at my local library, I found a book that has been on my list of "must read" for quite some time. If you haven't taken a look at The Knitter's Book of Yarn, I highly recommend it.

From the start, I was completely smitten by the book's lovely illustrations. When you first open the book, there's a drawing of a pullover with strands of yarn leading to different types of fiber which include the standard sheep (wool) to the Musk Ox (Qiviut). Throughout are lovely photographs and eye-catching illustrations, all of which make the information more fun to absorb. As I'm working (really hard) on designing some original patterns, I've known for a while that I need to educate myself better on fiber. What are fiber foundations and the differences in plys? What types of yarns are better for cardigans or socks? And since size does matter, what should I be thinking about when I want to experiment with needle ranges?


So, what's on my needles? I cast on some Patons Classic Wool for the baby cardigan design that's been buzzing in my mind for the last week, and, yes, I'm using my Cubics square needles to swatch. I can't really explain it, but I just keep returning to variegated yarns, which is atypical of what I'm usually attracted to.  It's true what knitters often say:  you have to let the yarn become what it wants to be!