I buy yarn at Michaels from time to time, their " Loops & Threads" acrylic is okay, relatively inexpensive, and seems softer and easier to work than Red Heart. But I’ll agree with the poster who talked about KnitPicks’ yarn for softness and pricing.
Don’t let lace knitting intimidate you. Keeping track of the repeats with stitch markers makes counting it on the knit rows much much easier, and that every other row is typically a purl row that you don’t have to count gives my poor mind a break from the pattern repeats, makes it easier still.
Plus lace yarn is just skinny, but is usually worked on larger needles. That’s half the battle.
I have yet to try knitted lace that has patterns on both the knit and purl rows. For me, knitted lace will probably have to wait until people can upgrade their memory with chips like a computer. I’ll be first in line for that! :roflhard:
ETA: Not to confuse, but in knitting lace knitting and knitted lace are different things. It confused me at first until I tried lace knitting and had the “row off” as I call the purl row. Less thinking sometimes is better for me.
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada! I am about 2-2.5 hours south of Calgary. It definitely gets cold here. However, if my use of the word “wool” gives me away as Canadian… What do Americans call “wool”?
One of the ladies at the store was very helpful and showed me all the soft, chunky yarn there was and explained how it would knit up and helped me work out which needles to buy and all that. I don’t know if this is a good brand but it is 70% undyed baby Alpaca and 30% undyed Merino and it is SOFT. It is so, so lovely. I see that it is cheaper on Amazon for about $2 so I might have to restock online, but I bought 400g expecting to use somewhere between 300-400g to make a long, wide Infinity scarf.
I’m going to knit another washcloth with the cheap Supersaver yarn I have to practice weaving different stitches together before trying to knit with it. I might be getting a cortisol shot in my wrist on Friday so it might have to wait a week, it is going to hurt so much… I have been knitting and stretching while I have an ice pack around my wrist! I might have to play through the pain, because I am so excited.
I was nervous about buying yarn online because I can’t feel it myself, but once I get better acquainted with what each percentage feels like with different materials that might not be so scary.
That is certainly a lovely yarn for your intended scarf, soft & skooshy! : heart:
Americans tend to refer to what we knit with in general as ‘yarn’, and use the word ‘wool’ for yarn spun of that fiber. We can be a rather literal bunch…
Buying yarn online scared me at first, but I’ve learned that I can trust the descriptions of yarn at KnitPicks - they’re staffed by knitters - if they say the yarn is soft and fluffy, it’s soft and fluffy. They’ve never let me down yet.
Funny you should mention “wool” in this context. When I wrote that phrase, I had just written in the thread Difference between Yarn and Wool?!
The use of “wool” in that context simply marked you as (most likely) not from the U.S. There were many other possibilities for your country of residence, which is why I lamented the absence of any clue in your profile; that’s all.
I have a couple of skeins of Cascade’s Eco Duo here; I’ve been enjoying them by simply admiring and petting them…maybe sometime I’ll make something out of them. Right now I’m trying to get my needles back out of the way too many started-but-not-finished projects they’re stuck into! I looked at my knitting needle org. center–such as it is–the other day and went, “I know I have more knitting needles than this!” Then I started hunting down projects. :shock: So the Eco Duo awaits its Date with Destiny.
Enjoy learning about the fibers! There’s nothing like having them in your hands, even if briefly, to gain confidence when ordering from afar.
Ooooh, I will update my profile. Maybe someone close to me will see it.
I keep correcting myself when I say wool. Yarn. Yarnyarnyarn. I had never thought about it before, but I do naturally call all of it wool. How odd. It’s easier to call it yarn through text, when I’m talking I always say wool.
SleepingCetra, it really all comes down to what you like. For example, I’ve tried acrylic enough times to know that I don’t care to work with it, but after several(hundred) washings it can become really soft. However, I’ve found that I like the natural yarns, from wool, to bamboo and so on.
Updating your profile will clarify matters and may bring fellow Albertans to your notice (or you to theirs).
But w/regard to “yarn” and “wool”–I don’t think you need to change what you call it; your fellow Canadians may wonder what on Earth has happened to you! It’s just another speech mannerism that distinguishes “English” speakers from one another.
I call the popular carbonated beverages “sodas”; I understand that many Americans call them “pop.” If I travel to a region where these beverages are referred to as “pop,” I’ll probably still call them “sodas,” because that’s what I’ve called them all my life, even though I’ve lived in several different states from coast to coast, places as different from each other as Wyoming, Georgia, and California.
Likewise, I wouldn’t dream of referring to the large, 18-wheeled cargo carriers of the highway as “lorries,” although that’s the term used in the UK. To me, they’re “trucks.” If/When I make it to Britain, every time I open my mouth my speech will mark me as an American, so why say “lorry”? Nah. It’ll have to be “truck.”
Enjoy your vocabulary–it belongs to you and you alone.
I decided to knit some washcloths for practice before using the nice wool and I was shocked at how different it felt! I thought it was decently soft but it feels so cheap and coarse in comparison. I have definitely converted, haha!
In the forum though calling it yarn or at least clarifying yourself will help us help you. If you say you’re looking for a soft wool most of us will take that to mean you want yarn from a sheep and will make suggestions based on that. So for efficiency ask for the fiber content. Otherwise your terms make no difference in your own life when those around you use the same term.
