The Yarn Diet

I’ve kinda surprised myself with the amount of yarn I’ve ordered recently . . I mean . . the amount of yarn I’ve NOT ordered. The whole Ravelry turmoil has made me want to sit quietly in my little corner, finished some UFOs, use the yarn and patterns I have. Every time I go digging through the stash for something, that makes me realize how much I love the yarn I have but when I sit at the computer and look at new yarn online, it was so easy to order that. You saw the beautiful yarns I found yesterday for the test knit, as well as the ones for my next pairs of socks. There’s gorgeous yarns in the stash waiting to be knitted.

Also, I’ve totally lost interest in the “yarn games” at online shops. I want to finish what I have started and make what I want to make – not what I need to knit just to get a few points.

But . . there were a couple of dyers who took a stand, some simply by not getting involved and that’s been hard I’m sure because there has been some unbelievable amount of bullying on Instagram but . . I’ve moved on and don’t even miss Ravelry at this point, when just a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t sure I could live without it.

So, yesterday, Vince decided to walk down to the mailbox. Wouldn’t you know it – two packages of yarn. I told him . . I have NOT been buying yarn but I wanted to try these new to me dyers. He always acts like I’ve broken all the rules when new yarn arrives but he’s mostly joking . . I hope!

Yesterday when I told him I was going to do a test knit, he said “Do you have yarn for that?” I said “It takes one skein of fingering weight yarn!”. He said “But, do you have it or do you need to order it?” Oh dear . . I think I have it! 🙂

The Plucky Knitter – this is a dyer who’s been around since 2007 and there’s such a devotion the knitting world to Plucky yarn. I’ve been to their website through the years but never ordered and have never seen any of their yarn in real life.

These two skeins arrived yesterday and I think the prudent thing for me to do would be to buy a new Rubbermaid tub specifically for Plucky yarn. No, I won’t really order that much but it’s so round and squishy and “defined”. I’m not sure that’s a good word but the yarn is going to give great stitch definition.

Their colors are amazing – the depth of color is probably some of the best I’ve seen. I love the purple (and it’s way more purple than it looks in the photo).

When you go to their site, they have all their bases listed and there are a lot of bases. Then they have the colors listed. They will have some yarns that are already dyed but I think mostly, they custom dye the yarns so I’ve always struggled to figure out how to order. Just take fingering weight for instance, they have 13 bases. You have to decide which base you want, and then the color, then order. It’s a bit overwhelming.

Their yarn isn’t inexpensive but it is extraordinary – both in content and color.

The second package was from Tusken Knits. I had heard of her yarn but had never ordered and people rave about her yarn.

My favorite, especially fingering weight yarns, are the ones that have some spring and bounce in them. I like tightly twisted yarn for my socks but I like for the strands to have a little stretch to them. Even knowing the fiber content of the yarn, it’s hard to know exactly what you’re getting, mainly because of the twist, until you have it in your hand. I love this yarn also.

When I saw that her Etsy shop had an update, most of it was gone by that time so the colors available were limited. The lower skein is actually olive green and not as brown as it appears. Her Etsy shop is all sold out now, with a note that she’s taking some time off to get married and will be back around July 20.

I’m 100% happy with my new finds . . just wish I had been the one to go to the mailbox to get it! 🙂