Monday, March 28, 2011

A Thin Line Between Love and Hate

As you can see from the new gadget in the sidebar, I'm participating in the 2nd Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. Because really, I don't have nearly enough to do. I have stuff going on right now that would turn your hair gray, but that's another blog post. At least this gives me a focus for the next seven days.

Here's today's topic:
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.
The yarn yearning is easy--I want Wollmeise, which is German for "ha ha, everybody has this yarn except you." It's almost an urban legend to me. Does it really exist? Will I have to travel to Germany to actually own some or do I have the guts to just order it online without ever having touched it beforehand? How will DH handle it if/when I tell him I'm flying to Germany for yarn?

I don't loathe too many yarns, and I don't feel badly about the ones I do, but I'll always feel a little sad that I HATE knitting with silk yarn. I've tried to love it, but I can't. It's like trying to love a pair of shoes that just kill your feet. They end up in the back of the closet gathering dust. Maybe you take them out once in a while and pet them and dream about the outfits they'd go with, but that's always the extent of it. I dyed some silk yarn about 18 months ago and still love the resulting skein, but I just can't imagine knitting an entire ANYTHING with it. I know I should give it away but I'm not quite ready to give up on it. I'll figure out something.

Tomorrow's topic is about whether or not I've acquired any new knitting skills. Does drinking wine while I knit count? Stay tuned!

11 comments:

  1. I'm with you. I can't handle silk. I've wanted to try the silk-hankie thing, but once I got my hands on one, it was just as difficult to stick with as silk yarn. Darnit!

    And I actually have some skeins of WM. I got them through the Loopy Ewe. They're skeined up so tightly that I know that if I ever unskein one, I'll never get it skeined back up again, and so I haven't yet busted into one of the skeins. I really do need to knit with it sometime. It might happen that I don't like knitting with it.

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  2. Oh another funny post ! Wollmeise is definately worth purchasing without seeing it. It is unlike any fingering I've ever used. -- I have quite a few silk yarns and I love them. When I knit with silk it makes me feel all girly because I'm knitting at a slower pace. You know in a dainty way. - I will admit I have never wound a silk. I have one in skein that I'm terrified to wind. I may pay someone to do it for me.
    Looking forward to your next post.

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  3. I wondered about Wollmeise also. Then I actually got to touch and pet some. It feels as wonderful as they say!! (The girl who had some showed it at our knitting guild. And yes, she bought it while on a trip to Europe!!!) I've have never been able to snag any either so if you go to Germany to get some, take me with you?!

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  4. I have never seen Wollmeise in any of my local shops. What is it that everyone loves about it?

    I don't have a yarn I yearn for, but I definitely have one I loath --- Debbie Macomber Petals sock yarn. The socks I made from it look AWFUL. DH loves the feel of them (so soft), but they look like a hairy mess!

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  5. I have to agree with you on the silk. I WANT to use it, I WANT to like it, but I don't.

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  6. Oh, Wollmeise. It is like an urban legend at this point. My sister's husband's former room mate once found some in a yarn shop that turned into an empty lot when she tried to go back. It's some bizarre combination of the Twilight Zone and Waiting for Godot.

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  7. I'm with you on the silk. I bought a 600 yd skein (fingering weight) and started some lace. Made too many errors and went to frog it...oy. Tossed the 100 or so yards of knitting mistakes, started something new (a 500yd project). Wasn't happy with it and enough time had passed and I thought "you were just being a lazy baby when you tossed that last piece. Suck it up princess.". Now I have about 400 yds of silk and no desire to make anything with it.

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  8. Well, I will be going to Germany in the next few month. Maybe I could bring you some Wollmeise yarn? You could order it online and have it send to my mom's address and I will bring it back. How does that sound?

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  9. On the Wollmeise, there is one shop that carries it in the US (The Loopy Ewe), but I've only ever managed to catch one update. The easiest way to get your hands on some is to look it up on Ravelry (the yarn search tab) and set the status to For Sale or Trade. There are at least 12 pages of people wanting to destash WM. And I would say go ahead and buy it without touching it first, if you don't like it, destash it on Ravelry. Someone will be very happy to take it off your hands ;)

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  10. You are absolutely right, if you can get it direct from the source, even if you have to get on a plane to get there, it would be totally worth it!

    How old is your DD? My 16 yo is a knitter - she takes her projects to school to work on when classes get a little slow. Kids keep asking her to knit them stuff - she keeps offering to teach them how to knit!

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  11. Good luck with knit/crochet blog week. I debated on doing it, but just too much this week. But sounds like you have just as much going on.

    Wollmeise. I yearn to try it as well. :)

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