I may be a newcomer to knitting, but certainly not to all things handmade. Something my dad used to say all the time was “The right tools for the job make the job easier.” The same can be said for any craft, but it often seems that the one craft where this isn’t applied to is knitting. It didn’t occur to me until I had lunch with a fellow knitter recently. She said something that really rang true in regard to purchasing lesser quality yarn; “It’s not about how cheaply can I make this project (blanket, scarf, sweater, etc.), because if you use cheap yarn you’ll wind up unhappy with the end result. You have to ask yourself, ‘Do I want to invest 40-plus hours of my time in this and not like the result?’”
Part of the enjoyment in knitting (or crochet) is the act of knitting. It’s the feel of the soft and sumptuous yarn in your fingers, the handle of quality needles in your hands, as well as, the beauty of the colors and different textures of the yarn to choose from. Crafters are by nature are tactile people and knitting certainly plays to that. There is a world of yarn that some of you may not be aware of. Yarn can be as soft as a cloud, like Misti Alpaca’s baby alpaca or have a sheen that is so subtly beautiful, like Sublime’s bamboo and pearls. Yarn also comes in thin and slubby strands or sparkly and fuzzy strands, like Tango by AslandTrends or Dazzle by Feza Yarns. You’d be surprised by how much the same pattern can look so different, knitted in different yarns. Try something new; if you normally knit in a chunky yarn, pick up a sport or sock weight yarn. If you’ve only knitted in lace weight lately, then come in and check out a worsted weight yarn.
For more information on the yarns mentioned above and more, please contact Creative U Studios at 661-260-0800 or visit their website at www.creativeUstudios.com.