Knitting With Gusto!

I will admit: I AM A YARN SNOB! I would rather have a basket of exquisite, expensive yarn than a carful of cheap yarn.  Cheap yarn is like plastic canvas.  (If you use plastic canvas please don't hate me.)  It's like the difference between art and craft or professional and amature.  I love to touch, look at and knit with beautiful, high end yarn.  I prefer animal fiber to plant (except when a little silk is mixed with animal fiber.  That is absolutely the best!)  I prefer fine yarns to bulky or super bulky.  I've always thought that bulky and super bulky were the plastic canvas of yarn.  I love to knit with worsted weight and below with worsted being my least favorite.  Dk/sport makes my heart race and fingering takes my breath away.  I've always felt 13, 15 and 17 needles were only useful for things you were going to felt.  Now that I've shown you how uppity and obnoxious I can be, let me tell you I was wrong (about bulky yarn not about plastic canvas.) 

I've told you I didn't have many treasures knit to give away for Christmas.  I knit too many things that didn't contribute to my treasure box.  I was really getting nervous.  Then those people at Noble Knits sent me their daily email.  This time it was about Berroco Gusto.  

I really didn't understand when I ordered it (5 different colorways) how bulky it was.  When I got my package I thought it was surprisingly nice.  When I got anxious about not having treasures for Christmas gifts, I thought of Gusto.  I went on line and found a great pattern for a cowl/scarf.  Let me show you what I finally made.

Isn't it fabulous!?!?!?  I must say I love it.  See that great, subtle cable running up the right side?  In addition, I learned two new techniques.  

This is a tubular cast-on.  Believe it or not, I've never used a tubular cast-on before.  I love the way the cast-on looks.  This scarf is done with a k1p1 across the row.  This makes it two sided.  No wrong side! I love it.  I went to U-Tube and watched a great video on tubular cast-on.  I think you can learn anything on U-Tube but it's not nearly as much fun as the social aspect of taking a class.  Then I didn't want to go all of the way up to the Stash Studio to get a cable needle, so I used a crochet hook in place of a cable needle.  What a great idea!  It worked like a charm.  

You take the stitches which are going to be moving to create the cable, put them on your crochet hook than hold it in the front or back according to the patten.  When you are ready to knit these stitches you just knit from the handle end.  It works like a charm.  Better than a cable needle  because stitches don't slip off.  

Well, you know that I'm a little obsessive.  If one is good, then two must be better and three must be great.  I found some yarn I purchased when Fiber and Friends, one of my favorite LYS in Toledo, went out of business and it was bulky.  I loved the color but never wanted to knit with it until now.  So, I decided to make a cowl using the same pattern.

Thea likes this because the cable shows better.  I love this pattern.  Then I found some Malabrigo yarn I think will make a great cowl.

You may wonder why I have so much bulky yarn in my stash if I looked down my nose on bulky yarn.  I wondered that myself.  Well, when I buy yarn online, particularly in a big sale, I am not as careful as I should be about paying attention to things like weight, needle size and gage.  I go by beautiful, amazing color.  I see a color and think, "Love it. Got to have it!" When I get the package I often think, "WOW! The color is beautiful but I didn't think it would look like this."  

Once again, I was wrong.  Bulky yarn is not the pastic canvas of yarns.  It still isn't my favorite weight but it can be beautiful and have a place in my knitting life.  WOW! I wonder how many other things I have been wrong about in my yarn snobery.  I know I haven't been wrong about plastic canvas.