Yarn Review: Universal Yarns Classic Shades

This might not be my most objective review ever, because I'm so emotionally involved with this amazing yarn!  Let me tell you a story about this yarn...

Once upon a time, I loved to knit, but the only yarn I ever used was acrylic from Michael's because that was where I worked.  I thought I was getting such a great deal, first to grab the yarn that went on clearance, getting an employee discount on everything else.  SO MUCH HOMESPUN.

Then one day, I was on a roadtrip and I saw a billboard for a yarn store.  I immediately demanded we stop at the yarn store, and that was where I discovered Universal Yarn Classic Shades.  Its 70% acrylic, 30% wool so it was more affordable than most LYS yarns, and comes in such pretty colors!  I bought 3 skeins in the Tutti Frutti colorway and happily knit away for the rest of the roadtrip.
This is what I made:

When I returned home from my roadtrip, I wanted more of this yarn and I knew they didn't carry it at Michael's, so I googled it.  That was how I discovered WEBS.  And that was the first step towards a yarn stash that looks like this:

The bottom right corner is all Classic Shades!

No more big box acrylic for me, I buy nice yarn online now, thanks to Universal Yarn Classic Shades.  For more reviewy information:  This is 70% acrylic, it's no luxury yarn.  But its soft, affordable, machine washable, and comes in pretty colors.  It's suitable for pretty much any project you can think of, and its super fun to knit with.  My fiance bought me every color for Christmas last year:

Boycott The Olympics

I would like to encourage all knitters, crocheters, and people who appreciate the hard work and talent involved in the fiber arts to boycott the Olympics. The United States Olympic Committee has contacted Ravelry to request that they not use the name “Ravelympics”. While they have a right to defend their trademark (even if they are going a bit overboard), they made some extremely rude remarks including:

“We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games. In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.”

I find it very insulting that they think using the names of sports to describe knitting competitions is disrespectful to the athletes.  

Oops...

I've been bad you guys.  Yesterday Webs was selling these grab bags of Tahki Cotton Classic...and I definitely bought a 50 skein bag.  I got the email advertisement at lunch and my entire thought process before and during the purchase basically consisted of "WANT".  I can't wait to see what colors I get!

So...which of these blankets should I make with my 50 skeins?

The Babette Blanket

The Mitred Square Afghan

I'm the Scrooge of Spring Time

Everyone around me is like "oooh it's so nice and pretty outside."

No.  Just no.

It's too hot.

The nightly thunderstorms make me anxious.

There is a swarm of bees camped out in the bush next to my parking spot and they dive bomb my head when I try to get in my car.

The pollen is interfering with my ability to BREATHE.

This season is not nice, in fact, I'm pretty sure it's trying to kill me.  Excuse me while I sit inside knitting mittens and waiting for Fall.

Well this is exciting!

Lately I've been complaining a lot about the clause of doom (personally I think the clause of ignorant arrogance would be a better name...but the Ravelry community is going with "doom" and hey...its shorter).   Most of the patterns I've used this year have included some variety of it.  Today I discovered that the next pattern in my queue, Lakshmi Juneja's Ethereal Triangular Shawl, has absolutely no mention about what I can do with my finished object.  This made my day.  Thank you Lakshmi Juneja!

This is the kind of designer I would like to support.  This was a free pattern, but if Lakshmi Juneja had any paid patterns on Ravelry, I would certainly try to use them for future projects.

Also...I'm super excited about this shawl you guys.  I need to finish my 2nd totoro mitten first, but hopefully I'll be casting on tonight.  It's got all these scary looking points in the edging so I'm making this my "evil queen" shawl and I'm using the Evil Stepmother colorway of this yarn.

Yay!

My first pattern (the hat shown above) is officially for sale on Ravelry and Etsy.  This morning it had its first sale on Ravelry!

Yarn Review: Plymouth Yarns Boku

This is sadly going to be my first not so positive yarn review :(  As I mentioned several months ago, I bought a massive quantity of various multi-colored yarns.  Many of these yarns look very similar to each other, but knitting with each is typically a different experience.  So as I get around to making projects with them, I've been posting reviews of my experiences.

I bought two different shades of Boku, "16 Purple, Grey, Magenta" and "17 Purple, Pink, Green".  Both projects I made with this yarn involved striping the two different colorways.  One was the linen-stitch scarf pictured above, the other was this striped cowl.  To be fair, I'm pretty happy with both of these projects (happy enough that I feel good about putting them in my shop).  The colors are very pretty.  While the finished objects are certainly not suitable for someone with a wool sensitivity, they're not overly scratchy.

However working with this yarn was a miserable experience.  It actually caused me physical pain.  I'm usually not sensitive to wool, but after a few hours of this running between my fingers it was driving me crazy.  Also all four balls that I purchased had a lot of nature in them.  When I say nature I mean dirt and various bits of plant matter.  So much plant matter in fact, that I kept having to pull little splinters out of my poor fingers (hence the actual physical pain).  No matter how happy I am with my finished objects, I don't think I can recommend a yarn that gives the knitter splinters :(