Yarn Review: Araucania Azapa

I still remember the day Araucania Azapa arrived at Get Knitted, because I was instantly and powerlessly smitten with it and had to buy some immediately, though I had no purpose for it. It was an unusual purchase for me because, for once, I liked colours other than the blue more.

I liked the blue a lot too, but I could see the cream being more versatile. Plus, it feels a lot softer.



I heard this described as a thick and thin yarn, but it is not. I found it to be evenly spun, although it shed a LOT while I was knitting with it. I was working with it on the plane home from Malaysia last year and remember the other teacher getting up to leave the plane, seemingly unaware that his left leg (which had been nearest me) was covered in a fuzzy halo.

It is very soft, being made up of merino with a healthy slug of alpaca and silk in there. It knits to bulky weight and runs to 140 yards/100g, in spite of what the label might say.

This was an issue last year, which still has not been resolved. Some of my labels said 190 yards; some 140. I started a Rav thread about it and some kindly soul measured her skeins to see, finding it to be the shorter yardage. Get Knitted were excellent when I pointed it out: they contacted their suppliers, relabelled all their skeins and, when they put the price down to reflect the lower yardage, refunded me the difference for the skeins I'd already bought. Then I sort of forgot about it; but I just went back to look on Ravelry and someone has commented, a month ago, that this still has issues with labelling and some LYSs still don't know the skeins are much shorter than they claim.

This is a bit pants, you know. I mean, if I knew about it a year ago, wtf are the suppliers still doing? I know the whole universe does not use Ravelry but if I were a yarn supplier I would be stalking the pages for my brands and doing everything I could to get positive comments on there, because it is the largest online knit/crochet community going.

Anyway, rant over. Cheeky lying about yardage aside, this is a truly delicious yarn. I have, to date, made a hat from it, and a Versatility, and I have 3 skeins of the cream left (I think), and Rosee from knitting group gave me a skein of blue she didn't want so I have many more Azapa projects ahead of me.

But if you're going to use it - buy more skeins than you think you'll need.

Yarn Review: Artyarns Beaded Mohair & Silk

This yarn is a bonafide luxury. I picked up a skein last summer at Jimmy Beans when I visited the shop. I planned my trip so that I could go and browse, and then go back a couple of days later when I'd had a chance to think about it - but I couldn't leave without the Artyarns. I would have been heartbroken if it hadn't been there when I went back.

In spite of being so beautiful, it languished for nearly a year before I had some Jimmy Beans Bucks to spend and treated myself to skein number 2. This made a sizable hat, with enough left over for a little pair of wristlets or maybe a small, lacy neckwarmer.



(I know: I still haven't blogged about this hat as a FO. The light is so bad these days, though - I can't get a decent picture.)

It's 80% silk and 20% mohair and Ravelry list it as a worsted, but I think it's more of a DK. The yarn is spun with sequins and beads in one of the plies and it is extremely sparkly when knitted up: much sparklier than I anticipated, or could see in the skein. I picked silver but there are lots of colourways available with gold. These don't make it awkward to knit with. I was worried the sequins would dig into my hands but it really doesn't; the only issue is when there happens to be a sequin when you're pulling through a stitch but I got used to it really quickly.

I had to frog this hat twice and the yarn coped well with frogging. I had to take it very slowly, but no freezing was required and it didn't look too bedraggled at the end of it. The mohair takes away some of the heavy drape of the silk and gives it a pretty halo. My colourway was artfully dyed so that the brighter turquoise and green bits spiralled and then doubled back on itself. Bearing in mind the skeins were bought a year apart, the colour matching was very close and I couldn't see any difference in colour.

That's just as well because it's very dear! I don't know that I could bring myself to buy it in bulk. It was used for a pattern in Vogue Knitting this spring - a lacey, drapey cardigan, for which I would have needed 6 or 7 skeins. HOW MUCH?!

I won't deny I'm tempted, though. It would be absolutely stunning in a garment. Perhaps I should start saving....then I'd have to pick a colour though, and that would be almost as impossible as saving in the first place.

Anyway - I can heartily recommend it!

Yarn Review: Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb

I thought it would be fun to write some reviews of yarns I have used, and that somebody might at some point find it useful. It is also going to be helpful with InternaBloPoMo....so, I thought I'd start with my favourite.

It's no surprise I should make a post about this yarn. Long-time blog readers, or members of my knitting group, will know I have a terrible weakness for it. In fact, the only reason I stopped buying it is because I realised that, while it may be luscious, it is way too warm for me to make a garment from. Sad face. There are only so many shawls a girl can have, you know.

Lion & Lamb is a 50/50 wool/silk blend in worsted weight. It comes in wide variety of colourways and has a lovely sheen to it, thanks to the silk. It's very soft and has great drape. To date, I have used it to knit a clapotis, a modular shawl, and a little mini shawl for a wedding. I find it very easy to knit with; it's comfortable on the hands, not splitty, and spit-splices well.

Of these projects, the modular shawl has had easily the most wear. Yet, it has not pilled, and has undergone machine washing on the handwash cycle without suffering any noticable wear and tear.

My only issue with it is the dyelots. I knitted the clapotis in the Tahoe colourway, which I bought from Jimmy Beans and got on back order. The colours are a lot more muted than the skein they had in Get Knitted at the time - or, indeed, as the colours are displayed on the website. I know there's going to be some variation, but it doesn't even look like the same colourway. I remain a bit gutted about this; but oh well.



I have multiple skeins in two colourways waiting for projects. I think one is going to become this modular shawl; not so sure about the other. I have four skeins (above) which would be enough for a modified Hey Teach; but as I said before, I might find it a bit too toasty to actually wear. So, it will have to languish in stashland for now.