the twisted yarn

Knitting, crochet, running, and silliness.

The Ugly Duckling And The Beautiful Swan

by 18 Comments

I’m going to be controversial here, again. First, I want you to imagine something. We’ll call this Scenario A:-

Imagine, you were in the LYS, and you saw the most stunningly beautiful skein of wool. ‘Twas gorgeous, wasn’t it? Pure cashmere, homespun, dyed with love and care. All those rich autumnal colours blended in just the right proportions. Curled tightly in its skein, red tumbled into sage green, and when you squished it, you glimpsed a flicker of orange amongst its browns. Admit it, you were in love.

So, you parted with hard-earned/sneakily-stolen/fortuitously-inherited cash and you bought the amazing yarn, and then you carried it home on the bus, or perhaps Jeeves chauffeured you home in the Bentley that day, and all the way you were smiling, just to know that so much beauty was yours.

And when you got home, you cast aside the afghan you’ve been diligently knitting for your grandmother, and you started to knit the beautiful yarn. Maybe you made a scarf – something simple because a wool this wondrous does all the work itself.

And then you tried it on.

And you thought… “Meh.”

Because the thing is, the beauty of the yarn was displayed with unsurpassable perfection in the ball, and now… well it’s just a stripy scarf. A pleasant stripy scarf, but it is no longer a thing of perfection.

(I’m not posting pictures here, because I don’t want to offend/libel any yarn producers.)

And now, consider Scenario B. You see some yarn. It looks nothing special, nothing you’d want to knit/crochet with. A bit of a cacophony of colour, designed in the dark by someone high on amphetamines. So you pass it by.

But then, you happen to see something knitted in this yarn, and you browse Ravelry and see some more, and you realize that this is the ugly duckling of the knitting world, and knitted up, it miraculously just works.

Or is it just me?

Scenario B is a recent one for me. I have some Adriafil Knitcol, an Italian 100% merino DK. It looks like this:-

Adriafil Knitcol
Adriafil Knitcol

And also like this:-

Adriafil Knitcol
Adriafil Knitcol

Yeek!, I hear you thinking. And I probably wouldn’t have bought either colourway if I hadn’t spotted the shade card and realized that all those jarring, shouty colours settle down to work their aesthetic socks off when they’re knitted, and that those funny stripy bits turn into pleasing alternating stitches of red and white that break up the solids nicely. So the ugly duckling becomes a swan, and we have one jumper for the twinnage in progress, with another planned:-

Jumper for twinnage in progress
Jumper for twinnage in progress

And I’m learning a lesson about not being seduced by beautiful skeins of loveliness.

Have any of you had the same experience?

 

Comments

  1. I LOVE that yarn – it looks gorgeous knitted up and will look fab on the twinnage! I totally have the same experience with some expensive yarns. Particularly the “hand dyed” variety. Seems you can charge an exorbitant amount if you say something’s hand dyed and sometimes that just means someone has stood in the back garden and thrown madder and green stuff at the yarn and when you knit it up it’s just a dreadful muddle. The slightly cheaper yarns often have some thought behind the colour changes. This one is particularly droolable though – one for my wish list! xx

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  4. I’ve had this experience with both hand-dyed and commercial yarn – looks completely unremarkable (or utterly forgettable) on the skein or hank or ball, but once it’s “knit up,” it’s gorgeous. Stores (both LYS and big-name craft stores) used have swatches for many types of yarns, but I don’t see that as much. I think retailers are missing potential sales when we can’t see what it might look as a finished garment; particularly when there is such a dramatic difference.

    Then, again, I’ve had the experience where something looks yummy as a hank, but ‘meh’ when knit, so, maybe swatches aren’t a perfect solution.

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  5. I know how you feel… I assume the Finished Product Nice-Factor is determined by the choice of project. Lol. I have also discovered that some really pretty yarns look awesome when knit but ugly when crochet. Sigh. 😉

    I think those skeins of yarn you posted are really pretty! I tend to prefer “loud” and colourful things. Come big or stay home, I suppose!

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  6. This is so true! I’ve always passed up the “cacophony of colors” yarn, as you call them, because they always seemed almost garish. But seeing your twins’ jumpers, and how amazing the color work looks, I’m going to have to give it a shot one day. Truly lovely.

    Reply

  7. Oh how many times I have had this happen to me!! Thanks for the recommendation of this yarn that transforms into something MORE beautiful than it was before being knitted!!

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  8. I sadly have also had this problem, I tried so many different patterns to try and recreate the beauty of the skein without any joy 🙁 I also have found that short colour changes look very bizarre in crochet, I think it might be thr amount of wraps a crochet stitch has compared with a single wrap a knit stitch has, I think it mixes the colours in one stitch so the colours end up looking muddy.

    I have found that long colour changes look stunning in crochet. I made a shawl/wrap called Sweet Eleanor (free on Ravelry) in Drops Delight colourway 12 and it was gorgeous! The pattern and the yarn were a match made in heaven!

    Reply

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