Swatch-a-Palooza

ArtFibers Yarns, L to R: Nirvana, Golden Chai, Kyoto, Galicia, Valparaiso (Clickable)

My ArtFibers swatch order came yesterday, and I wasted no time. This is a lovely grouping – heavy on the silk. Here are my reviews.

Notes:
• I’m a very loose knitter, so I generally use a needle 2 sizes smaller than what is recommended.

• I’ve included 2 price listings, one for the smallest skein or cone offered, and one for a theoretical “sweater” quantity.

• For more information on ArtFibers, please see the paragraph which follows the reviews.

Valparaiso
50% baby alpaca, 50% merino
My gauge: 4.5 st/in & 6 rows/in
My needles: #4 bamboos
Price: 290 yard cone / $19
1015 yards/$66.50

This sport/light worsted weight 10-ply yarn has a soft, cottony hand – so soft, in fact, that I kept going back to it in wonder. There is NO itch factor (I’m sensitive to wool), so if you’re looking for a good wool blend for next-to-skin wear, this one should be perfect. It comes in 10 softly variegated solid-ish colors. I swatched this using a size 4 needle, but probably should have used a 3.

Kyoto
69% silk, 25% super kid mohair, 6% extrafine wool
My gauge: 3.5 st/in & 4.5 rows/in
My needles: #9 Brittney birch
Price: 220 yard cone / $22
990 yards / $99

I love this yarn, but I don’t think the color I chose really shows it off to its best advantage. Kyoto is a great combination of silken shininess and mohairy fuzziness. It feels fluffy on the skin, and should make great hats, mittens and scarves. There are 19 colors offered, each a super-subtle variegated solid. This yarn feels quite luxurious – I’m hard pressed to think of anything in my LYS of comparable richness, especially for the price.

Golden Chai
100% Golden Tussah Silk
My gauge: 4.5 st/in, 5 rows/in
My needles: #4 bamboo
Price: 330 yard cone / $22
990 yards / $66

In terms of general **sigh** factor, this yarn delivers. It’s a thick and thin silk single-ply that just dances on whatever needles you put it on. And while the silk wows with its rich patina, the varying thickness of the yarn supplies a terrific rustic counterpoint. This really is one of my all-time favorite yarns. And I can’t think of another 100% silk sport weight yarn available for this price. 18 marvelous colors – everything from subtle and girly to metallic and mod. In addition, 9 solid colors are offered of essentially the same yarn under the name “Golden Siam.”

Once again, I should have swatched this with a smaller needle. I do think it would be tough for a loose knitter like me to get a “solid” fabric out of one ply of this yarn -- perhaps double-stranding it might fix this issue. I dream of a slightly oversized, drapey simple pullover made out of Golden Chai.

Nirvana
50% cashmere, 50% silk
My gauge: 5 st/in, 6.5 rows/in
My needles: #4 bamboo
Price: 274 yard cone / $18
959 yards / $63

I wasn’t bowled over by this yarn. What’s not to like about silk and cashmere? Rubbing my fingers over the firm strand I thought “Great cabling yarn . . .” but when I rubbed it on my neck I felt a definite itch! From cashmere? Hmm.

It swatched up nicely, and of all the yarns I sampled, Nirvana seems the most forgiving of uneven tension – the stitches lined up perfectly no matter what I did. After washing, the little swatch “bloomed” and turned into a lovely fabric. The itch was still there, though. Perhaps there are issues with the quality of the cashmere? Seven colors offered, mostly semi-solid pastels.

Galicia
90% silk, 9% super kid mohair, 2% wool
My gauge: 4.5 st/in, 5.5 rows/in
My needles: #5 Brittney birch
Price: 216 yard cone / $24
972 yards / $108

This is subtle 2-ply tweed, and it is my favorite of the lot. I am always overheating, so most wool sweaters are just too much for me. This clever mostly-silk yarn has a definite wooliness” (that’s the mohair) that makes me think of winter sweaters I will actually wear!

Galicia is similar to Kyoto (reviewed above), but on a much smaller scale. The silk gleams under a subtle cloud of mohair. It is currently offered in just 4 jewel-tone colors. And of course, since it’s my favorite, it has to be the most expensive. That being said, $12 per 100 yds is still a great deal for yarn of this quality.

About ArtFibers
ArtFibers is a yarn store in the San Francisco Bay area that also makes yarn under the ArtFibers brand name. They are currently offering free yarn "tastings” to bloggers (see full information below). I’ve ordered from them in the past, and am always amazed at their cost/quality ratio (low/high, respectively).

AF has recently reworked its website and pricing. I like the new pricing structure, but it is somewhat complex. Their yarns are sold on cones of 100, 150, 200, and 250 grams. The nice thing about this is you can combine cone sizes to get the precise amount of yarn your project requires with a minimum of waste and weaving in of yarn ends. Yarns are also available undyed at a price about 30% less than the dyed versions.

If I could change one thing at the ArtFibers website, it would be their color numbering system. I greatly prefer a name to a number. Any description, say “a mix of silvery grains,” is better than “#7”. I’m not sure why so many yarn companies don’t use color names / descriptions any more – they can be so helpful, especially when shopping on the ‘net. I spend a lot of time on the AF site puzzling over little swatch pictures, thinking: “Now is that silver, or taupe, or what?”

Next up: Taos. Wool. Really.

(My color names, top-to-bottom:

acorn, silver shale, electric mango, spring bud, basil)

(hint, hint.)

So, about the Taos Wool Festival:

I have wanted to go to this shindig for years, but never seem to have the wherewithal to get organized and make the trip. Last month I made the decision: I was going. I called around to a bunch of Taos hotels and listened to the hoots of laughter: You want a room when? Don’t you know that’s the Wool Festival weekend?

Well, yes, I do.

I finally found a hotel willing to give me a room. I have very mixed feelings about this hotel. On the one hand, it was one of the worst hotel rooms I’ve ever stayed in. On the other hand, it wasn’t THE worst hotel room I’ve ever stayed in (that honor belongs, coincidentally, to another Taos hotel). E-mail me if you want to know its actual name. For now I’ll just call it Casa Cucaracha.

The grounds of this hotel are nice, with the biggest cottonwood trees I’ve ever seen towering over the little hotel complex:

Also, a nice little courtyard:




But as I approached the door, I had a sinking feeling.

And then I went inside.

I wish I could blog in smell-o-vision, because that was at least half the problem. Musty cigarette-y mystery smell splashed with copious amounts of “Oust” or some similar liquid stink-masker. To my Calvinist soul it smelled like “Eau de Mortal Sin.”

But this was it. There were no other hotel rooms. I shook out the cotton blanket I travel with and covered the bed. I did a closer inspection, and discovered there really wasn’t anything super objectionable . . . the bathroom was passably clean, although in a sad state of disrepair . . . ditto the main room. . .



And then I saw it. In the framed artwork. Ack!! . . .

Maybe it’s not a roach, but it looks mighty roachy to me. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I decided to not think about it (never underestimate the power of denial) and walk over to the Wool Market. I would deal with Casa Cucaracha when I absolutely had to and no earlier.

Tomorrow:
Woolly Goodness.

Darth Vader, Wool in Taos and Herbert

Hello all! Yes, it has been a dog’s age since I posted. There are various forces which have conspired to keep me from the blogosphere. Nothing sinister, just life and its constant mutability.

First off, I have been doggedly garter-stitching along on my Hanne Falkenberg Ballerina jacket, which I have nicknamed “Darth Vader.” Why? Because it is big and black and it is kicking my butt. My advice to you: Never knit a HF kit in black unless you possess youth and a sunny disposition.

I, however, have neither -- and knitting gazillions of black stitches on size 2 needles tends to give me a headache and the blues simultaneously. Ick.

But I persevere, because I will finish this jacket or die trying. (Note to spouse: If I do die trying, I want to be buried in however much of it I’ve completed.)

Also, as much as the Mystery Shawl 3 was fun to photograph – you could really see progress on the shawl from week to week – the Ballerina is not. I can work on it for 2 days and all I have to show is . . . 2 more inches of black garter stitch. On a really exciting day, perhaps half of a striped gore.

So while I will post some updates on the Ballerina in the future, I don’t think I will be taking many pictures of it.

And, in other news, I have been spending much of my crafting time spinning and working with various fibers. I’m going through a honeymoon phase right now with all things spinning-related, and I just wasn’t sure if my blog readers cared how I (finally) got most of the poop out of the Tunis.

So, gentle reader, this blog will have a subtle shift of focus, at least for a while. . . I just got back from the Taos Wool Festival, and I bought 2 lovely fleeces. One is soaking in my bathtub right now, and I will try to have pictures and more information soon. . .

And finally . . . there may be an addition to my family. Yes, we may soon be hearing the pitter-patter of little paws. Our kitty, Bailey, really needs a playmate, and I fell in love with a Tonkinese named Herbert at a recent local cat show. Herbert is a foster cat in Siamese Rescue, and I have to fill out about a metric ton of paperwork in order to be considered as an adoptive kitty mom. (Getting a kid is much easier than getting a cat.) But I have my hopes up. Here he is:

"Dear Bailey: Here's how to look dignified. Your pal, Herbert."

Artfibers Has Such a Deal for Bloggers!

I had to pass this along: Artfibers in San Francisco (see their web site here) currently has a great promotion going for bloggers. You can receive 5 free "tastings" of their yarns (It's about 10-15 yards per "taste"), if you e-mail them and let them know:

1.) which yarns you would like, including colors
2.) your blog's URL
3.) your shipping address.

That's it -- free for nothing! Tastings are retail priced at $2.50 each, so this is at least a $15 value, as postage is free as well. Yes, I will be doing reviews when my Artfibers freebies get here!