Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

By 6:30 last night, I was pooped! I balanced 2 checkbooks, then vacuumed, bathed and dried the dog, took down and scrubbed the shower liner and rehung it, did laundry, did more printing, stapling, folding, mail merging and more printing! I also did more surfing, searching for any other bluefaced leicester wool yarn producers and emailed one more I found.

The one I've been trying to get a hold of called me yesterday and it seems the future of the aran wt yarn is questionable as it's not selling! Well, I really don't know why not. They don't have a wide range of colors, but they do have about 6-9 that are nice, and the yarn is heavenly, so why aren't more US shops and catalogs buying the British Breeds yarns??? It's certainly not because the yarn is a bit pricey, as there's tons of wool and not-wool yarns that cost far more.

It may well be that their site doesn't list all the info almost anyone needs - like yardage, prices, patterns available in each line, etc.

I did some more knitting on the CIC vests, then folded the rest of the laundry and remade the bed. Have 4 more vest bodies done so far for CIC. Still need to do the edgings, but I'll do them last.

Today, I need to paint the pantry door and window, stuff and seal the subscribers' mailings, and just knit on the CIC vests some more. I'm at the low-energy ebb of the month - no use pushing it too hard, or getting tense or agitated, or the headaches get worse.

I'm eagerly awaiting several yarn orders to come in - all yarns to consider for my new designs and booklets - just last night I ordered sample cards and a hank of each of the
Beaverslide Dry Goods yarns. They have a plain wool in the right weight, but one can hardly call Rambouillet and Merino *plain*! So, I'm eager to see it, knit it up, and wash it to see how it behaves.

I also got their 90% wool/10% mohair yarn, which is supposed to be thinner, more a true worsted at 5 sts/1", but I still want to see/feel/knit it up. This yarn, with the mohair, was reviewed by Knitters Review. it got a good review and the yarn is very reasonably priced for a fine wool yarn. I don't know yet if they wholesale. I'll inquire after trying it.

I have some aran wt. yarn from Canada coming, which, if it's nice, will be perfect for my dyeing, and, from The Wool Connection a skein each of Classic Elite's Renaissance, Two.Two and Frog Tree Alpaca Sport. I still haven't given up on using the Peace Fleece or the new Chester Farms Fine Merino, but have to wait yet another month, at least, to get any of the Merino. It will be interesting to compare the Chester Farms Fine Merino with the Beaverslide Rambouillet/Merino yarn. Totally different colors from each company to start with.

Frog Tree has great colors and it's very soft (soma alpaca yarns aren't this soft), and is repped by the same nice lady who reps the cashmere yarn I get. I just didn't want to get bags of it, to meet their minimums, before swatching to see if I can get the gauge I need by doubling the sport wt. yarn. So, 1 ball will show me if its do-able or not.

The Renaissance is a heavy worsted wt yarn, 2-ply if I remember correctly and is reasonably priced for a high-end yarn companies' yarn at $5/50 gr ball. I found a website that described this yarn as a *long wool* yarn. Now, I know what a long wool is, so I'm eager to see if, indeed, this yarn has some character, as long wool yarns tend to have, and I'll be pulling the ends apart and seeing if the fibers are, indeed, long.

The Two.Two is a bulky yarn, but it's a *highland* wool and is supposed to be soft, so I'm curious.

Now the term *highland* has been sprouting up in many places lately. They usually don't mean the highlands of Scotland, though. They mean the highlands of Peru. Now Peru is known for alpacas, llamas, etc, but only recently have we seen wool.
Cascade Yarns has it as their Eco Wool, so does Elann, with their own line - Peruvian Collection or Connection, I forget, and so does KnitPicks, I think. Yes, their "Wool of the Andes", is Peruvian wool, but is only in natural, no colors.

8:30 pm Correction!
KnitPicks *does* have colors in their peruvian wool yarn line AND they have a merino wool and a merino/silk/alpaca yarn and others - all brand new and VERY inexpensive - much too inexpensive compared to other yarns of similar fibers. I'm going to have to try one of each. I find it interesting that 2 online shops now have their own lines of yarns - Elann and KnitPicks. Not that I'm complaining! More yarn choices is always better than less yarn choices - I just find it interesting. I wonder why. Aren't all the larger companies' yarns selling? It's not unusual for a designer to need her own line of yarns so that her design visions can be fleshed out. It *is* unusual for a yarn shop to need their own lines of yarns. Has anyone tried them yet?