Menokreatikkul; Saturday Stitches

The snooker was on. It is one of the few sports that remain on free-to-air broadcasting in full format. None of this 'highlights' nonsense (although those are there, too, for folks with short attention spans). The Worlds are great, because it is the chance for emerging talent to get a proper hand on the table, as it were. It was a tremendous stoush this year, with a few greats getting ousted by that new talent. Then there were the matches between long-time old rivals and masters of the match... Sometimes, it was so tense, I almost couldn't watch...

 

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...oh, yes, that's why I'm writing this post. Crochet.

I needed a quickish project to keep the hands busy (and hide the worrying shots). I went through the stash and came across the ball of Winter Glow I had ordered quite some time ago. 

As you can see on the right, it's one of the Hobbii own-range yarns, like the Colorina I used for the jacket and bonnet. However, whereas that yarn was mostly Acrylic and 20% Wool, these cakes comprise 51% Virgin Wool and 49% Acrylic.

Now, I grew up around wool, remember? I don't recall ever hearing the term 'virgin' applied to it. A quick search, though, revealed that this is what I have known as Lambswool. It is from the first shearing made on each animal, their initiation into the shearing shed. I don't know when the term began on labelling. I think that in the UK, for local products, Lambswool is still the chosen term, but I may be wrong. What matters, though, is the texture and feel of the yarn... and it's lovely!

Having that much more wool content meant there was a great deal less of the 'hook snatching' that I felt with Colorina. This also equated to easier frogging on the occasions that was necessary. The hook slid very easily with no splitting, although this yarn is also single-spun with very variable thickness, which just once or twice slowed me down.

The fabric created has a lush, silky loft (springiness). It is soft, and the finished work has a decent 'drape'. The colour changes are much shorter than those found in the Colorina range, so less of a striping effect and more of a dappled colour flow results. (It is worth noting that there is a range of Winterglow Solid colours to choose from, also.) As I worked with it, I found my mind occasionally drifting to other projects this might work for... because I really want to make more with this yarn... and oh, those gorgeous colours! 

One skein of this yarn is around 700m, which is 200 m short of the required amount if I wanted to complete the wrap pattern I'd chosen to the full two metres. I also realised that the loft of the yarn and the hook size I opted for kept it more compact (narrower) than shown in the pattern. I decided not to worry. I am only 1.65 metres anyway, so the resulting 1.5 m length I did get is perfectly adequate. More of a voluminous scarf than a full wrap. I haven't blocked it yet, so that might make a difference, too. I could have added an extra pattern repeat (about two inches), as it turned out I probably could have stretched the yarn that far - but I didn't want to risk running out before doing the edging. The little bit left won't be enough for a matching beanie... but maybe a headband...