New Yarn!

Ok, well it's sort of new yarn. I've had for about 2 months, and made a gauge swatch with it about a month ago, and finally have cast on a project with it. A while ago I noticed my Instagram feed was heavy with green and grey knitwear, and my wardrobe had a lot of black and cool colors. I also had a new design in mind, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to break out of my fashion comfort zone and make something in a new color. I decided I wanted a deep red, wine colored yarn in a worsted weight. And so the hunt for the perfect color began!

I loved Quince and Co.'s new color, Malbec, but it wasn't released at the time, and I wanted to try a new yarn. I've always been curious about Manos del Uruguay, but I didn't want something that variegated for this. I also looked into a lot of Etsy hand dyers. Overall, I discovered a lot of cool and enticing new yarn purveyors. Lorna's Laces almost reeled me in with some lovely deep reds, and O-Wool is now very high up on my list of yarns to try. But I'm very particular and all of these awesome yarns were just slightly, slightly off from the color I wanted.

I spent a couple of weeks looking at yarns, and really wishing I had a local yarn store (alas!). I kept coming back to Malabrigo's Merino Worsted in their deep burgundy.  I originally wanted a true solid, but my current design is so simple I think Malabrigo's subtle variegation will add some extra loveliness (assuming my design works!). But I had used this yarn before for my Tourist sweater, and I really wanted to try something new. Try a new yarn, or go with one you know you love? In the end it was the prices that got me. Here's the reality of the situation: a lot of the lovely, small business, hand dyed yarns were way too expensive. $20-30 for a 100g skein is not feasible for the amount of yarn I needed and the amount of my grad stipend. I went with Malabrigo, which I found on sale for a super reasonable price. No new yarn for this project, but I do get to nuzzle Merino Worsted like a weirdo! But if anyone has any yarn recommendations for me, I'd love to hear them! What are you favorite yarns?