On Saturday afternoon I went to a yarn tasting at my local yarn store, Sunshine Weaving and Fiber Arts. I had no idea what to expect, but enjoyed it.
We received 25 grams each of 6 new Berroco yarns (Vernazza, Tillie, Seaspun, Bozzolo, Pima 100, and Vintage Baby Handpaint) that are being debuted this season, and we brought our needles or hooks (and some brought both) to work with each yarn to see what we thought of them.
I have rarely worked with cotton or cotton blends, and never worked with a linen or linen blend, so it was valuable experience to see what each of those felt like as I was using the yarn on my needles. I may make something small out of each of them (perhaps a coaster or something like that?) to keep as a reference.
My favorite was the only wool blend of the 6 – a sport weight acrylic (52%), wool (40%), and nylon (8%) blend, even though it was majority acrylic. They’ve really come a long way in creating blends of natural and man-made fibers over the years.
In addition to that, it was LYS (Local Yarn Store) Day, and if you purchased yarn for the Trust Fall shawl pattern, you received a code to get the pattern for free (at participating shops).
My shop is not a huge one, but they had a variety of different fibers in the called-for DK weight. I chose a yarn called Wool Pop, which is a blend of bamboo (50%), wool (35%) and polyamide aka nylon (15%). I’ve used a wool and bamboo blend before to make my Spring Blossom Cardi, and really liked it, so I thought I’d give this one a shot. The two colors I chose just jumped out at me, and none of the others really seemed to call to me, even though I tried to consider all of them as options.
This shawl is written as a one-color design. However, I saw a striking one knit in two colors, so I thought I’d give that a shot. The bamboo content gives it a real shimmer.
We also got to meet a local indie yarn dyer, and I just had to buy this skein of yarn. She only had fingering weight in the shop, but mentioned that she can dye the same colorways in heavier weights, so I’m hoping to see some of that too. This is Maple and Barley Fiber Co in the colorway Fallen Leaves. It’s a 75% superwash merino/25% nylon blend. I think it will make a beautiful one-skein shawl/shawlette for fall. Just gorgeous!
