Trials Of Variegated Yarn

02-02-2007, 05:18 PM

I thought I would mention this as perhaps there are other newbies like myself who love the look of variegated yarn ..... bought a bunch of it to use for a dog blanket, figuring it would be pretty .... I ended up frogging it several times, so much so that I had to cut most of it off the ball because after many frogs it just separated so badly ....

When I went to my LYS and mentioned it to the lady there, she said that variegated yarn is fine for doing garter stitch on but if you are doing a pattern such as basketweave which I was doing, (because I hate garter .. I don't like the little "rows" it makes) ... the pattern gets lost in the pattern of the yarn .. she showed me a sock she was making out of this multicolored sock yarn and said she is near ready to abandon it because of the same reason .. you really could barely see the ribbing much less the pattern ... so I returned all my variegated yarn to the shop and didn't get anything to replace it (figured the $80.00 I got back could go towards something else .. like another pair of Addi turbos

) ....

Toby

brendajos · 02-02-2007, 10:27 PM

okay first of all, if you are paying $80 for a pair of Addis go to another store!

I think it really does depend on the yarn and the pattern. I have a variegated that I am doing cables with and it looks pretty cool (at least i think!) Ingrid had shown some cabled patterns with variegated yarns too that showed up very well. It seems to work better in lighter colors and maybe color repeats? (that is my own speculation on that one.)

Personally I really prefer to work with variegated yarn. People who know me know that I am ridiculous about color so the idea of working with plain colors drives me crazy. I agree that some just aren't good to show design but I would rather use the vari- and lose the design than use a mostly plain color and have design to spare. The only reason I need the designs are to keep from getting bored with the work... if the colors were plain it is likely that i would completely hate the work...lol

02-02-2007, 10:31 PM

Actually for $80.00 I could buy three pair of Addis .... I got a 5.5 mm but want to get an 8 mm for this shawl I'm doing for my mom ....

If I were a more experienced knitter I think I might like some types of variegated yarn but my eye just doesn't like the finished product ... though a lady at our knitting night last night was making socks from this brightly colored silk blend ... now they were cute.

Toby

brendajos · 02-02-2007, 10:48 PM

whew...glad to hear that your addis aren't THAT high

Anyway, i really just like to see how the colors work up given various forms of manipulation. I rarely frog because i don't like how the color pattern looks or because i have made mistakes (unless they are REEEEEEEEALLY bad i just wing it...lol) I frog from boredom sadly.

Jan in CA · 02-03-2007, 12:34 AM

That's still a heck of a lot of money for Addis!!

Some patterns just look better with a solid or tweedy type yarn rather than variegated.

suzeeq · 02-03-2007, 04:35 AM

I believe Mrs Columbo is in Canada and so she'd be using CDN $, not US $.

sue

02-03-2007, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by suzeeq

I believe Mrs Columbo is in Canada and so she'd be using CDN $, not US $.

sue

Yes Sue, that's correct ... I paid $20.00 CDN for my 24" 5mm's ... when I was at our knitting night last night at LYS, I saw an 8mm 32" circ for $29.99 ... I think that's the highest I've seen ...

Toby