Noro... to alternate balls or not

[slouca]

I'm making a simple, 3/4 length jacket with a hood for myself. I finally splurged and bought myself the Noro I've been eyeing for a while. So, because the Noro is varigated, I was told to use two balls at a time....knit 2 rows with one ball, then switch, etc.. The problem is it's beginning to look slightly striped. Does anyone have experience with Noro in this way? would you recommend that I just knit one ball at a time? I'm not a big fan of the horizontal striping
Thanks!
Sirka

[newbieknit]

You are so lucky to be knitting yourself a little jacket with a hood out of Noro. I have no personal experience knitting with Noro, but I have heard the same advice. Knit a few rows with ball 1, and then switch to ball 2. If you aren't liking the way it's turning out, I'd just try knitting with the one ball and not switching back and forth. I wouldn't be able to switch yarn back and forth every 2 rows...it would drive me bonkers!
I hope that someone with personal experience will chime in soon so we can get the official story.

Kats

[redwitch]

If it is striping that is because the wools are different. So what will happen if you knit a whole ball and then go straight to the next one? The next ball will be even more obvious if you do only one ball at a time... probably.

I would knit say 2 inches in one ball and then switch to another. If you are happy with that, great, but if you don't like the effect, you will know to go with either switching every couple of rows, or coming up with a new idea.

P.S. are the balls at the same place in the colour repeats? Or are you using one ball in its red patch with another that has reached a blue patch?

[zkimom]

What kind of Noro are you using?

I was under the impression that Noro yarns are self-striping yarns, not variegated so if you are using something like Kureyon or Silk Garden I would think that alternating balls of yarn would interfere with the natural striping pattern of the yarn.

I made a felted market bag with Noro Big Kureyon and didn't alternate balls. I didn't see much of a problem between balls and the stripes seem to transition into one another nicely.

Best,
Susan

[slouca]

I'm using Noro Iro. The two balls are not at the same place in their color repeats. Would it be better if they were?
I guess I'm going to have to experiment between doing one ball at a time, doing a few inches in each ball, or doing two balls from the same color point....sigh...patience is a virtue, right?

[knitasha]

Iro is self-striping, but the stripes are more subtle than Kureyon's. Since Noro's color variations tend to be more random than "engineered," I don't see the point in trying to control what the stripes are doing.

I did once try matching the stripes on both sides of a vest and the effect wasn't worth the trouble (or the wasted yarn).

The beauty of this yarn is in the gentle, painterly variations. I'd just use one ball at a time and let it do its own thing UNLESS there's a very sudden and jarring color change between the end of one ball and the beginning of the next. In that case I'd manipulate the colors just a bit to get a better blend.

[Phretys]

If you don't like the stripey effect, I would say to just knit with one ball at a time. Based on my experience with Noro yarns, I definitely wouldn't go with your third option, doing two balls from the same colorpoint, because the point of color changes is inconsistent between different skeins.

When I knit my yoga mat carrier in Kureyon, I spliced up several of the yarns so the color changes would continue in pattern through the whole body of the carrier. It hurt my brain to figure out which skeins would work best for the next starting point, though!

Debi

[redwitch]

Oh yes, you will definitely get stripes then. I'd go with just doing a whole ball at once, if you have big long stripes that's not what the alternating 2 balls is for. It will look great!