Friday, November 20, 2009

The secret has been revealed!

After all these many years, I think I finally figured out where my Oma got the wool for the scratchy stockings she knit for me between 1946 and 1948. From Japan! I'm only kidding. I am sure she was recycling at that time. But Noro's sock yarn could be a good twin for the yearn. I had never knit with Noro before since I always felt that it was too expensive for the quality. I had heard horror stories about knots, color sequences being off after the knot occurred, the evenness of the yarn, etc. Yet people bought it for the color. The colors are lovely, but... Knitter's Review has an excellent review of the yarn. She says it much better than I can, but I'll continue my crumbling.

The yarn's twist is not set properly; it is highly energized. As I knit with the yarn it curled back on itself as if I was making a cord the old fashioned way. (Memories of childhood: Two people with 2 pencils and several wraps of yarn around the pencils, twirling in the opposite way and then bringing the two ends together.) The knitted fabric skews due to the energized twist, and it is a single ply. But, most of all, the yarn has thin-thin spots, thin spots, and thick spots. Not at all favorable for sock knitting.

I decided to make a resolable sock by using Regia sock yarn for the sole, heels and toes, although the top of the socks will most likely wear out first. I have never been able to make the join between the bottom and the top of the sock to my satisfaction, but then I am a wee bit picky.

So here is my very first attempt at knitting with Noro sock yarn. The second sock will follow soon.



2 comments:

  1. I agree with you about this yarn. I've never tried to make socks with it, but it makes great scarves. You just have to take oddly manufactured yarn in trade for that great color.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey,

    sounds horrible. The sock looks quite good, though. ^^

    BTW you might be able to avoid the twisting of the yarn between the ball and your knitting by knitting from the other end. (The twisting normally occurs when you knit against the twist of the fibers so it should not happen if you knit with the twist.)

    Worked for me with my Trekking yarn, might work for you and the Noro yarn as well. ^_~

    Jaden

    ReplyDelete