Acquiring yarn makes me happy.  And I’m a happy fiber witch these days, because I’m pretty much swimming in yarn. 

I went hunting for mini skeins, because when Elaine (Master of Enablers) sent me that first “I’m-going-to-get-you-hooked-on-the-good-stuff” box, there were a ton of adorable mini skeins in there.  And I can’t stand to have yarn and not know what I’m using it for, so I went looking for a project to use them in.  What I found was the Battenberg Blanket by Cherry Heart, (https://www.cherryheart.co.uk/2018/12/battenberg-blanket.html) which I fell in love with immediately.  It’s named after the UK favorite dessert, (should have heard my boss’s reaction when I asked him about it!).  It’s just teeny 3 round solid granny squares made from fingering weight yarn. It takes about a million of them and the project will probably take me another three years, but it’s great getting to add to it every time I buy fingering weight yarn, which has unaccountably become one of my favorite weights to work with. 

Anyway, in the hunt (which ended up at Etsy, naturally), I fell in love with the idea of doing the Battenberg in “themes”.   So I went looking for yarn that was inspired by things, places, books, etc. that I love. And ohhhhh I found sooooo much….

As time has gone on, and I’ve worked with more yarns and fibers I’ve started having preferences of what I like to work with and what I don’t.   Amazingly enough to me, since I said after I made the first baby blanket I’d done with fingering weight yarn that I’d never do THAT again – fingering weight and sock yarn is now one of my favorites for shawls and ponchos.  In the more expensive yarns, I really like a merino/silk blend, but I don’t enjoy winding it, because it is slippery enough that it will slip off the forming cake and pool at the bottom of the winder if you don’t slow way down while you’re winding. 

Another favorite is gradient cake yarns.  Most of these have about 875 to 1094 yards per cake, which means you can get one shawl or poncho out of one cake, which is handy.  Keeping that in mind though, the per cake price is a little high.  I’ve become accustomed to the sticker shock and now realize that it comes out fairly cheaply when you realize you only need one.  And I’m determined to have shawls and/or ponchos to match most of my outfits.  I just got through ordering like six more colorways.  In the gradient cakes, what I’ve used most of is Hobbii Sultan, which is four unplied strands of 100% cotton.  I’ve found I actually enjoy the Twister and Scheepjes cakes more, though, which are acrylic/cotton blends, and have just that little bit more stretch and softness. 

One of my favorite brands is Scheepjes.  I’ve used and loved their Whirls, (same fiber and yardage as Twister)  and drooled over their Stonewashed and Riverwashed lines.  The only thing that’s so far stopped me from ordering the adorable sample pack is that those are DK weight yarn, not fingering, so I couldn’t use them for the Battenberg blanket.  But I was highly excited to find out they have a silk/cotton line called Secret Garden, with a shawl pattern (unfortunately in knit only, boo!) to match.   I ordered 10 balls of it in various colorways to make my own crocheted version, and I am SO excited!  (More on this to come…)

Another favorite is Malabrigo.  Again, I was introduced to this brand by Elaine the Enabler, and it was love at first feel, because she sent me a CASHMERE blend. OMG the soft.  I made a small shawl out of the three hanks I had, which one of the cats promptly CHEWED.  I was heartbroken.  Who knew cats loved cashmere as much as I do?   I’ve now replaced the yarn (plus two additional hanks, because I like my shawls generously sized), and plan to remake the shawl when I have room in my projects list.  I also got 5 hanks of their Silky Merino in the Zarzamora colorway.  And then…and THEN I found out that Moon Trio Full (the original colorway from Elaine the Enabler) is part of….wait for it….a TRIO.  Yeah, there’s also Crescent and New moons.  Well y’all know this Cancer baby had to have the whole set.  The whole set only comes in their Mechita, a single ply, 100% merino,  but it is also in fingering weight (where the cashmere blend is DK), so I was okay with that.  And I found the coolest pattern just made for a three shade fade effect, the Flatiron Shawl, by Toni Lipsey (who seems to be EVERYWHERE these days.) 

And then, there’s the indie dyers.  After a few missteps where I seemed to have a genius for buying yarn from people who turn out to be pieces of bovine excrement,  I’m slowly finding favorites. 

Sundara (another from Elaine the Enabler), Hypnotic Yarn, Weird Sisters, Bashful Armadillo Fibers, Bad Sheep Yarn, Six & Seven Fibers, Destination Yarn….just typing the names makes me happy.  

So I’m surrounded by pretty, soft, squishy yarn and planned projects, and am growing more confident that the crochet bug isn’t going to up and leave me high and dry with all this.