I have lots to update on current projects, but I can’t wait to tell you about the goodies that I’ve gotten in my mailbox lately! Heidi sent me not only the cute handmade stitch markers that I ordered, but also an article about repetitive strain injuries and some Valentines chocolate. (Dove dark chocolate, how I love thee!)

The article was really interesting and helpful. I’ve been trying to avoid the marathon knitting sessions, take more breaks, and experiment with different needles and ways of holding them. My arms have been bothering me much less lately, which is a relief.

My second fun package was three hanks of hand-dyed wool yarn from Uruguay. I had heard it through the grapevine (umm, I can’t remember who gave me this tip!) about this seller who often posts yarn on eBay. They also have their own site Uruwool which is where I ordered this yarn. It’s their “handpainted bulky ideal wool,” and the colorway is called Huerta.

Its texture is much coarser and feels less refined than the lovely Manos del Uruguay wool, but it’s definitely worth experimenting with it considering how reasonable their prices are. They have other weights of yarn that might be interesting to try also. Perhaps their lighter weight yarns would have a more tightly woven and softer texture.

The colors of Huerta are very vivid — more so than I expected, but once I knitted up a swatch I decided that I like it. I had a hunch that this might be an excellent candidate for felting (in which case texture doesn’t matter as much and the colors may end up a bit more muted). So, I washed my little swatch a couple of times to see what would happen. The results:

Swatch 1 (knitted with size 10 needles)
Swatch 2 (one wash cycle)
Swatch 3 (two wash cycles — lovely!)

It’s going into the stash for now until I find the perfect felting project for it!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 15th, 2004 at 11:03 am and is filed under Knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.