Monday, September 10, 2007

More thoughts on my too big stash of discontinued Rowan 4-ply

The thoughts on the Rowan 4-ply are greatly appreciated. Let the contest continue! It's not so much that I can't think of something to knit. More, I am completely unfamiliar with what will work with this weight of yarn.

Yarnhog described it best in the comments when she said
4-ply is a little finer than sport weight, which is finer than dk, which is finer than worsted.

The other struggle I faced relates to what kmkat said
I am a bit confused as to the weight of this yarn. Many knit it like a DK or worsted weight yarn on US#6 - 8s, but the endpaper mitts and several pairs of socks were done on US#1s

Guerseygal said what I had experienced when she said
I definitely would NOT use it for socks - it has no memory at all and the pair I made actually tore when I pulled them on in a hurry! I have seen several lovely shawls in it but I would be wary of making a sweater in this yarn unless you want it to be baggy.

I didn't try socks but now realize that I had blocked out (no pun intended) the nightmare that was Knit and Tonic's Flair done in this yarn. Droopy it was (in spite of getting gauge-one of the first times I actually checked!) Check "Flair" on the sidebar if you dare!

Things I had not yet thought of include doubling the yarn- I do have plenty to double- and/or possibly some fair isle. It is a nice combination of colors. Of course, I'm a big enough idiot that if I don't think it through, I'll try to do both at the same time.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weird indeed! Yesterday I found a resource that likened 4-ply to worsted and then another to fingering. :(

I think you could crank out a lot of mittens and scarves. ;) Will it felt?

Anonymous said...

How about a fair isle bag and then felt it?

Yarnhog said...

Some yarns are discontinued for good reason. I understand if you bury natural fiber yarn in the backyard, it breaks down into a great soil amendment.

Deborah-- said...

Hmmmm I think I would hold it double and knit with it. If you choose to do Fair Isle I would do it on a small project. If you haven't done Fiar Isle before starting small is good. If you felted it, I definitely think you have to hold it double to get a nice felt.

Haley said...

I just saw your exact yarn on Flickr, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/helloyarn/1361325915/
This is what Adrian from Helloyarn is doing with it:
"I'm thinking that I'll use this in combination with the same yarn in the Squirrel color to make Meg Swansen's "Schoolhouse Shetland Pullover" from the book America Knits, which I have wanted to make for ages. Mainly, I just had to grab some before it was gone for good."