Day One: A Tale of Two Yarns.

This week is Knitting and Crochet Blog week, so every day I'll be discussing various topics that have been pre-decided by the people who run this event (A full list of the topics can be found here) Today the prompt is to choose two yarns in my stash of yarn and discuss what I love and hate about them.

(The above yarn is not a picture of yarn from my actual stash. I forgot to take a picture so I just borrowed this one from the internet :P)

My go-to yarn lately is Caron Simply soft. It's one of the best buys out there for name brand yarn - a skein is usually 6 oz and you can get it at Walmart, Joann's, or Michael's for around $3 when Vanna's Choice is only 3 oz (give or take a bit) and is usually around $4 - and it really lives up to it's name! It's probably one of the softer big name yarns out there, Lion Brand Wool-ease or Jiffy, Red Heart, and Vanna's Choice just feel so rough on the skin after working with Simply Soft. In fact, now that I think about it, I think it's even softer than most of the baby weight yarns on the market!

The only downside to Caron Simply soft is that there aren't as many colors as available as you can find in some of the other brands. I have another baby blanket I would like to make using a tartan pattern that I found, but the colors I want to use that would match my friend's tartan just aren't available. Also, the closer you get to the end of the skien, the more the yarn begins to split.

(The above yarn is not a picture of yarn from my actual stash. I forgot to take a picture so I just borrowed this one from the internet :P)

I have a love/hate relationship with Lion Brand Homespun. I love the colors, I love how soft it is (I'm big on texture when it comes to yarn, if it's not soft, I'm not going near it) but OMIGOD is Homespun a bitch to crochet with! The first scarf I ever made was out of Homepun in Lagoon. It was a gorgeous blue that I couldn't turn away from, but the yarn is a loosely woven bulky boucle type yarn, so the fibers begin to blend in with each other and you're not really sure if your hook is actually going where it should be going and then you'll accidentally end up splitting the yarn on the row you just did and then if you try to unravel it it snaps and breaks on you. 

And yet, I keep buying it to make scarves out of it. I must be a glutton for punishment.