The other 'opinionated knitter'

... is me. Yes, Elizabeth Zimmerman is the original opinionated knitter - after all, she did write the book. But I'm going to launch into a typed tirade here, expressing my own opinions about knitting.

Since the previous post, I've again reframed my yarn stash - it is now a Yarn Bank, into which I have been making deposits for years and from which I've begun making some withdrawals. The part of my stash I'm working on now is a Fair Isle cardigan from Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting book. That book was published in 1988. I just ordered the yarn for the sweater from Jamieson and Smith within the last five years (more than fifteen years after the book was published). The color numbers are still the same, and I was able to order exactly what I needed based on Alice's list! Try that from any of the new, trendy yarn producers - try to get something somewhat similar even two years later. I'd be very surprised if you can do it.

I inadvertently found myself at a couple of other knitting blogs a few minutes ago. The bloggers were all a-twitter about the Colinette or other Very Expensive Yarn they're working with. I just don't see the value in those. I have made a couple of cardigans from an eyelash yarn by the Great Adirondack Yarn Company (which is a more-or-less local more-or-less equivalent of Colinette for me). They have not withstood the test of time, to say the least. The eyelash portion is sagging away from the button plackets, the ribbings look horrible. The yarn for each cost over $150! That is outrageous. More recently I've worked with some Noro Silk Garden yarn. It is a very nice yarn, lovely to work with. But each ball had a knot in it that resulted in a sharp color change in what is supposed to be the graduated subtle color changes that characterize Noro. Yet, it costs significantly more than $100 for enough yarn for a garment. I don't think I'll ever spend that again.

Just for comparison - a day or two ago I checked the prices for jumper weight yarn at Jamieson and Smith. A 25-gm ball of yarn is just over US$ 2. Two dollars! (1.65 British pounds) (Of course, it will cost you $5.60 if you buy it from Meg Swansen's Schoolhouse Press.) The Alice Starmore cardigan I'm knitting calls for 32 balls of yarn in 13 colors. If I ordered the yarn today (which I could because they're still available), it would cost about $70. A lot of money, to be sure, but it is classic yarn that I know will look as good in ten years as it does when it's first blocked after finishing. And it's spun consistently, and is, in my humble opinion, more enjoyable to knit than the Noro because there aren't the skinny-thick-slubby inconsistencies not to mention the sudden changes in color from where the yarn is knotted in the middle of the ball! In yarn that retails for over $15 per 50-gram ball!

Not familiar with Jamieson and Smith? Take a look:
Jamieson and Smith - yarn vendors from Shetland, UK

And speaking of EZ - I just took a look at the Schoolhouse Press site [EZ's daughter, Meg Swansen's knitting empire] to see what they have for wool these days. (Hence the addition of the price above.) I am almost positive that the "Sheepswool" and "Rangeley" yarns they peddle are, in fact, Bartlettyarns, from a mill in the middle of Maine - "Sheepswool" looks very, very similar to Bartlettyarns's "Fisherman yarns"; "Rangeley" colors all echo Bartlettyarns's other lines, Rangeley, Glen Tweed, and "Shetland." The cost at Bartlettyarns - $7 for a 4-oz skein. I'm shocked, shocked I say, to see the price is the same at Schoolhouse Press. I just wonder, though - what's wrong with saying where the yarn is produced? Why make it seem like Meg's got some primary role in its creation when it just comes from Bartlettyarns (and did even in EZ's time, I'm pretty sure)? Give credit where it's due.

Okay, so I'm jealous. I have not created a life in which I make my living from knitting, so I find fault with many of those who do. But to get back to the original point I wanted to make: As the economy affects us all and makes us look more pragmatically at how we spend our money, well, I'm going to be more frugal and wise in my yarn choices.