Chat Back for November 28

Answering questions from comments and email.

Kathy B. wrote . . .

I hope Sunny is okay. I'm a bit worried by your post.

A few other readers had similar comments. Thank you all for your concern.

Sunny is her normal perky self right now. Until next time.

DH Bob caught my "flu-like symptoms", and with his ongoing health problems he needed medical help getting through it. Looks like he's on the mend now, but it was a major setback and recovery is going to be slow.

From now on I will be more specific with my blogging excuses.

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Sue J. emailed a list of questions which I am totally unqualified to answer, so I'll share my answers here anyway with a disclaimer - Some knitters enjoy trying various yarn brands and blends. I enjoy trying different patterns and tend to keep the yarn choices to what I know will give satisfactory results. The subset of sock yarns I have tried is very small compared to what is available.

1. If you had the choice of buying one skein of merino, cashmere, nylon hand dyed yarn or two skeins of Cascade Heritage, which one would you choose?

I've never knit with merino, cashmere, nylon but have two skeins in my stash I'm eager to try. Because it's super soft I'm guessing it will not wear as well as "regular" sock yarn and the stitch definition will not be wonderful. I'm planning to use a simple rib based stitch pattern (not selected yet) and wearing them at home in slippers.

I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised at how well the cashmere blend wears, and if it wears well it will be a surprise. I intend to enjoy the knitting experience of a luxury yarn and consider that the reward for my dollars, the wearing being secondary.

I've only knit with Heritage once, a pair of gift socks that I haven't given yet. It's a smooth, soft, pretty yarn and I've been told it wears well, but I haven't verified that for myself yet.

If I was on a limited budget, I would go with the Heritage.

2. You used to knit a lot with Opal uni solid sock yarn. Have you lost your love of it, or has something else taken it's place?

Uni-Solid is never a bad choice and always practical. A little pricey, but worth it.

It's the work horse of yarns and I still use Opal and Regia for many of my gift socks. They wear forever and can't be destroyed in the laundry. I have Opal and Regia socks that are over ten years old now and still going strong.

3. In your estimation, which sock yarn is the best bang for the buck?

I haven't tried that many inexpensive yarns, so I can't give a comprehensive answer.

From the little I've used the Knitpicks sock yarns, I don't want to invest my time in knitting with them. I assume, but don't know, that in general you get what you pay for.

4. Do you still knit, on occasions, with self striping or self patterning yarn such as Opal, Trekking XXL, Etc?

Yes, just finished a pair of self-patterning Regia for my brother who wanted "wild" socks.

Much of my pleasure in knitting comes from trying different stitch patterns and I find the self striping/patterning socks require simple stitches so it's not my first choice when knitting for pleasure.

When knitting for loved ones who love the colorful self patterning results, I bite the bullet and knit simple.