Luxury. Just reading the word makes some of us giddy. Couple that “luxury” with “yarn,” and we’re beside ourselves. We’ve all been there — walking through a yarn shop, touching and feeling our way up the aisles or along the walls, when suddenly, we’re overwhelmed by the feel of something special. We’ve been seduced by silk, awed by alpaca, or captivated by cashmere. We want to indulge the sensation by claiming it as our own.
Thus was born the inspiration for this third collection of one-skein wonders, 101 things to do with that one truly special, if possibly outrageously expensive, skein of yarn. In addition to the familiar luxury yarns such as silk, cashmere, and alpaca, we’ve included yarns from exotic fibers such as soy, qiviut, bison, and corn. We also offer designs for projects knitted in ecofriendly fibers like linen, organic cotton, and organic wool.
If it’s luxury you’re after, consider silk, a rich and shiny natural protein fiber that’s been cultivated for textiles for thousands of years. Once reserved for royalty, silk and silk-blend yarns are widely available to today’s knitter. Pure silk, silk blended with cashmere, silk blended with alpaca, lace-weight silk, silk ribbon — it’s all out there, in every color imaginable, including hand-painted varieties. Check out the Sweet Violet Silk-Cashmere Scarf, the Caravan Silk-Wool Socks, and the Silk Purses, for three widely different yarns and projects for silk or silk blends.
For luxurious warmth, alpaca is an excellent choice. Shorn from the animal of the same name, which is native to South America, the fiber is lightweight, warm, and very, very soft. It is available pure and in blends, spun in thicknesses from lace weight to bulky. The Top-down Alpaca Mitts, Arachne’s Alpaca Lace Ring, and the Heirloom Merino-Alpaca Baby Hat all use alpaca yarn.
Also lightweight and soft, though usually more expensive than alpaca, is cashmere. Produced by cashmere goats mainly in China and Mongolia, but also in India, Pakistan, Turkey, and other countries, the textile fiber comes from the soft undercoat of hair that’s found beneath an outer growth of guard hair. Cashmere is used for the Beaded Cashmere Wristlets, the Cashmere Baby Leg Warmers, and theDiamond and Crystal Cashmere Evening Bag.
Exotic yarns abound, coming from both animal and plant fibers. The Qiviut Neck Muff was knitted with yarn spun from the down of the arctic musk ox. Pygora goat hair combines with merino wool in the Nancy Pygora-Merino Lace Scarf, and the Vicuña Scarf uses a small amount of the expensive but delicious yarn from the rare South American relative of the alpaca. The fur is said to be the softest in the world. From the plant world comes yarn made from corn, like that used in the Corn Fiber Lace Bath Cloth; yarn made from flax makes the Linen Bag; and even soybeans get into the act in Soy Beanie.
We also sought out natural and ecofriendly fibers. Bamboo is the fiber of the moment; it is wonderfully soft and shiny like silk, has a lovely drape when knitted, and is completely green and biodegradable. We’ve included several projects in bamboo: Baby’s Bamboo Singlet in fingering-weight yarn, Beautiful Baby Bamboo-Merino Sweater uses a DK weight, and worsted-weight bamboo yarn is used for the Sueño Bamboo Spa Mask. The Blossom Silk-SeaCell Shawl uses silk blended with SeaCell, which is made from wood pulp and seaweed. Organic cotton is a popular and safe fabric for babies; check out the Inca-Dincadoo Organic Cotton Baby Cardigan and the Organic Cotton Bunnies.
On the following pages, you’ll find 101 one-skein projects organized by weight of yarn. We’ve used the Craft Yarn Council of America’s standards to classify each yarn, and you’ll find a chart of these weights in the techniques section at the back of the book. Also in this section, you’ll find instructions for all the techniques you’ll need to complete the projects, as well as a list of the abbreviations we’ve used. Any special instruction or abbreviation is included with the individual project.
With this collection, we hope you’ll agree that you no longer need to consider passing by the next to-die-for yarn you encounter. Go ahead and buy a skein — you’re sure to find something to do with it here.
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