Amanda Rae's Knitting
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BlogrollInformationThe Milwaukee Art Museum has an Andy Warhol exhibit and a few paintings from his yarn series are there! Here is the biggest one that was there right now and is really awesome! He used a combination of colored silk screens and hand-painting. My favorite part of it are all the colors.
Yarn by Andy Warhol
Now that you know more about yarn itself, I will teach you how to read a yarn label. Yarn labels can look very different, but they all have pretty much the same basic information even if from a different country.
*Remember to always keep your label until you write it down or otherwise! If you run out of yarn for a project, someone wants to know what yarn you used, or you, yourself wants to use the same yarn having the label really helps.*
To keep track of your labels have a notebook or photo album with pictures of your project and either the label itself or the information on the label. Or you can set up an account with Ravelry where you are able to keep track of that information electronically.
First, there is the Manufacturer’s Name. This is what company makes the yarn.
Then there is the Brand Name. This is the brand that the yarn is called by the manufacturers.
Next is the Color Name/Number. This is the color name given to the yarn by the manufacturers. Sometimes, instead of a name it is given a number. When making a project make sure that if you want to use the same color that you have the color names or number match to avoid unintentional striping. (Farbe is sometimes used instead of the word “color”)
Then, there is the Dye-Lot Number. This is the group that the yarn was dyed in. You can have yarns that look as if they are the same color but if they were dyed in different batches their shade could be different thus unintentionally striping your work. When buying yarn for a project make sure that the dye-lots are the same to avoid this. (Partie is sometimes used instead of the word “dye-lot”)
Next is Fiber Content. This is what the yarn is made of. A lot of yarn is not made of one fiber. With the fiber content, you are given the percentage of each fiber that is used in the yarn. This can be really nice when making something for someone who may be allergic to a certain fiber. It is also useful when making a project that some fibers may work better for that particular project than others.
Next is the Yarn Size/Ply. This is the weight of the yarn. Remember from the previous post that weight doesn’t necessarily mean how much it weighs. It is the thickness of the yarn. With some yarns the weight is shown with a symbol instead of words. A list of what these symbols mean, can be found here. This is useful to know when picking out yarn for a project since certain projects will call for a certain weight. (For one of the yarn labels I cannot understand it since it is in German which is why I do not have a picture for this part.)
Then there is the Length. This is normally in yards or meters. It also can have the actual weight of the yarn (if put on a scale how much the yarn would weigh). When buying yarn for a project make sure you have enough to work with. Always check your pattern before buying your yarn to see how many yards or meters it needs so you can buy accordingly. Also, remember that there are 0.91 meters in a yard or 1.09 yards in a meter.
Next is Suggested Gauge. (I will go over how to check your gauge in a different post.) The gauge is how many stitches are required to make an inch with the needles the yarn is suggested to be used with. If the stitches you have in your swatch (Will be talked about in a different post) is different than that the label or pattern suggests, you would change your needles accordingly.
Finally, there are the Washing Instructions. These tell you how to care for your project depending on what yarn was used. When giving a knitted gift it is nice to have a tag with care instructions so that the person does not accidently ruin what you made them. Some labels have the instructions written out while others have symbols. You can see what all of the symbols mean here.
First of all I wanted to apologize for the wait; it is the end of the semester and it has been really busy on the school front.
Yarn is really fun to shop for! There are so much to choose from it can be overwhelming at times if you don’t know the basics of yarn. Yarn is pretty complex. There is it’s weight, length, the fibers it is made of, color(s), etc. To go over in detail everything would take a LONG time and a lot of space. So today I will be telling you the basics of yarn!
Packaging:
There are four main ways that yarn can be packaged.
~Ball (the yarn is pulled from the center)
~Cone (commercial use, normally one pound or more)
~Hank (needs to be untwisted and wound into a ball)
~Skein (the yarn is also pulled from the center)
At most stores yarn is sold in skeins or balls. If you go to some smaller yarn stores or yarn boutiques, yarn will also be sold in hanks. Luckily someone at the store can wind it into a ball for you for easier use. A hank can get tangled very easily so a ball winder (or you can do it by hand) is used to make it into a ball. Not a lot of people buy yarn in cones; but if you are making a large project and want to make sure that the yarn is all the same color (read about dye-lots further down the page) it is practical to buy a cone. Also, you can save money that way!
Weight:
Weight isn’t how much the yarn weighs really; its more the thickness of the yarn. There are several names for the different thicknesses but the weight of yarn is more descriptive than precise. There are not many people that agree with what the precise relationship between the weights and the actually thicknesses of the yarn. It is a good guideline to use when picking out yarn for certain patterns though. (When it says “used to make” it doesn’t mean that you can only make those things with that weight of yarn. The great thing about yarn is you can make anything with pretty much any weight, these are just what are “normally” made with these weights)
~Lace (the thinnest used to make lace items)
~Baby/Fingering (still pretty thin; used to make baby clothes, socks, gloves, shawls, etc.)
~Sock (used to make socks, gloves, etc.)
~Sport (twice as thick as fingering; used to make light sweaters, socks, etc.)
~Double-Knitted (baby clothes, light sweaters, etc.)
~Worstend (the most versatile and popular of weights; used to make afghans, sweaters, mittens, etc.)
~Chunky (cold weather items)
~Bulky (thickest; chunky sweaters, coats, etc.)
Fibers:
Fibers are what yarn is made of. Most yarn is made by spinning fibers together so that the yarn resists breaking under tension. There are three kinds of fibers: animal, plant and synthetic. It is common to blend two or more fibers to make yarn. It is important though to get a yarn type that will work best with the pattern you are working with. If there is a complicated pattern, get a smooth yarn that will show off the pattern; otherwise your pattern will not be able to be seen well if at all.
~Animal (silk, sheep (wool), goat (angora/cashmere), rabbit (angora), llama, alpaca, dog, cat, camel, yak)
Some animal yarns have long hairs on them. These are fuzzy and are normally made of mohair, angora or cashmere. They are really pretty, but can be expensive. Wool is the most popular and durable yarn. It is best used for cold weather items.
~Plant (cotton, flax (linen), bamboo, ramie, hemp, raffia, soy, corn, rayon)
Cotton wears well and washes well (won’t felt). The drawbacks are that is stretches easily and the colors can fade in the wash.
~Synthetic (acrylics, polyesters, nylon, metallic)
Most synthetic yarns are considered to be novelty yarns. They are cheap in price, very colorful, don’t need to do much to care for them and for the most part wash well. The only problem is, is that they can look cheap.
Color:
My favorite part about picking out yarn is finding the perfect color! Most yarn is dyed, though there are some that are not. When dying yarns, natural or artificial dyes are used. Natural dyes normally are not as bright as artificial ones. Most yarns are dyed industrially; but you can dye yarn by hand or hand paint it as well. Groups of skeins that are dyed together have the exact same shade(this is called a dye-lot). When making a larger project make sure that the yarn is all from the same dye-lot. The colors may look the same but if from different dye-lots they can be different shades thus making a visible stripe in your work. Most yarns have a single color but there are a lot which don’t. These multicolored yarns can be really fun and make some visually pleasing projects.
~Single Hue (all one color)
~Tweed (there are flecks of a different color in the yarn)
~Ombre (a single color with dark and light shades in it)
~Multi-Colored (two or more distinct colors)
~Self-Striping (when knitted it automatically creates stripes)
~Marled (made of strands of different colored yarns twisted together.
So now that you know more about yarn I will go over how to read a yarn label, next time.
