Thursday, February 09, 2006
Hanne Yarn Substitutions
I am seriously thinking about making another Mermaid. Do any of you know of a substitute yarn? I went to the Hanne website and it appears that the yarn is only sold in kits. I can buy yarn based on the gauge but have no idea how much to get. I know how many balls I got with my kit but didn't weigh the balls to even begin to figure the yardage. Anyone have thoughts?
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The pattern claims the balls are 225m/50g. But it seems to me that my balls are widely different sizes. I wound one ball of each to get started and my A ball was much larger than the other two and yet spun more narrowly.
I ordered my third kitdirect from Cucumberpatch.com and paid even less than on ebay! The price was more than 60 % the the kit at my LYS.
Does anyone know Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift? It's a fingering weight 2-ply shetland wool:http://www.twoswansyarns.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=SPIN&template=yarn
I was just thinking that as Falkenberg's yarn is a 2-ply shetland wool, it should be possible to find a similar or identical shetland wool. But I am not sure what weight the Falkenberg yarn is, but fingering seems right to me, or what do you think?
I think it is probably closer to fingering weight than DK.
I weight my kit and the following was included
Color A 365 gr.
Color B 105 gr.
Color C 95 gr.
I have some of the Jamieson Sprindrift. It's close but just a little thicker than Hanne's.
It MAY be yarn from Jamieson and Smith, that's what I've heard, anyway.
I haven't seen their yarn so I actually have no idea.
http://www.shetland-wool-brokers.zetnet.co.uk/
Check out Harrisville yarns. They make a Shetland 2-ply fingerling that should be very close, if not the same as the original kit yarn. It comes in a large number of colors. The site is also the home of Vivian Hoxbro, a Danish designer with a similar style to Falkenberg. You can see her kits there.
I found the perfect substitute, but it's now discontinued--Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4ply. My pagode 1 kit arrived in mid-2005, and what looked like a brown and cream stripe on my monitor turned out to be KHAKI and white. I thought the khaki looked very washed out (tho loved the other colors). I had some leftover Yorkshire Tweed 4plyin a deep augergine and the gauge was perfect. (I think Scottish tweed is the same gauge/length per weight?)
Next, I've had a Lastrada Kit waiting in my stash for a year, and I just opened it yesterday, weighed each color.a: 258 gr. B 152 gr. C 198 gr. D.144gr EF 26 gr covers both E and F.
(accent color)
I chose #7--black rust, black/white,khaki, and curry.
I thought it'd be a rather neutral jacket until I unpacked the "rust".
Here in upstate NY, we call that color "dark orange".(no, not fluorescent "hunter's orange", but still, somewhat brighter than I had anticipated. It's color B and I was sent 162 grams. Color A is black (258 gr.). Lastrada has a long vertical stripe in BLACK on RS opening, and same width long vertical stripe in RUST on LS opening. The jacket is knit in halves--other than the assymetry of color on the border and bottom stripes (2 colors meet at center back), and a final border in Black on the R sleeve, in Rust on the L sleeve, everything else is symmetrical in color and pattern, which makes it an appealing design. Again, on my monitor, it looked like a deep rust, nothing bright.
Just went to my LYS 5 blocks up the street (oh too handy!) and there was a sale on the remaining discontinued Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4ply--but not in any color like a mahogany. Then I turned to the new rack of J & S Spindrift and saw COPPER --the perfect color. IT comes in 25 gram balls, with 110 meters/ball. (or 220meters in 100 gr.) The instructions in both my Hanne Falkenburg kits say there is approximately 225 meters per 50 grams. Yet, when we (everyone in the shop gathering around) felt them, the Spindrift Copper seemed thinner--we looked at other colors and there didn't seem to be any discernable difference in diameter between Spindrift and Rowan Yorksire Tweed 4ply. So it may just be a difference in that particular color lot. I plan to buy 1 ball of Spindrift Copper anyway and swatch it in pattern next to the black.
Also will look into the Harrisvile 2ply--thanks for your comments and hope my own comment has helped you.
(even though it is more than a year later!
Suze
Suze, are you a member of the knitalong. I think it would be great if you could post this information as a new post too so that people see it. I fear it will be lost in the comments since this post is several months old. If you aren't a member yet, send me an email and I'll add you.
ARGH! After finishing all of my Christmas presents, I was more than ready to knit something for myself again and on Dec 24 I eagerly started the HF Tweedie that I purchased months ago. I was stunned to discover that several of the balls of yarn are defective! They are cut or broken into random lengths. Some times I can pull off a dozen or more 12" pieces before getting to a few meters of unbroken yardage. I phoned the HF number I found on the Web but got no answer. I am disturbed and frustrated that the quality-control was so poor on something so expensive. Has anyone else had this experience?
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