Product Review - Sunapee Yarn

First off, I want to say that I have no affiliation with Patternworks or any of their products and I am receiving no endorsements.

That being said, I recently purchased some of their new Sunapee yarn. It is 55% cotton and 45% silk and comes in balls of 153 yards/50 grams. I chose the color eggplant and bought enough to knit the Patchwork Pullover, my free pattern choice with my purchase.

I placed my order a few days ago and I got it in the mail today. It took less than a week to get it. I was very eager to check it out.

When I opened the package I was mildly concerned. The color was exactly what I wanted, but the texture and look of the yarn gave me pause. It felt a little rough and looked like the cotton you would use more for dish towels than garments. Needless to say, I bought it and I was going to use it, no matter what.

I diligently cast on all of my stitches and began knitting. Now, I can never tell how a yarn is going to perform until I'm a few rows into it. Having completed only six or seven rows of my top, I can already say, I love this yarn!

It is exactly how the product is described, "firm yet smooth and soft". I can already tell that my top going to have a great drape. I am very excited to finish it and show everyone!

You can find the yarn and pattern I am using in their current Spring 2013 catalog (page 27); or you can visit their website and take a look. It is very affordable, easy to work with, and creates a beautiful product.

If you try it, let me know what you think!

YO Pull-Through Scarf (to knit)

Yay! It's done! I just finished my second pattern. I can't figure out how to upload a link to the PDF yet so you'll just have to copy and paste the info if you want it right now.

I'm uploading all of this via my iPad so I'm not sure where the pictures will show up when it's all done. Here goes nothing...

For this project I used:

Approximately 3 ounces (1/2 skein) of Lion Brand Homespun yarn (in Wildfire)
Size 13US (9mm) aluminum needles
Size I/9-5.50mm crochet hook (optional)*
Darning needle

CO 32sts
Row 1: K1, (YO, K2tog) to last stitch, K1
Row 2: K2, (YO, K2tog) to last 2 sts, K2

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until you reach the desired length, weave in any loose ends.

*Here is the optional part: I folded the scarf over about six inches from the bottom and used the crochet hook to slip stitch the end to the body of the scarf, creating an open-sided pocket, if you can picture that. Then I continued knitting the scarf to the desired length.

Another way to do it is to finish the scarf and sew one end after it's finished. In hind sight, this second option is probably the easier of the two but I was anxious to see what it looked like.

The stitches make the scarf pretty stretchy so you don't really have to knit very much to make it wearable. I also noticed that when I threaded the scarf through the hole and centered it on my neck, it looked a bit like a tie that a businessman would wear.

Try it out and let me know what you think!