So, I’ve been struggling with something for a couple of weeks now. Well, actually, struggling with two things. The first is a shawl. I agreed to knit a shawl as a shop sample for my LYS. The shawl is a large, square Shetland-style job, except it’s knit from the center outward, rather than edge-body-edge-edge-edge. So, it’s a much simpler design, and satisfies my need for as few picked-up stitches, seams, and grafts as possible. The large size wasn’t the problem; I am what you might call a speedy knitter, and can make it through large projects fairly quickly.
The problem was the yarn. I knit the shawl with the yarn that the pattern suggested; it’s a kettle-dyed blend of alpaca, Merino, and bamboo, and feels lovely to the touch. When I put the first skein on my swift and ball winder, I was happy with the feel and drape of the yarn. However, after the first ball was wound, and I looked at my blue hands, I was a bit put off. After winding the sixth ball, and my hands becoming bluer each time, I was darn peeved.
Then, I started knitting. Each time I sat down to knit on this shawl, it was no time before my fingers and knitting needles were blue. And this isn’t a good thing. Since I work in a yarn shop, I can’t walk around with blue dye on my hands while touching all of our products. Which means that I couldn’t pick up the knitting during breaks or during lunch, and so lost much potential knitting time.
Then, there were two skeins that each had about a two foot section of more loosely spun fiber. I didn’t think much of it the first time I came to one, and just kept knitting as usual. Then, to my utter horror, after finishing that skein and starting another one, the loosely spun section shredded! I couldn’t believe it. About a foot of a row just fell apart, and I was left with a gaping hole about six inches below my current row. So I had to frog and reknit a huge section of a huge shawl. When I came to a second loosely spun section, I cut it out and continued on my way.
So this brings me to my second struggle. Do I blog an honest review of the particular yarn, or simply avoid mentioning it? I’ve never given anything a negative review before, because I’ve always felt that if you don’t have something nice to say, keep yer gab shut. But I also understand that honest feedback about products is one of the biggest benefits of blogging specifically, and the massive information sharing interwebs in general. Any thoughts on the subject?