Thursday, February 17, 2011

Birthday Hoodie

E lost her favorite hooded sweater (store-bought) a while ago.  I tore the house looking for it. I was even desperate enough to look in my sons' room, but the black hoodie was nowhere to be found.  For her birthday this year, I decided to knit the Zip-Front Hoodie, from the book, Knit So Fine: Designs with Skinny Yarn.  The pattern is very simple and straight-forward.  It has delicate cables going up along the zippered front edge and hood.  There are also cables along the sides that hide waist-shaping.

Armed with a list of possible yarns, E and I visited Webs to purchase the yarn for the project.  We paced the aisles of Webs' closeout warehouse for almost an hour before settling on the yarn that would become her new hoodie.  The yarn we chose wasn't a closeout, but a regular-priced "house brand", Valley Yarns Prescott.  We left the store with 13 hanks and I couldn't wait to cast on.

Prescott is a 100% alpaca dk weight yarn.  In it's hank, the yarn is very soft and cuddly.  My youngest couldn't keep her hands off of it!  The knitted fabric is drapey, soft and show the cables off well.  There's one problem, though.  The yarn is VERY splitty.  I keep adding stitches at random places and have to rip back to the point of contention.  Since most of my knitting is done in front of the TV or at the Y during M's practices, I've ripped out many many rows and I'm getting a little impatient with the project.

I'm conflicted about the yarn.  The price is great, $3.99 a hank, and it's super soft.  After the project is done and blocked, and maybe after a few washes, I'll decide whether or not I'll buy Prescott again.

No comments:

Post a Comment