Kidsilk Haze

First of all 
HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY FELIX!  

Seems like yesterday!

Horrid day here, cold and wet, and even looks as if it could snow. But what do I care! After two days battling with Kidsilk Haze, a yarn I love to look at but hate to knit with, the sense of relief that it's now gone off to sample knitters will keep me glowing for days! Even my fave Addi needles did not lighten the load, there are just some yarns you don't get on with. Such a pity as from a design point of view KSH is SO gorgeous.

I knit a lot of swatches to see how a yarn behaves, trying out different stitches until I find the perfect one for a design. I'm always on the lookout for pretty little lace patterns that have maximum impact with minimum effort, as I know many knitters are terrified of lace.  I want those knitters to know there's a pot of gold at the end of the lace rainbow and I feel it's important to encourage them to try a small project.

However I now have to concede that KSH is probably not the fibre to use for this task. The problem of working with very fine yarn on relatively large needles can be very scary and can quickly become a knit nightmare. As Lucy Neatby (just noticed it's her birthday too today, so have a good one Lucy) commented the other day, it's a single use yarn, meaning you can't rip it out if you make a mistake. This is because the fibres cling to each other, but combine that with a lace pattern, notoriously difficult to rip, and it becomes a fast track to tearing your hair out.

Stocking stitch not such a problem

So I reckon if a stitch isn't working for me I can't just pass it on to sample knitters and hope for the best. Over the past couple of days I must have got through a fair amount of single use KSH and several lace patterns which ultimately were consigned to the rubbish bin - in fact I'm now convinced that these patterns would probably try the patience of the most fanatical and dedicated lace knitters.

I can hear you thinking, why did you try them then? The answer is that some patterns trick you by having a repeat of only a few rows, some have a rest row every other row (always try these first) and some have many rows, but these rows look relatively easy. But the simple truth is that until you knit them and understand the vagaries of each pattern, you just can't tell the nature of the beast.

It's when you come to lovely lace that things get sticky!

I'll spare you the photos of my pile of failed swatches, suffice to say that I did eventually find one that worked, wrote the pattern yesterday and with a great sigh of relief sent it winging on its way to my sample knitter. No complaints yet so fingers crossed I may have cracked it.

Perhaps I should stick to stocking stitch in KSH?

I get so excited about new designs and my natural inclination is to want to share them immediately.  Unfortunately, I don't think that would work for my publisher, which I totally understand as neither of us wants the book to be old hat before it's published, which in this case won't be until Autumn 2013. So why am I fussing and fretting about getting things done now?  The answer is that if you work with a publisher the book is usually finished from the point of view of design about a year before publication. I have a deadline in a couple of weeks for the first few projects in the book, so hence the flap.

However, not being able to share my new babies leaves me feeling slightly frustrated as it would be great to have some feedback as the book's progressing. Maybe you can help me out with more market research? What are your fave yarns? Do you enjoy knitting with KSH? What qualities do you like in a yarn and which ones are definite no-nos?