Meet the Yarn: Meridian, part 2

Next up in my crochet explorations of Anzula yarns, it's time to turn to a lace-weight, Meridian. This blend of 55% Tencel, 35% Alpaca, and 10% Nylon arrives in skeins of 812 yards per 114 grams. The fiber combination creates a yarn that produces the best qualities of both the tencel (lightweight and slight sheen) and the alpaca (warmth, slight halo).

Meridian swatches

In my experience, Meridian is prone to splitting and somewhat sticky. These are two characteristics to think about when choosing your needle or hook and as you're ripping back to fix a mistake or start over. The hook I chose, wasn't the best choice and the lack of consistency in the blocked swatches proves that. I think a tip that is more pointed would have helped to reduce splitting and even my tension. For these swatches, the result is ok as I'm not stressing about accurate gauge. My goal for this project is to work with the yarn and get to understand it in different situations.
 

As Jill explained in her post, Meridian looks a complete mess before blocking! Be strong and reserve judgment until after the swatches dry, the result will be pretty. Even though my gauge is all over the place, the simplicity of the stitches highlights the characteristics of this blend.

Meridian swatches, knit

Crochet, by both tradition and the nature of how the stitches form, loves a lace weight. While my tension and blocking leaves much to the imagination, the fabric of simple stitches is gorgeous. Process note: this is one of the last swatches for which I did a combination of stitches in one swatch. I've found single stitch swatches work better for these explorations. My photos don't do this yarn or fabric justice. 

Meridian swatch, crochet

Comparing the knit and crochet fabric highlights the delicate beauty this yarn can create. I love the single crochet fabric and hope to explore it at different gauges soon. 

Meridian swatches, knit and crochet

Both the motif and lace stitches create fabric beautiful drape  -- the granny square is incredibly light and the lace fabric wants to drift away! The granny square is small because I stopped after I completed  four rounds, otherwise I may have continued for all 812 yards in my skein!

Meridian swatches, motif and lace

While the stitch definition during the making process leaves much to the imagination, I persevered. It should be no surprise that I am continuing my texture love in this Meridian swatch!

Meridian swatch, texture

Can you substitute Meridian for any lace weight in a crochet pattern? There will be subtle changes to the fabric you create as it will behave differently than a 100% merino or other combination. The alpaca creates warmth with a bit of loft, the tencel is strong yet light. This is why swatching to learn the characteristics of a yarn and blocking is important.

All Meridian swatches are in the Sexy colourway, any perceived differences are due to the photographer.

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Penny Shima Glanz spends her days spinning yarn and code into memorable projects. Small businesses rely on her for smart technology decisions. Designers rely on her to sample, test, and edit their hand-knit and crochet patterns. She loves muddy trail runs, fosters kittens, and lives in Westchester, NY with her husband and two resident cats. www.pennyshima.com

Meet the Yarn: Squishy, part 2

Squishy

80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon
+/- 385 yd / 352 m
7.5 sts / in US #2

Squishy the fingering weight sibling to For Better or Worsted is a crocheter’s dream yarn! It takes all the wonderful parts of that worsted weight, 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon in a 3-ply blend, and spins it out to a finer more crochet-friendly fingering weight.

Squishy swatches

While the exclusive LYS Day kits are for knitters, please crocheters, don’t feel left out! This is the first year for LYS Day and everyone (yarn companies, designers, and yes, your LYS) is still figuring their way around! Anzula's kits are made with exclusive colorways and all include yarns that work beautifully in crochet projects, including Squishy. Should you pick up a skein or three of Squishy on LYS Day? YES! 

This yarn provides shine, warmth, and wear in a generous skein, 385 yards for 114g. There are now new Squishy options including 25 & 50g skeins and the Skeinette 5-packs there are many color combination possibilities!

I initially brought home the skein featured in the samples last June from TNNA, our industry trade show, with a plan to pair it with a braid of merino fiber and ultimately weave it. I'm happy I haven't yet had a chance to spin for that project and instead discovered how lovely Squishy is to crochet. There will be more in my future!

It feels as lovely in the skein as you think it would – that’s the fiber content. This is an essential yarn for the crocheter who wishes to add a little cashmere to a project without breaking the bank. It's easy to wind and holds its shape in a ball or cake well.

For these swatches, I used a 3mm (D) hook or a 3.75mm knitting needle. I urge you to play with different size hooks and find the fabric that makes you excited for Squishy.

Knitted Squishy swatches

Every single stitch I put Squishy through was a delight, from simple to texture to lace. No splitting as I worked stitches. I can attest that it can put up with both indecision about gauge and disagreement as to stitch counts. In other words, it holds up well to multiple experiences with frogging and being reworked.

I was surprised to discover that there weren't as many designs in Squishy as I expected. This yarn begs to be crocheted. I know because I had to pause in the writing of this post to sketch a design and work up a swatch!

**Charlie sticks her nose in Penny's post** "Calling all crochet designers, Anzula wants to see your proposals! Email me here"

Crocheted Anzula Squishy swatches in SC, HDC, and DC.

It’s well known that I prefer half double crochet, but as these swatches show, it looks great in each of the standard three, single crochet, half double, and double crochet stitches.

My granny square threatened to eat the entire skein -- it was difficult stop! It's stunning next to garter stitch. Again, if you know how to knit and crochet, what's stopping you from working up Miriam Felton's Granny Log Cabin?

Squishy swatches, a granny square next to garter stitch. 

This texture swatch is super squishy and lovely. I enjoyed it so much that I worked up another one and sent off a design proposal! We’ll see what happens with it!

Squishy, crocheted texture swatch

The lace begs to be tossed over the shoulders as a simple shawl. The Harwinton Easy Lace Boomerang by Tian Connaughton is stunning in one skein of Squishy!

Squishy, crocheted lace swatch

I think two skeins would create a nice interpretation of my VLSI stole -- I started a swatch using only one color and I think it's lovely. If you would like to use Squishy, two skeins should create the shawl. Feel free to experiment! I have a soft spot for Dark Matter that I love to pair with a grey! it's up to you if you wish to work it all in one color or find a pairing of a 114g skein and a skeinette pack, please be aware that this yardage combination hasn’t been tested!

Squishy crocheted swatch for VLSI by Penny Shima Glanz

What do you plan to make with your LYS Day Squishy purchase? With this yarn, the possibilities are yours!

Squishy swatches

All Squishy swatches were worked in Lapis colorway.

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Penny Shima Glanz spends her days spinning yarn and code into memorable projects. Small businesses rely on her for smart technology decisions. Designers rely on her to sample, test, and edit their hand-knit and crochet patterns. She loves muddy trail runs, fosters kittens, and lives in Westchester, NY with her husband and two resident cats. www.pennyshima.com

Meet the Yarn: Milky Way, Part 2

Milky Way

80% Milk Protein, 20% Superwash Merino
+/- 500 yd / 457 m
8.5-9 sts / in US #1

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Milky Way in Au Natural

Jill introduced Milky Way last May. In this post, I'll investigate how it behaves with a crochet hook.

What is Milky Way? It's categorized as a light fingering weight; Anzula creates skeins that are generous, about 500 yards (114g)! The fiber composition is 80% Milk Protein, 20% Super-wash Merino and it's a multi (four)-ply yarn.

This is also the first Anzula yarn I began to work with, so it is my favourite. Ok, one of my favourites--in truth I love them all. When I first saw it I knew it begged for a crochet hook. I enjoy knitting with it, but I think this yarn really shines in crochet.

While the milk protein creates quite a bit of grab when worked up, I found this yarn can be prone to more slipping than I expected. Yes, hand winding 500 yards sounds tedious, however I now recommend it. Why? I often mistreat my working yarn and it gets tossed in a project bag and while protected, those bags often get shoved into other bags. That can very quickly create a tangled mess that I've found doesn't happen with hand-wound balls. This is, in my opinion, a feature of the yarn and once I knew to work with it I no longer ran into issues. I'll post a photo of that further down in the post. It's not pretty (or fun to untangle).

The four plies of this yarn can split, but I found I was less likely to cause this with a pointed hook than a rounder one. I can attest that you can work and rework and rework the yarn again. I have a design I've been working on for almost five years that has survived a significant amount of ripping and do-overs.

What is this yarn good for? Any project where you want beautiful drape. Should you measure hanging gauge for this yarn? This will change depending on many factors from your basic gauge and stitch pattern to the construction of your project. If you are concerned, then I urge you to measure your swatch! I plan to cover a comparison of hanging gauges for different yarns in a future post (I need to figure out how to photograph them). With the high percentage of inelastic milk protein, if you are expecting ribbing to behave, I would call in some supplemental elastic to reinforce it.

I love this yarn in a half double crochet; that's my default crochet stitch though it's also lovely in both single and double crochet. It creates beautiful drape at 5 spi in single crochet. I love how the yarn takes the dye and works into crochet stitches. How does a simple crochet stitch compare to a knit swatch? I have a certain reputation as a "tiny knitter" and couldn't resist working it up on 2mm needles creating a stockinette fabric of 9 SPI. Wow. It's lovely, and the drape is amazing at this gauge.

Knit and crochet swatches of Milky Way in simple stitches: stockinette, garter stitch, single, half-double, and double crochet.

How is this in a tried and true granny square? It pops next to garter stitch. I worried the motif would be flat and lifeless. It isn't. Do be careful when trimming yarn ends after working them in, I almost nipped the motif and the wayward ends want to be in the photos.

Milky Way granny square swatch next to garter stitch.

When I created my texture swatch I discovered a new love. Because this is a light fingering weight you can play with textured stitches that otherwise might add unwanted bulk or warmth to a project. I know this will create lovely garments and accessories.

Milky Way crochet texture swatch.

This simple lace surprised me. This is the swatch where I had some issues with split stitches and a hook switch solved my problem. While this swatch is unimaginative, upon blocking my apathy to this particular swatch grew into adoration. I think it would be great for transitional and warm weather wear. The merino adds a hint of warmth without being overbearing.

Net stitch in Anzula Milky Way.

The slight issue with my slippery yet sticky yarn? Here's a nice picture of a mistreated yarn cake. I found if I wasn't paying attention to my work area and some cat fur wound its way in, the result was super sticky stitches.

A Milky Way yarn cake that had a minor mishap.

To end on a positive note, in addition to a baby/child cardigan that I hope to finalize and publish soon, based on the work in writing this post I now have sketches for accessories in textured and laces stitches. I'll try to release them soon!

Pile of Anzula Milky Way swatches.

All Milky Way swatches were worked in the Seaside colorway.