Post by grannieannie on May 5, 2009 17:24:04 GMT
THINKING “OUTSIDE THE SHEEP”
Finding inexpensive 100% wool here in Canada is a challenge, however my daughter Wendy had some luck when she visited a “high end” wool shop in a village near us. They had some great buys (50% off) on ends and colours that hadn’t sold. Some of this 100% wool was a lighter weight than the worsted, but we solved the problem by buying a ball or two of wool sock yarn (actually it is 75% wool, 25% acrylic) which has a lot of yards per gram and when knitting squares using a double strand brings the whole thing up to the equivalent of worsted weight.
In another high end shop I found some wildly coloured variegated 100% cotton yarn which is fine enough to combine with the lighter weight wools. Seems like there is about a mile in each ball and they were selling it off for $1.00/ball!!
Mohair is another fibre that is not flammable, but is a horror to knit with because the end product stretches. I have had two big bags of 80% mohair/20% acrylic in the cupboard for years, and I can now use it for squares by knitting it with a strand of the sock wool or the cotton yarn which stabilizes the squares because it doesn’t stretch.
Hopefully squares made with a high percentage of wool or other natural fibre will be safe for the kids living near open flame. It would be interesting to hear from the Soweto ladies just what percentage of the squares arriving can be used as “wool” blankets.
Anyway, square-ladies - it’s probably worth checking the “high-end” shops periodically for sell offs and keeping an open mind when we find things like mohair on sale.
For anyone living in the Toronto area, you might want to check out this website
www.romniwools.com/ - a store on Queen Street west which has a whole basement of sell-offs. And this website
www.yelp.ca/biz/romni-wool-toronto For comments by people who have shopped there.
Sounds like an awesome place with amazing bargains, but I haven’t had a chance to get there yet.
Happy Squaring
Anne
Finding inexpensive 100% wool here in Canada is a challenge, however my daughter Wendy had some luck when she visited a “high end” wool shop in a village near us. They had some great buys (50% off) on ends and colours that hadn’t sold. Some of this 100% wool was a lighter weight than the worsted, but we solved the problem by buying a ball or two of wool sock yarn (actually it is 75% wool, 25% acrylic) which has a lot of yards per gram and when knitting squares using a double strand brings the whole thing up to the equivalent of worsted weight.
In another high end shop I found some wildly coloured variegated 100% cotton yarn which is fine enough to combine with the lighter weight wools. Seems like there is about a mile in each ball and they were selling it off for $1.00/ball!!
Mohair is another fibre that is not flammable, but is a horror to knit with because the end product stretches. I have had two big bags of 80% mohair/20% acrylic in the cupboard for years, and I can now use it for squares by knitting it with a strand of the sock wool or the cotton yarn which stabilizes the squares because it doesn’t stretch.
Hopefully squares made with a high percentage of wool or other natural fibre will be safe for the kids living near open flame. It would be interesting to hear from the Soweto ladies just what percentage of the squares arriving can be used as “wool” blankets.
Anyway, square-ladies - it’s probably worth checking the “high-end” shops periodically for sell offs and keeping an open mind when we find things like mohair on sale.
For anyone living in the Toronto area, you might want to check out this website
www.romniwools.com/ - a store on Queen Street west which has a whole basement of sell-offs. And this website
www.yelp.ca/biz/romni-wool-toronto For comments by people who have shopped there.
Sounds like an awesome place with amazing bargains, but I haven’t had a chance to get there yet.
Happy Squaring
Anne