Sea silk – The Knitter Nerd

Spring is coming.

At least that’s what my girlfriend keeps saying. I think she might be ahead of herself, willing the weather into some semblance of warmth when in fact the ground outside is blanketed with white. It snowed a few days ago, recent enough that the dog walks are pleasant and not too slippery.

When she was tidying the spare room I began organising my yarn stash. Some of it I had to let go but I’m still left with plenty. There was, deep in that stash, a bag I’d forgotten.

It must have come from England with me but moving to Canada is a blur now. It feels as though I’ve always been here. Looking back, this is the bag I shoved in my suitcase because it was full of half-finished projects and I didn’t want to send that through the mail.

Inside that bag I found this.

This is a half-finished shawlette made from some Handmaiden Sea Silk. I bought this two years ago at Martina’s and it has been languishing ever since. I’ve tried to knit a few things with it but nothing has worked yet.

The colours are sublime but that’s nothing compared to the texture. It’s smooth and cool and light. It’s squishable but slinky. I love it.

Yet… I don’t think this project is right for it. I think I might be ripping it back to try something new once more. Thankfully it seems to be holding up quite well to the abuse, though I won’t rip it back until I find something that it wants to be.

Sometimes yarns don’t listen to you when you tell it what project it should be. I get this a lot, actually. Sometimes I’ll buy a yarn with a project in mind and the yarn will flat out refuse to cooperate. It’s fortunate I don’t have a problem with frogging projects (I’m a process knitter) because otherwise I would be in a constant stream of tears.

This sea silk needs to be something beautiful but more importantly it needs to be something I can use a lot and admire. I’m not the sort of person to put things away to gaze at with distant adoration. I knit to use my knitted goods.

If only I could figure out what this sea silk wants to be.

What is a yarn snob?

It’s when a knitter (or crocheter/weaver/etc) has expensive tastes. When the 3-for-£1 offer on acrylic yarn in the pound shop makes a person recoil. Only fancy pants natural-organic-spun-by-angels-crying-with-joy yarn will do.

Confession: I’m really not a yarn snob.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of quality yarn. I knit with sea silk, with baby alpaca, with merino blends. I like locally hand-dyed stuff and get a kick out of meeting the person who made it. I think there’s something wonderful about all the different fibres there are. Having fondled some qiviut, I am in a constant state of lust to own some of my own.

But I truly believe acrylic has its place too.

Right now I’m knitting a blanket for my girlfriend’s 30th birthday which, okay, it was totally in July. But I am seeing her in person in a couple of weeks for a holiday – probably the only time I’ll see her while we’re applying for my permanent residency – and it would be nice to give it to her in person. It’s acrylic. Yes, that’s right, I’m giving a blanket made of acrylic to the person I love. There’s no place for yarn snobbery when you need your expendable income for a holiday in Las Vegas, and this blanket is going to be all the colours since it’s based on Avengers. (Yes, there will be pics when it’s done.)

It’s true that the squeaky feel of acrylic is starting to get to me, but I have some delicious dark blue locally hand-dyed 100% silk to knit with when I’m done. Maybe I’m just an occasional snob.

What about you? To you shun acrylic or embrace it?