new Knitpicks stuff

Sory guys; even though the camera has been found and is charged, I worked all day and am too tired to bother with it. So you'll get a review sans picture.

I ordered the color cards for Swish and Gloss from Knitpicks, as well as one of their new circulars (the classic kind, a size 3 32".) Let's talk yarn first.

Of course, since it's a color card, I couldn't knit a swatch. but it's a good thing too, because I wasn't impressed with the Gloss. At all. I thought for sure I would be; I mean, it's silk and wool, what's not to like? But it has a distinctly tussah silk feeling - know what I mean? Dry and a little crunchy. It's pretty, and the colors (what few there are) are saturated and well chosen. (No three shades of green here!) But the texture to me is unappealing. I get eczema very easily from sock yarns high in nylon or other thin, scratchy yarns that catch the skin. I can see Gloss doing this to me, because it doesn't have the silky smooth glide that I had hoped for. If your skin is less sensitive, maybe it will be a good choice for you, but I can already tell it will irritate the sensitive skin on my fingertips (I also knit left-handedly, so the yarn spends more time on one area of my finger than it would if I were a "thrower.")

The Swish: I like the color choices here. They kept it relatively simple, but covered the whole rainbow, down to a buttery yellow (often skipped! I hate that!) They did skip the Natural (which is in the "Bare" line apparently, but I'd rather have it all together on the same page and color card.) The feel is soft, but still maintains a bit of that superwash squeak feeling. It's not as pronounced as say, Cascade Superwash, though. It has a feel similar to the Merino Style, with a bit more loft and is a thicker yarn (of course), and definitely softer than Wool of the Andes. At only $3.29 a ball, you could easily knit a woman's medium sweater for less than $40 unless you did lots of cabling. If I order any of the new yarns, this will be it.

As to the circular - it is much sharper than a similarly sized Addi. I'm knitting my Icarus on an Addi, size 3, and once it's long enough it's definitely going onto the Knitpicks circular. The cord is softer and more flexible (thinner and plastic, so it doesn't attack you right out of the package. Yay!) The joins seem strong on the pair I have, though I decided against trying the Options line until they worked out the cord issue. (A few people have had issues with the glue not holding cord and screw together, FYI.) I also like the purple cord. Irrelevent, I know, but I like it nonetheless! And while they are just slightly heavier than my Addis, I didn't even notice it right away. It won't cause a problem for me, I feel.

I'm almost through my third of five repeats on my Icarus shawl. I'm still loving the Alchemy Haiku and feel it's worth the money, about $20 per skein. It's so soft and the colors are absolutely luminous. It's the WIP I've gotten the most compliments on by far. I'm also finding the pattern extremely easy, probably because I'm "reading" the knitting, rather than staring at the pattern. I also received the new Rowan, no. 40, in a swap and will be ripping out my "Pam" sweater to knit the lace corset sweater - gorgeous! (As much as I love Pam, I will never finish. It just takes too much damned time.)

I hope you are all doing well out there in blogland, and I'll be making the rounds again soon. :)