I'm rather behind on my posts, but on Monday we went to a Louisa Harding yarn tasting at Stash, which involves wine, nibbles and yarn tasting of some of LH yarn range. It's a great opportunity to try out new yarns. Louisa Harding has a lot of what I'd call Novelty yarns. It's difficult to judge from a photo in a book just how the yarns feel and look knitted up. None of my squares were washed, which might improve their qualities somewhat.
Mariposa (52%viscose, 48% cotton) 4.5sts/inch
Not a winner. It looks and feels shiny acrylic, slightly plastic. I don't like the knitted fabric either. It's an aran weight yarn but even at tension my fabric looks quite open. I imagine this might look good as an accent yarn, maybe with the main yarn in cotton.
Coquette (85% polyester 15% pailettes - little sequins I presume) 5.5sts/inch
This was a nightmare to cast on (those pesky sequin things kept getting in the way) but the yarn was surprisingly not a problem to knit with. I took things slowly, and pulled the knitting down as I knitted the stitch. It felt a little like knitting with thin string. The ends frayed a lot, and the sequins fell off. I can't imagine a whole garment in this stuff, though it might work with lace on small areas.
Glisten (97% nylon, 3% polyester) 5sts/inch
Sparkly! It felt like knitting with a narrow ribbon yarn. Again, a great accent yarn, not so sure whether I'd want to wear a garment made of 97% nylon in the height of summer.
My favourites, all 5.5sts /inch. All lovely to knit with and all produce a great fabric.
Kashmir DK (55% wool, 35% microfibre, 10% cashmere).
Kimono Angora Pure (70% angora, 25% wool, 5% nylon). A good job that I like this one, as there's a pack in my stash!
Grace (50%silk, 50% wool). This is gorgeous, my #1 out of all of the LH yarns! I'll be buying some of this in the Autumn for my cool weather knitting.
The rest
From centre top, a mini skein of Sari Ribbon. I'm saving this for wrapping presents! At under £4 for 60m, it's a bargain!
Nautical cotton (turquoise) 5sts/inch 100% cotton - a nice cotton to knit with, I'll probably get some over the summer.
Kimono Ribbon (bottom). 4.5sts/inch, 100% nylon. Looks nice but I've not had time to knit with it. I reckon that this will look fabulous as an accent, again.
Impression 5sts/inch 84%nylon, 16% mohair. I've used this before and it knits up well.
And finally Kashmir Aran, which I'll enjoy as much as the dk, when I have time to knit it up.
I think I may have to knit a Louisa Harding design now!