Ode to Lavold

This will be short as I'm going to knit and hang with The Emilator (aka Emily who gets creatively destructive when bored). Just wanted to answer in the blog some questions I've had over time regarding Elsebeth Lavold yarn.

I live in Encinitas CA, which means I need a lot of lighter weight knits. Fair Isle and bulky sweaters, mittens, hats and real scarves aren't too practical around here for more than about 20 days a year and I've got my share now. I've vowed for the new year to avoid the oh-so-tempting bulky yarns and patterns and focus on making things I can wear for three seasons. This is were the Elsebeth Lavold comes in.

I've bought three different yarns from her collection and love each of them ... so far. I qualify that because it's early in our relationship and we're in that first blush of love stage. We all know love can take some bad turns, which I will post about if that happens. 

I'm not posting particular links below or photos of the colors because her yarn is widely available in LYSs and on line. Check my WIP and Waiting photo albums for pics of the yarn I've bought and the Liv and Rogue on the needles. It's pretty affordable with good yardage for the type of fiber listed. Most sweaters should run you $45-65. These are the ones I've bought so far:

Silky Wool:  65% Wool, 35% Silk and knits at 5.5 on US #6's. I'm enjoying knitting with this. It is fine, and my current project is a darker color, so I found that I made picking mistakes in low light when I was tired. Otherwise, it flows nicely and knits up faster than you may expect. The wool percentage really helps balance the inherent stickiness of this type of silk and makes the stitches more even and the fabric smoother while keeping that natural look of silk. The fabric also has nice drape and you can tell it will be cool/warm depending on the temp, which is perfect for me.

Silky Tweed:  40% silk, 30% cotton, 20% merino & 10% viscose and knits at 5.5 on US #6's. I've not gauged this yet, so I can't say how it knits.

Angora:  60% angora/20% wool/20% nylon and knits at 4.5 stitches per inch on U.S. #8's. This is an aran weight yarn that could be adapted to a lot of patterns. The angora of course has some fuzz, but it's pretty well controlled by the wool and nylon. I'm not getting noticeable shedded bits on me when I knit. It's so, so soft and cushy, but again, the fiber mix gives definition to stitches, so I'm able to get good cables out of it. I didn't see anything in her pattern collection for this I wanted to make now, but it's perfect for Rogue so far. Definite thumbs up.

The Silky Wool and Tweed are the most practical for me. I like that they have the same gauge so I can look for patterns that will fit either. Her Viking Collection is a great booklet with at least two patterns that I'm making. She's got other pattern books I'm interested in too, but haven't bought yet (NY diet and all).

Comments

[michelle]

this was a very timely post for me! i just bought some silky wool today to cast on for ene's scarf out of scarf style. i love how this stuff feels! i appreciated reading about how it actually knits up and stuff in your post here!

[Leslie]

speaking of this yarn, I just ran across it at Jimmy Beans Wool and thought "hey I read this at your blog" so I know you are on a yarn diet, but hey they are having a sale on tons of her yarn. go to their website and click on sale outlet, Or at least I think so. Big red letters in the right corner.