You know I’m excited about a yarn when I sit down with the sales rep and say, “Yes, I’ll take every color!” Let me introduce Gina from Plymouth Yarn and a Gina WIP!
Gina is a 100% wool, striping yarn that comes in fabulous color combinations. It will felt, which means gorgeous bags and funky slippers. It is also a soft wool, making it suitable for next-to-the-skin projects like this scarf:
Pattern: “Noro” striped scarf, free pattern, by Jared Flood/Brooklyn Tweed
Yarn: Plymouth Gina, 2 balls of color 9 and 2 balls of color 3
There are many different ways to use this yarn. You can knit or crochet as usual, or you could:
- work in different directions to change the stripes – on the bias, log cabin, or side-to-side instead of up and down
- work in smaller sections to make blocks of color – mitered squares, entrelac, or granny squares
- use it for two-color patterns, giving the appearance of many colors like these tams
As you are working with it, you might discover that your yarn is a little bit twisty, like this:
This is normal for this type of yarn. To spin a yarn from wool, the fiber is literally twisted together. When a yarn is just a “single” like this yarn, and doesn’t have many other threads balancing it out, it may have a little bit of extra energy. This is preferable to an underspun yarn which will untwist and drift apart! (On a side note, if you are working with a “single” yarn and it is drifting apart on you, your knitting or crocheting style may be untwisting the yarn. Try working from the other end of the ball to change the direction of the twist.)
I can’t wait to see what kind of creative uses you’ll come up with for Gina! I’m having a hard time putting down my scarf and can’t decide what I want to do next!
Hello, just found your blog and saw the picture of the yarn. I just wanted to say the colors are marvelous and the scarf looks stunning.
Yay! Thank you! It is so much fun watching the colors shift and change along the length of the scarf. Glad you found us!