Coned Yarns Love Knitters (and vice versa)
I had a brief, ugly learning-to-weave moment about ten or so years ago…I had a full-time job that was a long way away, I had two young children, and I had to travel constantly. Of course that was a perfect time to learn a very complicated, time-consuming (albeit fascinating and beautiful) fiber craft…NOT.
After that, I passed coned yarns without a second glance. However, I saw an oldie but goodie today that made me reassess the coned-yarn prejudice. Valley Yarns 2/10 Merino Tencel, aka Colrain Lace, seems to me to be an eminently sensible yarn to knit or crochet (or weave) just about anything in any season. And luckily for all of us, it’s part of the Anniversary Sale this month, priced at $17.49 a cone, reduced from $24.99.
Although technically a lace weight yarn, it has been knit reliably at about 7 stitches per inch, which to me is fingering and that makes a big difference. It’s not a fine, fine yarn that will slide off your needles and flummox you in a stitch pattern. It will hold on to those needles, and give you some feedback as you stitch, which I don’t find in a lot of lace weight yarns. The blend of merino and tencel gives it both body and a subtle sheen, making it drape beautifully.
My fascination for cowls would be satisfied with the Valley Yarns Forget-Me-Not cowl, made in Colrain Lace. It’s a quick knit and because you have so much yardage on a cone, you could make several from one purchase! I would probably choose a nice neutral such as Grey Olive, but you could really make a design pop with some of the brighter colors; there are a lot to choose from.
Have you ever knit with a coned yarn? Tell us your projects in the comments, below.
- 2019 Capstone Graduation Wrap-Up - June 27, 2019
- Class of 2018 Capstone Graduation - June 26, 2018
- WEBS Expert Knitter Certification Capstone Graduation 2017 - July 10, 2017
Tags: Anniversary Sale, knit, knitting, Valley Yarns, Valley yarns Colrain Lace, yarn
April 22nd, 2016 at 10:46 am
Crocheters like coned yarns too. I recently finished a cardigan crocheted with Valley Yarns 3/2 Cotton, and I crocheted an edging for a T-shirt with 8/2 Variegated.
April 22nd, 2016 at 11:37 am
I made my Celestarium by Audry Nicklin out of
Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk in Navy colorway. I love the coned yarns. I have enough left over to make another lace shawl!
Link: http://ravel.me/hev/c1
April 22nd, 2016 at 8:13 pm
I am making Hitofude out of Loro Piana coned cashmere. I’m really looking forward to washing and blocking the sweater!!
April 22nd, 2016 at 11:52 pm
I’ve often thought about trying coned yarn. I think it would be helpful to annotate the equivalence in your description of the coned yarns. Tell us if 8/2 is equivalent to fingering weight.
April 25th, 2016 at 1:48 pm
I knit a lot of shawls and love the coned yarns, especially the merino/tencel and alpace/silk. I love that I don’t have to worry about dye lots and splicing together skeins, I can just keep knitting and not worry about running out. I just took a look at my stash – 17 cones of merino/tencel, 7 cones of alpaca/silk, 6 cones of silk, and 22 cones of tencel. Can you tell how much I love cones!!
April 28th, 2016 at 9:33 am
Hi Marcy,
That’s a great suggestion! The easy way to tell what knitting weight a coned yarn is would be to cut the sett/epi in half. So, if a coned yarn lists 16 epi then your knitting gauge would be 8sts per inch, making it a sock/fingering weight.