I managed to finish a shawl which I have been knitting for the last 3 months as I was making it up as I go. My main objective was to try out the yarn - Noro Sekku.
I love the colors of Noro but had an allegric reaction to it many years ago. Recently, I saw a ball of Noro Sekku for sale at my Spinning Guild & decided to give it another try. This time, there was no allergic reaction which was great. But I am really disappointed with the yarn.
Noro Sekku is lace weight & is a mix of cotton, wool & silk so it's soft. The colors are gorgeous but there was a knot in my ball & one of the colors was missing, so that messed up the color repeats. You can see that there is no red at the top of the shawl.
The spinning of the yarn is very irregular so there were sections of thick & thin as well as many sections of unspun yarn. This really created a problem as the yarn tangles a lot & sometimes even felt together. I had to stop very often to untangle the yarn & it also made knitting hard as I had to pull big chunks of wool through each stitch making the knitting uneven.
As the yarn was so colorful, I kept the knitting simple. The shawl is shaped as a semi-circle, with increases at the sides & the 2 spines. I use a faggot stitch on the spines just to keep the knitting interesting.
I used a plain yarn for the border as a contrast. In fact, I like the border best.
So I have tried Noro but I did not enjoy knitting with this yarn. The colors are nice but I don't think I will be wearing such a colorful shawl, my girls called it the Rainbow Shawl.
I have also been spinning & have finished 2 skeins of yarn for a vest.
I love the colors ! The darker blue (BFL) is for the body of the vest & the lighter blue (alpaca) is for the bands. I will be designing the vest & now working on the swatch.
7 comments:
That is so disappointing for you, I have had that happen with Noro too, and I really like my stripes to repeat nicely. Because it is at the top of the shawl, it isn't so noticeable. You are so clever to make it up, and I love the border too!!
Lovely spinning, Spring is vest weather too.
I so appreciate your review of the Noro yarn. Your shawl is beautiful, especially the edging. Your handspun looks amazing, I can't wait to see your vest design and how lovely your handspun yarn will look knitted up!
I have been tempted by the Noro Sekku, but I haven't bought any, and I'm not sure I will now. I don't mind the knits and missing colour/s too much, but don't much like thick and thin - especially with lace weight yarn.
Your spinning looks fantastic! And very even!
Love the colours of Noro yarn but that's about it. When it comes to the quality of the yarn, it's somewhat disappointing. Like you said, I don't like the thick and thin (or felted) bits, knots, etc.
Since I did the entrelac shawl, I never knit with Noro again.
(sorry, I deleted my previous comment because apparently I can't spell so early in the morning)
what a shame the yarn was so unpleasant, but your finished shawl looks fabulous. That border lace is beautiful!
your spinning is a MUCH nicer yarn than Noro.
Me too have had bad experience with knots and missing colours!! Not good when you think of the price for each ball !! and the vest turned out very nice, As your other projects ;)
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