Friday, April 20, 2007

What do Germans know about sock yarn, anyway?

My dad, wonderful sweet man, went out and bought me yarn a while back, including some sock yarn as a not-so-subtle hint about what I should knit for him next. (No one in my family is known for subtlety.)

The yarn was a Regia jacquard print. I was rather excited about this, because up until now, I've only ever knit socks with Lionbrand or Knitpicks yarn, and this was my first time using anything remotely expensive. To my knowledge, no blogger has said anything bad about it. Most people seem to like it.

To start with, I was disappointed with the feel. It reminded me rather strongly of the Lionbrand Magic Stripes. But more expensive. Still, this was what my dad wanted, and he's the one who paid for the yarn. So I started knitting. I'm not even halfway up the foot (knitting these toe-up) and I have already encountered two spots where plys have broken, leaving a rather ragged looking yarn that I can't knit with. since this is superwash wool, I can't just cut it and felt it together, instead, I have to weave in ends.

Now, maybe I got a bad ball. Maybe Regia really is the cat's pajamas when it comes to knitting socks. I will admit that it seems to knit faster than Essential. but all in all, this is not worth the money.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Regia, as far as the "big" sock yarns go, definitely isn't the softest or the nicest to knit with. (I like Trekking personally, and Opal). However, I haven't hit a ball of Regia that had major problems with it, so I suspect you've come across a dud. Regia does hold up well in my experience, if that's any consolation.