What’s in a name? Everything. The name of a yarn can at once describe what it’s made of, what its personality is, what its texture is, and how it promises to knit up. The name comes before the actual yarn, even, and introduces itself to knitters, engaging itself with knitters in a productive and affectionate relationship… But when I named Superwash Sport, I never realized how confusing it would be for knitters and it’s totally my fault.
Last year, Jamie at Three Bags Full asked me if we produce a DK-weight yarn — one that knits up to a true 22 sts per 4″ gauge. And I said, of course… we call it ummm Superwash Sport… Granted, sport weight yarn knits up at about 24 sts per 4″ and DK weight yarns knit up at 22 sts per 4″ and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, it appears that we North Americans tend to think of “sport weight” as quite fine, say 24 to 26 sts per 4″. Since I generally let the yarn “speak to me” and have the gauge swatch tell me how it wants to knit up, I don’t take the DK/sport/Aran/worsted/fingering/4-ply/botany distinction all that literally… but some knitters do. So our yarn, which really knits up more like a light-worsted to DK weight yarn was really misrepresenting itself to knitters.
So, we have renamed our lovely “true 22” to Superwash DK. It’s the same yarn, just a shift to the name.
And I just released a free cowl pattern that uses two skeins of Superwash DK. It’s called Fisherman’s Loop and is an infinity cowl knit up in a mock fisherman’s rib. Get it in the shop or on Ravelry. This was a super quick and easy knit that I conceived of in LA at the recent Vogue Knitting Live event… I knit this through the lectures on my big metal knitting needles, hoping that people wouldn’t be disturbed by my clacking away. I’d recommend quieter bamboo needles if you need to be a bit more stealth :)
Happy knitting!
Felicia
It’s true, some people just can’t bring themselves to look beyond a yarn’s “suggested” gauge or needle size!
Also, I think if you had re-named the yarn’True 22′, that would have been pretty wicked.
Ohh, I know! “True 22” has been it’s nickname for me this past year and I was really close to naming it that officially… but I wanted to keep it part of the “Superwash family”. :)
This pattern is definitely in my queue. I absolutely LOVE the colours that make up this cowl. Thanks Felicia for inspiring me, I think I’m going to try mixing it up and pairing different colours to get something unique in my next project!
Thanks Melissa! Blending different yarns and colours is like making your own custom yarn!