17 September, 2008

"Noro, Noro, Noro..." (shaking head in dismay)

So.  Once again, the lovely rich shades of Noro yarn have seduced me.  In my opinion, Noro wools have some of the most vibrant, unusual combinations out there.  I love to look at them in the skein, and I loved watching the colors come out as I knit up the Noro Kureyon I was given.

[rant] However, I do not so much love working with this yarn.  The Kureyon had sticks scattered throughout, random knots, and the WORST thick and thin spinning you'll ever see. Seriously, sometimes it was like knitting with Lopi  and sometimes I was knitting with wool as thin as two strands of embroidery floss.  To me, that doesn't bode well for durability.

However. Ahem.  At the I Knit London event, a gorgeous skein of their newer Noro Sock wool followed me home and it is becoming Revontuli.  As I have gotten started, all the reasons Noro Is Bad are flooding back, except maybe the "spun with sticks in it" part.  No sticks yet.  I have had horrible irregularity in thickness, three joins in the one skein (so far!), which also did not follow the color repeats. 

I pulled out the joined areas that didn't fit, and have made them into little balls that I can add in at appropriate spots.  Oh, my goodness, what a lot of work for a single skein of pretty colours.  I just can't imagine using this for a pair of socks, which would get much more hard wear than a scarf!  [/rant]

In fact, here's a review of the Noro Sock, which does say the durability is, shall we say, less than optimal.

1 comment:

Lynn said...

This is why I've been avoiding Noro. It's gorgeous to look at but it feels like brillo pads to me. I LOVE the brooklyn scarf, but I just can't imagine having that yarn around my neck.