So experienced knitters - where can one find inexpensive yarn? I prefer natural fibers. I’d consider online sources as well, as long as the fabric content label can be trusted.
I’m not good enough to justify spending too much on yarn, hence looking for bargains. Given that I make a lot of mistakes, under CHF 5 per skein is about my price range at the moment.
(I hit the jackpot once at Manor 's bargain bin, found a few balls of merino and a couple of recycled cashmere at CHF 2 and 3. Great for practice, but the bargain bin seems to be mostly single skeins, usually not enough for a project. )
So if any of you can suggest sources for good quality inexpensive yarn, I would be grateful.
Thanks!
ETA:
I should add that I no longer buy from Amazon, so that obvious source is out.
I mostly buy my yarn online these days.
I have sometimes got lucky in coop city or Manor and grabbed a bargain or two and I still use them for small projects.
If you are anywhere near there the Lang outlet store in Rieden is worth a visit.
Otherwise my go to places to buy my yarn are Wool Warehouse or The Little Woolshop, both are UK based. You can search by yarn type and material and their info is very reliable.
The little woolshop is a smaller company and they are very friendly and helpful. I’ve not had any dealings with Wool Warehouse other than multiple orders from them.
They are both very quick and efficient in dispatching orders.
I end up unravelling a fair amount - lots of beginner mistakes. When I do so, the yarn is now kinked or flattened, I find most of the unravelled yarn I’ve been using does not look so nice when reworked.
Is there a way to ‘re-fluff’ (for lack of a better word) unravelled yarn?
Steam it or wet it and wind it tightly round a chair to dry.
I remember as a child spending hours winding unraveled wool with my grandma. Wool from outgrown sweaters would be unraveled and re-used, nothing would go to waste.
I’ve also read that you can fill a PET bottle with really hot water and wind the yarn around that to straighten it but I’ve never tried it.
steaming! my grandma would put the re-winded-over-cardboard yarn over the kitchen dinner pots, so it would steam! I do the same…but with a hand-held steamer the same one that you use for ‘ironing’ clothes
We used to use two tools at home to turn the bought yarn into proper balls for easy knitting.
One was holding the yarn, it would rotate like a carousel while the thread was pulled off by the second tool to form the ball. Both were fastened to the edge of a table.
I have tried to learn to knit, but cannot. I can crochet, sort of, but I can’t knit. I haven’t been doing much crochet lately either, but am thinking of getting back to it as I travel a bit this summer.
I have found really nice stuff at the lang outlet for very reasonable prices, and also hobbii.de or .com has reasonable stuff.
Every decade or so I tried to learn to knit, with pretty sad results, and soon gave up.
This time, however, I’m really enjoying it. - and so far (knock wooden needles) am sticking to it. I think finally (! ) finishing a project motivated me to keep going, even if I am pretty much still limited to the basics.
I’ve found a few blogs/Youtube sites than have made it easier for me to get started, and to help me trouble shoot. For instance., as an absolute beginner I like Sheep and Stitch
Hardest thing for me when watching videos is the difference between continental and English knitting. I keep tripping over my fingers, only to realize the presenter uses the ‘other’ style.
I had a knitting spree decades ago, I got so much into it I finished a man’s sweater within a week - in the little free time I had then. I was into making them in unusual designs (if there’s one thing I hate is symmetry). After I provided every friend with an unicum I stopped and never picked it up again.
While a friend of mine had his for years I managed to ruin my own masterpiece (it was beautiful, I loved it) by getting impatient and throwing it into the waschingmachine after a few months. You do that once …
When you look for “Wolle kaufen Schweiz” you get surprising results like brack.ch and even apfelkiste.ch (which I knew for electronic stuff so far, the whool seems a bit expensive but maybe it’s just too long I bought some).
English knitting; each stitch you release the right hand needle to grasp the yarn which is kept to the righthand side of the work, throw’ the yarn around the needle, drop the yarn again and make the stitch.
Continental; yarn is kept to the lefthand side of the work and wrapped around a raised finger (usually the left index) to keep under tension. The righthand needle then ‘plucks’ the yarn and makes the stitch. Continental (americans tend to use this rather than the English method) is considered to be quicker to work.
I see, so you not only drive on the wrong side of the road, you also knit the wrong way around?
Thanks for the description but I think I will have to watch a video on this as I didn’t quiet get the English way.
edit: I just did. And it seems to me it has more steps and movements, therefore slower than the “European” way. But I guess each to their liking.
Still, learnt something. Who would have thought even knitting is an areal thing.
A bit late to the party as I’ve been on holiday, but if you have a branch of OTTO in your area they’re pretty good for good quality cheap knitting yarns. My sister back in Scotland knits hats, scarves and mitts for a homeless charity in winter and I sometimes take balls of wool back on visits home.
I was taught to knit and crochet by an aunt when I was 5 and I was an avid knitter for years doing all sorts of stuff like Aran and Fair Isle patterns but it’s more something I dip in and out of these days. My hairdresser is expecting his first child in late autumn so I will probably dig some nice baby patterns out.
Back in the mid 80s I knitted a beautiful cricket pullover for my new husband, it was in a cable pattern and edged with his club colours of Oxford and Cambridge blue. About 3 months after I finished it he gave up playing!
My favourite pattern is one from about 1950, a ladies scarf my late aunt used to knit as Christmas gifts. It just reminds me of her teaching me to knit way back in 1966. I also have an Odhams Knitting Encyclopedia she gave me for my 9th birthday and I still love looking at it.
