I have been knitting since I was five, which is a very long time ago. I learned to crochet not long after knitting, and honed my skills throughout my childrearing years. My children had all their clothes, well, a good proportion of them, handmade by me, either knitted, or sewn. I was never without a project on the go, and as well as being a useful hobby, in that it helped with the family finances, it was also theraputic.
Now I find myself in the lovely position of not having to knit for anything other than pleasure. In the intervening years, many of which were knit-free because I was too busy working, the yarns available have improved and diversified beyond belief. The only ‘fancy’ yarn known to me was mohair, and it was expensive. We relied on clever patterns to jazz up our knitting! Nowadays there are wonderful yarns wherever you look, and we don’t have to stick to the local yarn shop, (though we should all frequent them as much as possible as they offer a valuble service), we can shop online and buy yarn from countries on the other side of the world. Incredible! The choice is only limited by your budget and imagination.
So, as a result of this, one of my favourite occupations of late, has been exploring foreign markets and testing out some of the yarn on offer. This week I sampled a Lion Brand yarn, called Suede. Like a chenille, or velvet, it is 100% polyester, and wonderfully soft to touch. Its a chunky weight, so requires bigger size needles. I couldn’t resist the urge to have a go at another bag, so clutching my size 6mm crochet hook, I made this from the one skein (ball) of yarn, and still had a wee bit left over. The colour is called Denim by the way.


I loved this yarn and will definitely be using it again. It would make a fabulous scarf or hat, so maybe I’ll get some more for the christmas project box!