Friday, January 15, 2010

Yarn Trickery and Contest Winners !!!


Thanks to all of you that sought to answer my questions about the two balls of yarn.
The yarns in question are Patons SWS and Debbie Mumm Traditions. Patons is a soy/wool/silk blend (hence the SWS). Debbie Mumm Transitions is a wool acrylic. If the ball bands are not on and the skeins are caked or in a ball, it is almost impossible to tell them apart. At least it was for me.



This top down cardi I made in 2008 is out of Patons SWS. The mitten is from the Debbie Mumm Traditions. As you can see when knitted up there is quite a difference in coloring and striping.


Sheila got the Patons part right off as well as CICI. Tea got the Patons SWS part of it and I pretty much thought the contest was over.
Amybel said in her comment that I had not mentioned a point of reference. This cracked me up! I wish I were that organized of a knitter to think of something like that.







To Del, Nik and Amybel I agree, in the photo the yarn could pass for a Malabrigo or a Lanaloft.


I was absolutely blown away when Nik gave the exact name of the Debbie Mumm yarn. Clearly Debbie Mumm Traditions is an obscure brand and only those of us that wander into Joanns to look at the cheap stuff because we are nowhere near an LYS know what it is.






The Winner !!!



Because she answered the most questions giving the brand name, all three fibres, the exact color and the main complaint of the yarn which is that SWS tends to fuzz; Jody/Javajem is the winner !
Congratulations Jody ! I have to email her first and get a bit of information before announcing what her prize is.
I'd also like to attach and award a second prize to Nik/Niks Knits because she was the only one that mentioned the second yarn. Congratulations Nik and I'll be getting with you next week.

Thanks, that was so much fun !!!






How This Whole Thing Started…

So, I needed another pair of mittens for the NAKniMitMO and chose the Cabobble pattern. This is a really, really cute and easy pattern. It’s well written and goes oh so quickly.

I went through one of my stash draws with the slate colored Patons SWS in mind. I grabbed a ball and started knitting. A day later when I was at the top of the mitten, something struck me as funny. I think it was the striping. The striping seemed more precise and intense than SWS striping. The grey seemed lighter, the black seemed darker. My stomach began to sink as I realized that I may have grabbed something other than SWS. I went back to my stash and found a skein of SWS with the band on it. I compared it to what I had knitted.
Darn ! I’d been duped !!!




This is one of my yarn caddies. There are a lot of the naturals mixed in with the acrylics all willy nilly ! Do I contribute this stuffed caddy to my mix up? You bet !



(We won’t discuss how stuffed this caddy is or that I have to push really hard to get the drawers closed or that I haven’t been able to even open the middle drawer for a while and can’t remember which yarns are in there or that my other two caddies were far too messy and stuffed to show… )





I was a little upset; not because I had knitted a mitten in an acrylic/wool blend. I was upset because I knew I only had one skein of the Debbie Mumms Transitions (which was gifted to me). The one skein would not be enough for two mittens. The Joann fabrics here in my town is not a Super Joann Fabrics and they don’t carry Debbie Mumm anything. Unless I could find it online or unless I was going out of town before the end of January, this mitten may not be entered into the NAKniMitMoKAL.



Who would ever think that an acrylic yarn could pass for one of natural fibres? If it happened to me, it can happen to you !



That’s my story and I’m sticking to it !

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, they make some GOOD acrylic yarns nowadays. I was shocked that my Red Heart afghan softened up so much after a wash. Congrats to the winners! (maybe I'm not as much of a yarn-nerd as I thought, lol)

cici said...

That was a fun contest. I'm glad I was close. Congratulations to JavaJem for guessing all correctly. They do look different knitted up♥

Joansie said...

I must have missed your previous post. Sounds like you had fun.

That cardi is lovely. Do you have another pic showing the entire sweater?

Amybel said...

Yay Jodi & Nik! That was a lot of fun and very funny too!

Nik said...

AWESOME! I often fondle that debbie mumm yarn when I'm in JoAnn's. There's a green version that to die for.

Jody said...

Yay! Thanks for hosting this contest! I'm so excited - I never win these things :)

Sheila said...

Congrats to the Winners and I can definitely be found amongst acrylic...lol

Camille said...

Congratulations to both winners! I had no clue about either yarn.