Caution: Linares Yarn Review

What follows is a review of a yarn only recently discovered by moi.  I'm not a professional yarn reviewer.  I know what I like and don't like.  That is all I can convey.   My thoughts may not coincide with your thoughts - and that is perfectly fine. 

 This is Linares - an Ester Bitran hand dye that is made in Chile

Color 512 which thinks itself to be green/gold but which me thinks is more not green/gold.

55% Cotton

45% Viscose

A wonderfully soft (and here I mean soft as in you actually enjoy feeling the stuff) blend that, even after being hand dyed, displays a pleasing and playful finish that is both matte and gloss in the same twist.  And, as the cotton and viscose accept dye differently, the variation is quite subtle and pleasing.

Here is the Linares all worked up.  The sport weight yarn  wants to work up at 5.5 sts. to the inch on a handy US 6 needle.  Well, what you are looking at over to the left is the ribbing produced on a US 3 followed by stockinette worked on the label preferred US 6 needle.

I suppose this is OK.  In fact, it looks just fine after stretched downward a bit as would result from blocking.  Thus, I hold out hope that in the final garment (a cardigan for summer) the weight of the cotton will cause downward elongation of each stitch during the wearing.

It is possible that I am not pleased with the ribbing.  Oh sure, the 1x1 has lots of sideways stretch and bounce back.  But the individual stitches - owing surely to the cotton lack of bounce - just hang out looking somewhat sloppy.  

We all can attest to the tendency of cotton (well, it is a wretched fact in my opinion) to grow in width during the day.  Might I let you in on a worry that is now, upon addition thinking, gone completely from my little brain.  At first I thought the pattern to be entirely wrong in the cast on and no way would those stitches ever fit the measurement I selected from those available on the printed pattern.  Totally impossible thought I!  Well, go back up and read the first sentence of this paragraph.  I do believe that some brilliant soul has written the stitch count with full knowledge that the resulting garment will stretch sideways during the wearing.  Now, with that thought and fact swirling about, I am no longer fretting that there are not enough stitches to go around my around part.