baa ram ewe

The Bergamot research goes on. Not being able to find a ball of the Rowan Purelife Organic Wool at my local yarn haunt (Weaving Works), I consulted the Rowan colour cards and chose instead a ball of the Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Bluefaced Leicester in the 781 brown shade as the closest approximation of weight and texture.

It is, indeed, much finer than the yarns that I had been testing out, even than the Zara which is also a dk weight yarn. So far I have only swatched for the shell pattern but will continue with a few rows of the bobbles and some plain treble (UK terminology) fabric to get the best idea of what I am looking for. I will not actually be making Bergamot in in either of the Purelife yarns because frankly, I find the Rowan products to be mighty overpriced. Really lovely but still overpriced.

Fortunately, I went on an excursion to Little Knits in West Seattle last week and saw that they have Jo Sharp Classic DK wool on clearance for $3.99 a ball. It looks similar to the Purelife yarns in weight and texture so I'm going to swatch up with the Mulberry that I bought. I don't think that I've ever taken so much trouble over choosing a yarn in my life!

A quick word on Little Knits - they do online ordering too and they have some amazing deals on end-of-line colours and stock. If you are longing to try something expensive and are not too picky about the colour available to you, have a look there for a bargain. If you can, go in in person - the proprieter is just lovely.