New To Me - Maxima

Have you had the pleasure of knitting with Manos del Uruguay's Maxima yarn yet?

I started knitting a Super Easy Lap Blanket this week using Maxima and I (*swoon*) am in love!  To me, a yarn must meet 4 requirements:

1. color
2. softness
3. easy to knit with
4. value

Maxima exceeds those requirements by leaps and bounds. 

I am a big fan of kettle or hand dyed yarns.  Maxima is kettle dyed and comes in variegated and semi-solid color options.  My blanket uses dark chocolate, pewter, stratus and foil.   The blanket starts with dark chocolate and the knitted fabric is delicious.  It's chocolatey-ness goes from the darkest of cocoas to bits of milk chocolate.  

At first touch, while in hank form, I wasn't sold on this yarn's softness.  I'd felted softer and scratchier yarns before and Maxima fell in the middle.  I test-touched many skeins and in the end relied on the Ravelry reviews boasting it's softness.   Well they were right and my 100% garter stitch blanket is uber soft and snuggly.  

Maxima is very easy to knit with.  I had no trouble winding and there's no splitting (even with KnitPicks interchangeable needles which are really pointy).  The yarn flies off the needles.

Some may think that $14 a skein is pricey and there were days I used to think that.  But with a yarn like Maxima, you are paying for quality.  At 218 yards, this yarn is $.06 per yard. That's not too bad and for kettle dyed softness, I'm willing to pay that.

On scale of 1-10 this yarn is a 10 and it's now on my favorite yarns list.

Blog or Knit

After viewing many other knitter's blogs, I have decided to create my own. I am easily inspired by the photos and postings of completed knitting projects and those still in progress. It makes me want to go out and buy more yarn and patterns ... although I could run a small yarn store out of my basement.

I just recently finished a baby blanket, hat and mitten set for my brother and sister-in-law using Reynolds Signature. I made myself use yarn from my stash when usually I would make a trip to the LYS. I didn't follow any pattern, but used the stitch gauge to estimate the number of stitches to cast on. Random striping made it fun and fast. I backed the blanket with some flannel fabric. It was a very cute set.

I have several projects in the works right now. Some have been on the needles for months and other have to meet a specific deadline - birthday, baby shower. And then there's my Christmas knitting ....

So for now, I should knit. Not blog.