These People Have My Number

Trust me, I had this awesome post, half done, and I just pressed some whack combo of buttons and the whole thing is gone.

Now you're stuck with this one.

The upshot is that blogs are dangerous because they lead you down the path of retail exploration, even when you're not expecting it. It's doubly dangerous when the source is (a comment on) your own blog?! Frances, I blame you! :-)

My latest vice: Brooklyn Tweed.

What else do I need? It's got:

• Beautiful people wearing
• Beautiful garments in 
• Beautiful photos displayed with
• Excellent graphics that underscore a
• Terrific user interface which is home to
• An online store with affordable shipping rates that also houses
• A blog (a real one) that puts you in a really tweedy mood. 

Not to mention, the auteur is a guy (one of the 5 male knitters I've ever heard of), mastermind of a lifestyle, design collective and producer of sustainable materials. I found myself come up against some scary latent sexism when I discovered this. I was all: How is it that a man can turn a largely frumpy art into "concept"? Why didn't a woman do this? Um, hello, we run knitting. Whereupon I spoke with some friends at work and they suggested I was threatened, not unlike a corporate man in 1950. That's food for thought.

Point is, you shouldn't knock a great thing - a place where you can read about knitting, find numerous patterns (of a certain niche, some of which may very much appeal to you), excellent pattern instruction, and hand-crafted yarn.

Here's the pattern I recently bought because this post caught my eye:

Take heed marketers. This isn't even vaguely my style and I just couldn't resist. A two-way sweater. In "natural colours". It's so Iceland meets New Hampshire! Maybe, if I make this sweater my hair will get kind of red and curly and I'll get taller and younger!

I came SO close to spending 100 bucks plus on yarn (it looks so GOOD), when sense got the better of me. I ordered the swatch card instead (7 bucks, no shipping fee) and then I read some Ravelry reviews.

The more you read, the worse it gets. Apparently, the yarn frays, splits, breaks and contains a surplus "natural fibre" bits i.e. woody crap. You know, based on how gorgeous it looks in the Look Book, I'd try it nonetheless, if not for the numerous comments that indicate it isn't soft. I have a thing about soft. I hate "rustic yarn".

The point is, I had an option to order the swatch card because this company offers it in a lovely format at a reasonable price, sans shipping. I will feel (a swatchy version of) the product with my own hands and then decide if it is meant to be, for me, or if I should simply enjoy the many other elements of Brooklyn Tweed: patterns, blog and gorgeous photos. Either way, they win. And so do I.

Question: Have you tried this yarn? Does it live down to its Ravelry rep? Have you tried the patterns? What's your experience of Brooklyn Tweed? Do tell.