YOTD: Sirdar Snuggly DK

One thing I love is the beautiful British Springtime, complete with lovely bright daffodils and cute little lambs. Do you know what else I like? That's right, beautiful British Sarcasm. I have just ventured out to put the lock on my motorbike in a hailstorm, yep hail, thunder, lightening, the lot. I thought about putting it off, thinking that there cannot be any motorcycle thieves who prefer working in the rain and hail, but knowing that, there will be a anorak wearing scalliwag waiting around the corner to nick it.

So I thought I would cheer you and me up with a soft baby yarn available in every colour under the sun (let me know if you actualy see the sun) and a good review too. Yesterdays was a bit down on what I presume are the nice people at Tivoli, so today Sirdar will get a nice review. (I obviously know that all the people at Sirdar are waiting on baited breath for this review!!!!)

Anyway, onto this yarn. I have two colours of this yarn to share with you today and I have had to wait to review it whilst I knitted up the second one. I love to review all the colours I own to get a good sample and you get different batches, different dyes and a better review- hopefully!! Today, I have chosen also to mention MCA Direct as my yarn shop as they have a great selection, and a great shadecard for their yarns so you can have a good look. They also offer free postage on orders over £10. There are so many colours in Sirdar Snuggly DK that if I described them all we'd all be here all week, and frankly that would eat into my knitting time!!!

So let's get on with it! Sirdar Snuggly DK comes in both 50g and 100g balls, but the bigger ones come in fewer colours. The blue came in 50g balls and the cream in 100g.  Ok, on your average 50g ball, you get 175m of a 55% nylon and 45% Acrylic yarn with a tension on 4mm needles over 10cm of 22sts over 28 rows. A 50g ball will set you back around £3, so pretty reasonable for the meterage. I got my little blue cardy from one ball, but it is a newborn size. My 100g ball has 330 meters on and costs around £5.50 so again reasonable money for reasonable amounts of yarn, I still have about 20g left from my ball from knitting the larger cardigan below.

This has to be one of the most beautiful blues I've knit with. I love this yarn, it is probably the softest thing I've knit with so far, it is just fab. It knits up well, and to a regular tension, and I found no problems with the yarn.

It is washable and tumble dryable on cool which is another fantastic thing about this yarn for baby knits, and it does come in a wide variety of colours too. I like both of these that I have used.

It has blocked very well. As you can see by the Evelyn blue cardy above, you can see how Lace has blocked and the picture below is not blocked at all, and I apologise for the lack of buttons. I absolutely love this little pattern, and I finished late last night so the cardy isnt totally finished up, but you get the idea. I can't wait to share this pattern for POTD.

So, at the end of the day, would I buy this again? Oh Yes I would. In fact many of the colours are really calling me. I would completely recommend this as a great baby yarn, at a reasonable price.

I would ask the Blattman about his review, but he is at work, and very happily too because he passed a pretty important exam yesterday and he is really on cloud 9!!! We are really very proud of him in my family, and he really worked hard to achieve this, and it means great things for our future, so all its good in the Blattcave.

YOTD: Sirdar Summer Stripes

So todays YOTD is Sirdar Summer Stripes. This yarn was released last year and is a 60% cotton 40% acrylic number which knits up in DK, tension over 10cm is 22sts by 28 rows . It hopefully then should make good knitting for summer this year too. Here are the facts, then Ill get down to some actual reviewing. You get 158m on a 50g ball of this yarn, which is pretty good meterage and it costs normally around £3.50 a ball, but todays shop of choice is Black Sheep Wool and they have it on offer for £2.99 a ball. (On a side note, Ive ordered from BSW before, they are fantastic, great customer service and very quick delivery.)

The yarn is another self striping yarn, and the colours are muted and more washed out than others, they look like they might have been washed a few times first. There are a few of my stitches without colour at all. The colours are quite pretty, and the cardy knit below was from one ball. This yarn is a bit hard but it is very easy to knit with. It doesnt split like the normal cotton yarns that I have been testing and I enjoyed knitting with it. The stitch definition is good and creates a nice knitted fabric. I blocked the cardy, and it didnt get any softer, but the colours didnt run so I was impressed. It is not like a normal cotton yarn, it holds together well and isnt heavy. I like it. I am not a fan of self stripers- im way too fussy about matching for that, but this is probably one of the best. I did enjoy it for this pattern where I didnt have to worry about matching anything up, and I enjoyed seeing the ball unravel and the colours reveal themselves. This yarn is also machine washable! Hooray for machine washable yarns! So would I buy this one again? Actually for a one ball knit, yes I would.

Again, I only have one colour today in this yarn, but this colour Tequila Sunrise (310) is one of 9 created by Sirdar. Calypso (317) is a stripy mix of reds, yellows, blues and pinks. Tropicana (316) is more blue and green but still has the pinks, yellow and white. Sombrero (315) is orange, blue, yellow, green and a number of other smaller stripes of colour too. Margarita (314) is pink primarily mixed with an aqua green and a lighter green. This colour is probably my favourite of the lot, but I am quite a pink girl. Oasis (312) is very lilac and blue. Some of these colours have so many different coloured stripes, but Oasis is much more bluey purple, like denim really. Pina Colada (311) is more beige and green, which a few yellow and purple stripes. Blue/Green/Sand (309) does not have the fantastic tropical names of its followers but does what is says on the tin, as does the two final colours Khaki/Purple/Mustard (308) and Tan/Orange/Purple (307).

I have now decided to let the Blattman way in on these. As he isnt a knitter, you are going to probably get exactly what he thinks!! He thinks this one is rough to touch and that the yarn is washed out, and makes it look a bit old before you have worn it. He says however it looks good knitted up. He is concise if nothing else!!!

Hope to see you tomorrow for another YOTD, and whatever else I get up to. Off to Westfield Stratford tomorrow so who knows what the odd ball bin in John Lewis might hold for me