Review: Patons (Australia) Washed Haze

For Australian lovers of Rowan All Seasons Cotton (ASC) who despair at the price and/or availability of it here, you might be interested in trying (if you haven't already!) Patons Australia's Washed Haze (WH). Both are "worsted" or aran weight cotton/acrylic blend yarns.

While the colour range of the WH is small (only 6 colours) and the yardage is slightly less than the Rowan, it is fairly easily available here and is very reasonably priced.

(ASC on the left, WH on the right)

Here are the general specs:

Yardage: ASC - 90m; WH 85m

Composition: ASC: 60% cotton, 40% acrylic; WH - exactly the same

Washing instructions: ASC: warm (40C) machine wash on wool cycle; WH: gentle machine wash

Gauge/tension: ASC: 4.5 - 5.5mm (7-9 US) gives 16-18 st and 23-25 rows over 10cm/4"; WH: 4.5mm (7 US) gives 19 st and 25 rows over 10cm/4".

Origin: ASC - not clear on some ball bands, others say Italy; WH - China.

Colour range: ASC - here; WH - here

Price: ASC retails for about $13 in Australia, WH for about $4-5.

Most importantly, how do they feel and compare when knitted? I've used both, and for the same pattern - the monogram cushions I've made for my nephews and nieces (ASC here and WH here).

I think the ASC feels slightly softer in the ball, but the yarn itself looks almost indistinguishable. However, the colours themselves, to me, make the yarns different - the ASC dyes are deeper and more even, the WH is (as the name suggests) slightly washed out and the WH shades are, in side by side comparison, slightly garish tones. This is far less obvious when the WH yarn is viewed by itself.

(ASC on the left, WH on the right)

As for the knitted fabric, it is, to me, indistinguishable. Using 4.5mm sticks gives a firm-ish fabric, which is what you want for the cushions. I've knit ASC on 5mm sticks too (for the Trellis toddler cardi) and it gives more drape, but holds the cables well. I'm sure the WH would be the same - the monogram letters on the cushions have really nice stitch definition.

Something to watch with the WH (and from recollection, with the ASC as well) is that the ends tend to untwist. The yarn is made up of a whole bunch of smaller plies, which are themselves plied, and if you leave the ends to darn in once you've finished knitting the whole piece, the yarn will untwist. Easy to fix by a small knot right near the end of the yarn which you just cut off before darning in!

If you can live with the limited colours, then the WH is a great substitue for ASC. Hopefully if we buy lots of it, Patons will increase the colour range (please, pretty please?!).

Enabler alert!

Or my community service announcement - however you choose to see it!

I read on Ravelry about a new Australian online yarn retailer - Thicket - and how great they were. So I signed myself up for the newsletter and wondered why one of the questions was my favourite colour. I found out when I received a few yarn samples (all Jo Sharp yarns, which was Thicket's main line at the time I signed up) in red (which of course was what I'd noted!). Big tick #1 for customer service.

Then I received my first newsletter with a free pattern - big tick #2.

I'd signed up for an international Christmas stocking swap on Ravelry and since my swap pal is based in the US, I thought I'd use an Australian yarn for my stocking - and since the price is so competitive, I ordered from Thicket.

This is how my yarn arrived:

(That's clear cellophane, brown paper and green tissue paper, all tied with some yarn). Big tick #3!

And since I'm sure you'd like to see the yarn:

Thicket has expanded its lines to include Woolganics organic yarn and Debbie Bliss - including the new DB magazine - all announced via email before the website was updated (big tick #4). Since I was on the ball I managed to snaffle the last DB magazine, and it arrived a few days later:

Big tick #5!

So far, I can't recommend Thicket too highly for their customer service. Just fabulous!

Cleck cotton - what's it like?

A couple of weeks ago I promised a little review of the new Cleckheaton Naturals Cotton (8ply/DK). I bought a couple of balls at Sp*tlight after seeing it for the first time - it felt so lovely and soft, for a cotton, and the natural colours really appealed to me (beige and pale green, with beige heather and pale green heather). I bought the pale green (col 004) and the green heather (008).

I couldn't wait to try it out, and so I made a ballband dishcloth - I think because the colours matched my kitchen perfectly and because I really should have been knitting something else so only wanted a small project! I also used, for the first time, some rosewood straights which I bought when Tapestry Craft had a huge reduction on them. OMG I love rosewood needles!!

This cotton is really lovely to knit with. It is relatively loosely spun from a bunch of very thin strands (forgive me if I haven't quite got all the technical terms right!!) so can be a little splitty, but with the lovely rosewoods, I didn't have any problems at all. And it didn't strain my hands and wrists like some cottons do when you knit with them for a while (dishcloth cotton and Rowan Denim, anyone?!).

The only problem I did have was that one of the balls (the green heather) had TWO knots in it - both right near the start of the ball. Gah! Fortunately, I found them both when I was at the end of a row, but this did annoy me a bit. It might be a one-off with this yarn, as the other ball has been fine so far.

Overall, a really lovely soft cotton, which also comes in 4ply (fingering weight). Probably way too nice for a dishcloth, but would be very nice in a garment, particularly for those with very senstive skin, as the colours are natural, not dyed. Don't ask me how they do that though! Oh, and nicely priced (for Australia at least) at around $4 per 50g ball.