I never thought I’d say it.

I love an impure yarn.

I’m a purist.  I love home baked bread, with flour ground by hand, and butter shaken, not stirred – by hand.  I love clothes knit by hand with undyed wool spun by hand, that has been carded by hand, washed by hand, sheared by hand, grown on a sheep that was raised by hand.  I love simple, pure things that take a long time to make.

And I love Boheme, a beautiful colourway of Tough Love Sock Yarn created by the glorious Felicia Lo (ravlink) at Sweetgeorgia yarns here in Vancouver.  The sock yarn is a nice weight.  Not so thin that you have to knit on zeros, and not so thick that they feel funny in shoes. Strangely 80% superwash wool and 20% nylon. Feels strangely good in my hands even though the idea of ‘fake’ yarn makes my teeth squeek.

The greatest thing is about this love affair is that this yarn will be much harder wearing than my regular love – 100% merino.  It is perfect with my favourite size needles – 2.5mm – and knits up rather fast.  I’ll never run out of yarn on a pair of top down socks because there is 425 yds of the stuff in a skein! Oh… and locally dyed, right here in Vancouver, 15 blocks from my house!

In fact, this is my second go. Even with the time consuming, cobblestone cast on, I didn’t mind starting again (the risk of not knitting a gauge swatch – but seriously, a sock is a swatch!) when I realized that these socks would fit my nephew’s size 12 feet.  I just ripped it back, noticed how pretty the yarn was, all crinkly and pink and brown, and kept right on going!

Thank you Sweetgeorgia, I will take one skein in every colour you have.