Today we’ve got an appearance by another old favorite, Hand Maiden.  The light gray yarn on top is Bess, a merino / cashmere blend that I’ve not worked with before.  The darker gray yarn on the bottom is Casbah, a merino / cashmere /nylon blend I’ve loved for a long time.  One of my first patterns, Slant, was made from Casbah, as was Graupel, one of my more recent offerings.

I have a soft spot for Hand Maiden and their sister company Fleece Artist.  When I first started knitting, I used the standard yarns available at Joann or Walmart and other big box stores.  Eventually, I began to suspect that there was better stuff out there.  Shortly after that I happened to stop into Romni Wools in Toronto and had my suspicion confirmed.  Fleece Artist’s Nova Wool was the first ‘fancy’ sock yarn I ever bought myself.  It was a rather marked improvement.

When it came time to pick yarns for the book, I knew I wanted to include one of theirs.  Now the only difficulty is picking which one!