Knitters Review of O Balance Yarn

I love [tag]Knitters Review[/tag] yarn profiles. The reviews always tell me what I want to know about a yarn without prejudice. This time the review is written about [tag]O Balance Yarn[/tag] from [tag]Vermont Organic Fiber Company[/tag].

Vermont Organic Fiber Company has been supplying organic materials to the textiles industry since 2000 with clients that include retailers [tag]Patagonia[/tag] and [tag]Sahalie[/tag]. Just a few years ago, the company decided to launch a line of yarns for handknitters. After finding quick success with its [tag]O-Wool Classic[/tag] 100% wool yarn, this spring the company introduced O-Wool Balance, a three-ply blend of 50% organic Merino and 50% organic cotton.

This review states a few of the reasons why organic is a better way to grow and process fibers. Now the push is also on to be “green” with fiber producing animals as well. Vermont Organic Fiber Company follows the [tag]Organic Trade Association’s North American Organic Fiber Standards[/tag] in processing its wool.

While all of the above information is commendable, the yarn is according to Knitters Review, actually pretty decent. It does pill but not as fast as some blended yarns and took awhile for wear to show.

The only drawback is that it is not machine washable. The reviewer states that a sweater for a medium sized woman would be about $80. She suggests small, baby garments – “While I’d still use it selectively for babies of knitters who aren’t afraid to handwash, I’d stick to smaller items of clothingâ€”friends don’t make friends wash blankets by hand.”

I agree – hand washing is not something anyone, especially a new Mom, has time to do!

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

Have you read?