Over the protracted censure of the pandemic (as in—lockdown), I participated in some yarn gifting, yarn exchanges, and so forth.

Someone sent me some lovely pale green acrylic yarn at one point.  If my son is still ok with the color once I am done with my Lopi Flax, I will be making him a Flax sweater of his own out of what I was gifted—as I have planned to do the entire time.

The lovely lady sent me worsted weight Brava yarn from Knitpicks.

Brava is available, at some excellent prices, in worsted weight, sport weight and bulky weight.  The array of colors is also amazing.  At the end of the year last year (oh, to say ‘last year’ when speaking of 2020—it feels so good…honest) I ordered a bunch of Brava worsted weight yarn because I have been planning to do some colorwork for the family…and I have fur or more sets of yarn stashed away in order to create the colorwork hats I have in mind—which you should read as in order to test-knit the several patterns I have had on-hand for how many years now (seven, I think…six or seven years ago I scribbled out these patterns based on tiling and rugs and other patterns found at our holiday cabin that we rented—oh, the math I had to do to get the numbers to turn out correctly—and then I lost the notebook that I had done all of these up in…and now—I have it—I know where it is—and I now cannot find my knitting needles pouch with all of my interchangeable needles and most of my circulars…of course…I put them some place safe in order to prep the living room for the Christmas holidays…and I have been looking for them since Boxing Day at least…)…and now I want to work on colorwork sweaters – at some point this year.

So I ordered this bunch of yarn, in my favorite greys and silvers and odd shades of green…with a couple pinks and blues for accent colors.  The pinks are very…pink.  I have them put up at the moment…but one pink I bought is darn near a neon…and the other a pale delicate pink.  Now that I have all this pink…I am not entirely sure what to do with it…as I thought both were going to be … more subdued, I guess.

Brava worsted weight is light.  It is soft.  It is colorful—and economical.  It will also enable me to make my youngest as many sweaters as he likes. 

I learned, last year, when I made my two sweaters, the yellow one and the (nearly neon!) magenta one, that…the yarns I had chosen for those two ended up being heavy … and as they were knit on I think a size 7 or 8 US circular knitting needle…the fabric was dense—and tight—and…grumpy.

I love the yellow one, particularly.  I am not sur why I tend to grab up these beautiful and bright colored yarns to do an entire sweater in – since the yellow is no longer a color I wear normally.  Although when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I had a pair of yellow, bright sunshine yellow, overalls that I loved to wear all the time.  I love the color itself.  However, I was a Goth before Goth was a thing (apparently) … and I am still of Goth at heart…however, I love bright colors…but wearing them can often be overwhelming for me…add bright color in with a heavy dense grumpy fabric…and if I wear it it will be only because I made it myself.

The Brava yarn is light…and promises to make a much lighter fabric, much less dense, even if knit with the same needles as the previous sweaters. Add into that I have started to knit the same pattern using larger needles to make the sweaters more oversized—because that too is still my style…leggings with an oversized sweater (oh yes, grew up in the 80s, I did).

I have not done more than knit a basic swatch-type bit that I unraveled and wound back up, but I liked the Brava worsted enough to buy a bit of Brava sport, also for the knitting of colorwork sweaters…or just plain sweaters in general…aiming again for LIGHT, not heavy and dense, when it comes to the fabric. With the sport weight, I also learned my lesson on the pinks and stuck to my preferred greens and greys…with I think some navy thrown in there for good measure.

My plan is to finish my Lopi Flax (which I am in love with—I love Lopi yarn—I have from the very first moment I found it) and then…make myself a few scarves and cowls because for some reason I do not have enough to keep my throat covered—which I am supposed to do due to my asthma on a daily basis anyway (per my doctor) –and I am fair bully on wrapping my neck up right now because when I don’t the cold knocks my voice out again if I am not careful.

After that (I already have project bags prepped), I am either going to use the Brava worsted weight to make myself a cardigan (another thing I need to make myself) or dip into my sport weight Brava and make myself a sweater.  Oh, the plans I have.  Best finish the sweater I am currently working on…and if the gods are working in my favor, I will find my knitting needle bag and be able to use my short circular needles to knit out my sleeves because, honestly, I am not looking forward to using double point needles to knit up my sleeves—although I can and I will if need be…

Do you have any yarn recommendations?  For sweaters?  Or blankets? Or any other projects you like to do?  Let me know in the comments below.