I thought I’d impart my thoughts on the cost of yarn and the relevance of it to your project. I know it may seem a bit biased as I own a knitting shop but it is based on fact.
We had a customer last week who had knitted a jumper for her husband and was disappointed with it because the yarn didn’t have as much oomph or elasticity as she thought it should. She had picked a mixed fibre yarn which was mid-range price. This issue is a common problem with men’s jumpers because the cost of knitting a big jumper is quite high and so people choose something economical without worrying so much about how it will turn out.
Anyway, this poor lady’s husband was refusing to wear the jumper so she was going to give it away which I thought was such a shame after she took all the time to knit it and I thought it looked great. This got me thinking….
At the time of choosing, the price of the yarn is uppermost in the decision making for a lot of people. It’s not that cheap to knit these days and that is a major issue. But think about it. How much of your time are you going to spend knitting a jumper or other garment? If you counted up the hours and worked out in money how much that time is worth, guaranteed it is a lot more than the cost of the yarn. If you’re going to spend that much of your time on something isn’t it better to have something at the end which can potentially last forever?
The bottom line is that the bulk of the cost of knitting is time. Weigh this up next time you’re making a choice in your local knitting shop. If it’s anything like us they will have a lay-by to help you pick great yarn without forking out for it all at once!