No no Noro
I am going to say it.Noro is overrated.
(pause for dramatic effect)
In the fall of 2004 I went to visit my friend Nora, who had been diagnosed with leukemia a few months prior. Nora is a friend from college who was born and raised in Alaska. She would use qiviut to knit fascinating items with fascinating patterns. When I went to visit, Puffintoad and I felt like gifting her. We thought about what it would be like to have cancer and things we would want if we were in her shoes. I bought her a scarf, knowing she would have lost her hair and I didn’t want her head to feel cold. Puffintoad decided to buy some knitting materials so Nora would have something to do while on bedrest.
We walked into an Anchorage yarn shop to find said materials. I’d never ever been in a yarn shop before, and I think what I saw there on that day has lingered with me, subconsciously pressuring me to learn how to knit. It was the multicolored yarns. The color combinations were fascinating. I remember that black label with the stylized word “Noro” on it. It’s an image in my mind, that label around the yarn with the coolest color schemes. And it stuck because we were there for Nor-a.
Fast forward to this past winter. My second knitting project was the Booga Bag. Noro Kureyon? Say, I recognize that label. Excellent.
Demystifying moment number one: on looking at the color swatches, I didn’t strongly care for any of the schemes. The skeins looked cool, but the swatches were kinda weird. And each colorway looked different on the various different websites.
I ended up picking colorway #90.
Demystifying moment number two: CamoDidi points out to me that “kureyon” is “crayon” with a bad japanese accent.
I ordered the yarn. It was kinda pricey and I ordered too much of it. What did I know? I started knitting with it.
Demystifying moment number three: while knitting the bottom of the Booga, I discovered that a) some of the uglier colors are not displayed on website color swatches. b) there are some exceedingly ugly colors mixed into these colorways.
Disappointing moment number four: I found bits of grass and other organic material in the yarn. When getting up close to pick these out, I found that the yarn smells like barn.
Frustrating moment number five: The yarn is spun heterogeneously. Big fat superbulky parts of yarn knitted adjacent to little bitty skinny fine as a human hair “I’m not sure this will even hold weight” parts of yarn makes holes in the knitting.
Annoying moment number six: Finding a knot in the yarn where two pieces of shorter yarn were joined to meet weight for the skein with no regard to colorway. I knew this would happen as Wendy of wendyknits.net had mentioned it, so at least I was prepared, but it was still annoying.
Disappointing moment number seven: I had waited and waited ‘til laundry day to finally felt my completed bag. Four loads later, the bag was still big and floppy even though I could tell some felting had occurred. A few weeks and three more cycles later, it is only slightly shrunken and a touch more stiff. I don’t know how many more times I’m going to put it through before I call it quits.
My experience knitting the Madeline bag for my mom in colorway #95 (by my mom’s request) was just as full of similar moments.
So tell me again. Why are people nuts for Noro?
We walked into an Anchorage yarn shop to find said materials. I’d never ever been in a yarn shop before, and I think what I saw there on that day has lingered with me, subconsciously pressuring me to learn how to knit. It was the multicolored yarns. The color combinations were fascinating. I remember that black label with the stylized word “Noro” on it. It’s an image in my mind, that label around the yarn with the coolest color schemes. And it stuck because we were there for Nor-a.
Fast forward to this past winter. My second knitting project was the Booga Bag. Noro Kureyon? Say, I recognize that label. Excellent.
Demystifying moment number one: on looking at the color swatches, I didn’t strongly care for any of the schemes. The skeins looked cool, but the swatches were kinda weird. And each colorway looked different on the various different websites.
I ended up picking colorway #90.
Demystifying moment number two: CamoDidi points out to me that “kureyon” is “crayon” with a bad japanese accent.
I ordered the yarn. It was kinda pricey and I ordered too much of it. What did I know? I started knitting with it.
Demystifying moment number three: while knitting the bottom of the Booga, I discovered that a) some of the uglier colors are not displayed on website color swatches. b) there are some exceedingly ugly colors mixed into these colorways.
Disappointing moment number four: I found bits of grass and other organic material in the yarn. When getting up close to pick these out, I found that the yarn smells like barn.
Frustrating moment number five: The yarn is spun heterogeneously. Big fat superbulky parts of yarn knitted adjacent to little bitty skinny fine as a human hair “I’m not sure this will even hold weight” parts of yarn makes holes in the knitting.
Annoying moment number six: Finding a knot in the yarn where two pieces of shorter yarn were joined to meet weight for the skein with no regard to colorway. I knew this would happen as Wendy of wendyknits.net had mentioned it, so at least I was prepared, but it was still annoying.
Disappointing moment number seven: I had waited and waited ‘til laundry day to finally felt my completed bag. Four loads later, the bag was still big and floppy even though I could tell some felting had occurred. A few weeks and three more cycles later, it is only slightly shrunken and a touch more stiff. I don’t know how many more times I’m going to put it through before I call it quits.
My experience knitting the Madeline bag for my mom in colorway #95 (by my mom’s request) was just as full of similar moments.
So tell me again. Why are people nuts for Noro?
posted by CamoBunny @ 1:46 PM
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