I should’ve posted about this earlier, but I just wanted to remind folks that there’s still time to enter the Pierrot Yarns contest. The idea behind the yarn is to showcase the company’s yarns, so you can enter any item you’ve either knit, crocheted, or woven with one of their yarns.
There are some pretty nice prizes (gift certificates, books, etc.). Plus, everyone who enters something in the contest receives an entry prize, so there’s nothing to lose, right?
This week I’m reviewing Pierrot Yarns Soft Merino (store link || Ravelry link). It’s also available in fingering (UK 4-ply) weight, but the one I’m reviewing here is sport to DK weight. (Note that the store website lists it as “chunky,” but that’s just a result of direct translation from Japanese. It gets 23 st per 10 cm, which is squarely in the sport weight category. Which reminds me that I should probably write up a post about Japanese yarn weights one of these days.) These are my two skeins of color #8, wine red:
Here’s what you’ll find on the label [English translation in brackets]:
- 毛 100%（メリノウール） [100% merino wool]
- 約４０g玉巻（約９５m）[approx. 95m per 40g skein]
- 棒針 ６号〜８号 [recommended needle range: Japanese size 6-8 knitting needles (3.9-4.5mm)]
- カギ針 ５号〜６号 [recommended crochet hook range: Japanese size 5/0 – 6/0 (3.0-3.5mm)]
- ゲージ ２３目３０段 [suggested gauge: 23st and 30 rows in 10cm (stockinette)]
Knit swatch (before washing/blocking):
Knit in stockinette on US 7 (4.5mm). My gauge before washing was 22.5 st and 30 rows in 10x10cm. Being such a tight knitter, I’m amazed I got so close to the suggested gauge – never happens!
No pilling as you knit it, and I didn’t experience any splitting. The yarn was nice to knit up – very soft! I wouldn’t hesitate to use this for baby items (keeping in mind that it’s not superwash wool).
Knit swatch (after washing/blocking):
Knit in stockinette on US 7 (4.5mm). My gauge after washing was 19 st and 31 rows in 10x10cm. So it grew just a bit, especially in width.
It was hand-washed in cold water with mild detergent, then rolled in a towel to remove excess water. I blocked it loosely with pins and left it to dry. The dried fabric is very soft but has no visible felting after one wash. It also didn’t bleed when washed, which surprised me with a red yarn (other colors may bleed when washed, of course, so always be careful when washing).
Crochet swatch (before washing/blocking):
Double crochet (US) with size D hook (3.25mm). My gauge before washing was 22 st and 6 rows in 10x10cm. I cheated a bit here and didn’t make a huge swatch, so I measured over 5cm and just multiplied everything by two.
I found that the yarn split occasionally while I was crocheting it, but nothing too frustrating. With this hook size, I got a nice, soft fabric that holds its shape but isn’t so stiff it’s bulletproof.
My impressions:
Overall, I would highly recommend this yarn. Now to decide what to make with my remaining skeins!
Welcome to my first attempt at a Japanese pattern-reading tutorial! This is meant to be a KAL/CAL type tutorial, so grab those hooks and needles and join in.
First things first: the patterns we’ll be starting with are one small crochet project and one small knitting project. These were chosen to help people get a feel for charted pattern reading without having to invest in a long-term project. Feel free to do just one or both. Our crochet pattern will be 29-210-28 Pop Merino Beret (Ravelry link) and our knitting pattern will be 26-27-20 Child’s Sweater (Ravelry link). Thanks are due to Pierrot Yarns for allowing me to use their patterns for this tutorial.
So, let’s get started. What do you need to know to start a charted Japanese pattern? Well, chances are, identifying the suggested yarn, hook/needle, and gauge is a good place to start. For Japanese patterns that are on Ravelry, of course, you can often find this information on the pattern’s Ravelry page in English. But you probably want to know how to figure it out from the pattern itself, right?
Step 1: Don’t panic! It’s just a pattern.
Step 2: Know where to look. In Japanese patterns, 99% of the time, you’ll find all the information about yarn, hook or needle, gauge, and finished measurements up at the top of the pattern. Got your crochet beret pattern handy? Let’s see what we’ve got:
The part circled in blue is where all the important information is. The part crossed out in red may look important, but it very rarely is. It’s just a short description of how the pattern is worked. For example, in a sweater pattern, it may say something as earth-shattering as “make back, make front, make two sleeves, sew together” – not so important, right? You can already get all that information from the charts and diagrams.
I can already hear someone saying, well, when should you pay attention to the Japanese blurb? My own opinion is that pretty much the only time the blurb is useful is when it instructs you to use more than one strand of yarn at the same time. Luckily, this is pretty easy to figure out. Check the blurb for ２本どり. Do you see it? If so, you’re supposed to be using 2 strands of yarn at the same time. (It could be ３本どり in rare cases using 3 strands at once.) If not, it’s just 1 strand of yarn. There’s no ２本どり in the beret pattern, and if you check the sweater pattern, you won’t find it either. So now we know that we’re making both of these patterns with one strand each.
Step 3: Know what to look for. It’s not fancy, but I’ve marked the important parts of the materials list. Here’s the beret:
And here’s the sweater:
Already this post is getting too long, so I’ll just make it short and tell you the crucial info. I’ll go into more detail about this stuff later – so that you can figure it out for yourself – but for now, I just wanted to help people figure out what materials they’ll need for the tutorial.
This is what you should know for the beret:
For the sweater, the crucial info is:
Step 4: If all else fails, remember that Ravelry is a great resource. There’s no shame in asking if someone else can identify the yarn for you. The Japanese knitting and crochet group is an excellent place to ask.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’ll do the next lesson later in the week, but it’ll be about resources that help with charted patterns. We’ll start the actual knitting & crocheting next week, which should give everyone time to gather the materials they need. I’m thinking of doing tutorials for the crochet pattern on Mondays and for the knitting pattern on Thursdays. Does that work for everyone?
This week I’m reviewing Pierrot Yarns Organic Cotton Fingering (store link || Ravelry link), one of three weights available in Pierrot Yarns’ organic cotton line. This is the fingering (UK 4-ply) weight:
It comes in sport/DK, fingering (4-ply), and light fingering (3-ply), but I’m only going to talk about the fingering weight version today. All three weights are made of organic, undyed, unbleached cotton. Because they aren’t dyed or bleached, the yarn is a warm, creamy color.
Here’s what you’ll find on the label [English translation in brackets]:
- 綿 100% [100% cotton]
- Note: it doesn’t say organic cotton in the info section of the label, but it does elsewhere. Look for オーガニックコットン to verify that it’s organic cotton.
- 約２５g玉巻（約７０m）[approx. 70m per 25g skein]
- 棒針 ３号〜４号 [recommended needle range: Japanese size 3-4 knitting needles (3.0-3.3mm)]
- カギ針 ３／０号〜４／０号 [recommended crochet hook range: Japanese size 3/0 – 4/0 (2.3-2.5mm)]
- ゲージ ２３目３４段 [suggested gauge: 23st and 34 rows in 10cm (stockinette)]
Swatch (before washing/blocking):
Knit in stockinette on US 3 (3.25mm). My gauge before washing was 28 st and 36 rows in 10x10cm.
This is nice, soft cotton. It doesn’t split while you’re working with it, which can be a problem with some cotton yarns. You can see a few flecks of brown in it – apparently little cotton seeds. Not unexpected for a yarn that’s advertised as relatively unprocessed (no bleaching or dyes, but obviously spinning/plying), but at least in the skeins I have, it’s hardly noticeable. From a distance, you don’t see the specks at all. Up close, you can see 4-5 specks. Nothing unsightly in my opinion, and definitely on par with other organic cotton yarns.
Swatch (after washing/blocking):
Knit in stockinette on US 3 (3.25mm). My gauge after washing was 25 st and 37 rows in 10x10cm. Luckily it snowed today, so I can offer this photo showing the natural cotton color against pure white snow:
It was washed in cold water with mild detergent, rolled in a towel to remove excess water, and then pinned out to dry on a flat surface. So it shrank a very small amount in width but got very slightly longer in rows. There’s no pilling or any other adverse effects from washing as far as I can tell.
My impressions:
dancingbarefoot 
