Yarn review: Crystal Palace Panda Cotton

Crystal Palace Panda Cotton
59% bamboo - 25% cotton - 16% elastic nylon; 182 yds/50 gr.
7-8 sts/inch. Note: I got 32 st/4 in
The bamboo gives a great feel and a luster, the cotton adds a soft core and the elastic nylon retains the shape and makes it wear well for socks.
(These previous details from the Crystal Palace website)
Panda Cotton at Crystal Palace | Panda Cotton at Ravelry

Initial impression
Yay! Sheepless sock yarn! *dances around happy*


The yarn
The fibres are quite squishy and loosely plied together (see picture below, yarn is a bit unravelled in this one on purpose). I didn't find it *too* splitty, although it occasionally happened. Because of this loose plying, what happened the most was some of the strands being knitted at a different tension than others, which can lead to "bunching" of the individual plies. This is very easy to fix by gently tugging at the yarn. This difference in tensions meant that the yarn requires a little bit of attention when knitting. It doesn't super-coil on itself when knitting, which is a problem I often have.


Length: One ball of sock yarn made one Wanida sock on a UK ladies 5 1/2, but only just about. It will make that length for plain-ish socks, but not if you want to do anything more complicated (especially cables). I didn't know this, and only bought two balls thinking it would be enough. It was, but unless your feet is smaller than a size 5, I would recommend buying 3 balls to make two socks, especially if you want to swatch properly.


Colour: The colour is much more vibrant than other sock yarns I've found, but it is still not a super-bright colour. Not too bad, though! I plan to make something soon with one of the variegated yarns, but until then I can't comment on pooling or variegation.


The knitted fabric
The knitted fabric is highly textured, which shows in the knitting. I think it will look better with simpler styles, otherwise you risk this texture fighting too much against the pattern for attention. I am happy with it, but I can see how it wouldn't fit all styles of people and socks.
The fabric is quite elastic, and I have had no problems stretching the sock to put it on, and then it bounces back to its original size.


Wearing and care
I've only worn the socks (Diamond socks) once for now, but they held up well. I don't know how the warmth compares to wool socks, but they are certainly warmer than store-bought cotton socks, which is what I normally wear. Reports from the web will have me believe that the yarns holds up well to wear.
I hand washed them using tepid water and Soak. The label says that they can be machine washed, but I wanted to check the bleed: it didn't bleed, and there was no hint at pilling when squeezing them out and drying (I have some other sheepless socks that start to pill if you so much as look at them when damp).
I'll throw them in the wash next time, as the label assures me I can, and will try to remember to take them out before the drier cycles kicks in (although I may throw in my swatch for the drying cycle as well, to report).


Final comments
Me like!
I was certainly thinking on getting some of the variegated yarn to make a pair of Skew socks: I love the socks and I think they will look better in non-solid yarn. Plus they don't have a complicated pattern, which will work well with the yarn texture.




Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Crystal Palace and no direct connection (the yarn was my personal purchase). This review just represents my personal opinion and impressions on the yarn

Two online yarn shop reviews

I've been meaning to put a word in for two online shops since January, but I haven't got around to doing it yet. I went a bit crazy on the January sales and bought a whole load of yarn from two different shops, and really enjoyed. Both were incredibly quick (and I've recently ordered from one again and it has been just as quick), and when I had problems with my order with one, it was solved awesomely.

Create and Knit

My main custom with Create and Knit revolves around their Peaches and Creme yarn, which is worsted cotton, ideal for amigurumi. Cheap and cheerful cotton in loads of colours, and incredibly quick delivery: I ordered some last Thursday evening, and it arrived on Monday! It is based in the UK, which cuts down the shipping costs a lot, and it's now my first point of call for the amigurumi yarn.

Kangaroo

Again based in the UK, I only bought from them in January, when they were doing a big sale on discounted yarns. When my package arrived, I did a brief check of the yarn, which was the right quantity and colour, and put it in the stash. Two weeks later, when I wanted to use it, I discovered the mistake: one of my yarns was wrong! I had the right colour and number, but I had silk wool instead of silk cotton. I panicked for a little bit, then phoned them.
The lady on the phone was incredibly nice, and we arranged an exchange of the yarn, as they still had what I had wanted. On a Wednesday, I went to the post office and mailed my silk wool back. That Friday, the silk cotton arrived, with the postage for the silk wool reimbursed. Mistakes happen, and the way they rectified was amazing, and I will certainly buy from them again, once I finish start knitting with the first yarn I got from them :)

Don't anthropomorphise the tomatoes

My camera card died on Tuesday after I was taking pictures of all my stash. I have a little stash, mainly leftovers, but it still bust my camera. Hence the lack of pictures, especially of the finished Green Tea (although that is not helped by the fact that I haven't finished weaving in all the ends, when I finished knitting it on Sunday). I am going to buy a new one on Saturday, before I head over to my local Knit in Public meeting. However, I can show you my stash. I am in the process of putting it all in Ravelry so that I know what I have, but you can check it in Flickr in the meantime.

However, I can tell you that, on this same Tuesday, after the stash photo session, and after I decided not to go to Tai Chi because my allergies were making me feel really unwell, teh boyfriend and I kept cracking at Lego Indiana Jones. And we finished it!
A whooping 100%, it was great. I tried to take a picture of the screen with the 100, but that's when I discovered my camera was dead (funeral arrangements to be confirmed at a later time).

<small review>
Lego Indy is really fun. Because the engine is developed from the Lego Star Wars games, they really could work on the details. The backgrounds look a lot better, and there is actual character definition! For example, Indy is afraid of snakes, so he starts shaking and gets scared if he gets near snakes. You need to use the other characters to get some fire and draw the snakes out of the path for Indy to cross. Most of the characters start without weapons, although you can pick them up when your enemies drop them. The awesome thing is that, unless your character is meant to have a gun, all the guns you pick up have limited ammo!
I have been playing with Sallah. Sallah has a shovel as his default "weapon", so he can dig on the grond, but it is also the Shovel Of DOOM, and can kill enemies. I love the shovel.
I think I still prefer Lego Star Wars 2, but this is not bad at all!
</small review>

I have finally decided to name my computer Argos.
I arrived to this name via "argent", the latin/greek name for silver. There have been many people (mostly mythological) called Argos, but my favourite is Argos Panoptes, the all seeing. I think Argos likes his name so far, although I haven't got as far as changing it in the computer itself, I've just been calling him Argos, and he hasn't complained yet.

Related to calling my computer "him", I was commenting on the baby tomatoes yesterday dinner, saying
"Aww, look at the baby tomatoes, they are so cute".
To which teh boyfriend answered,
"Don't anthropomorphise the tomatoes. They hate that".
It cracked me up.