Knitting blog week day 7: What a yarn

There’s one love that we all share: yarn. Blog about a particular yarn you have used in the past or own in your stash, or perhaps one that you covet from afar. If it is a yarn you have used you could show the project that you used it for, perhaps writing a mini ‘review’. Perhaps, instead, you pine for the feel of the almost mythical qiviut? You could explore and research the raw material and manufacturing process if you were feeling investigative.

Koigu.
Koiiiiiiguuuuuuu.....

I lurve lurve lurver it. It's soft, it's springy, it's fluffy, it's incredibly colorful. It's almost divine. Almost.

Of course, I'm talking about Koigu KPPPM. If you don't know about this legendary yarn, it's a 2-ply superwash merino fingering weight. What I know if this yarn is that it's dyed in the Toronto, Canada area. I have a book here about hand dyeing that indicates that the yarn is dyed in 500 gram skeins that are then split up into the 50 gram skeins we now pay upwards of $14.00 each for. From the pictures of the parent skeins, they appear to me to be hand painted with dye.
I love Koigu. A lot of people love the texture but in my opinion similar springy texture can be found in many hand dyed yarns like Rock Creek Yarn's Twisterino. It's the colorways I love. They all seem to be works of art. The colors are stunning, ranging from incredibly intense to beautify muted. Where running occurs, it's done in a way that looks great. Lastly, the color repeats are usually pretty short, keeping pooling and striping to a minimum.

I've made two pairs of socks from Koigu. I love the yarn, but it's far from perfect. First, the owners of yarn stores seem to have problems getting it, and that probably is the reason for the exorbitant price. Secondly, it's a very tender fiber. I guess the texture sacrifices durability. The socks wear through fast. FAST. But they're soooo pretty.
Despite the drawbacks, I do keep at least two skeins in my stash and do careful planning for what my precious skeins of Koigu will grow up to be. In fact, I bought 2 more today to replace the skeins I just used to knit these:They're Roza's Socks by Grumperina. And yes, I did just knit these in another yarn. They were done in Magic Loop on size 1 needles, and I used almost all of two skeins of Koigu that the Amazing E bought me after a big fight early in our marriage. I'm really glad that we don't get in fights like that anymore, but I miss the make up yarn.