It’s no particular secret that I buy a fair amount of yarn from Knit Picks–they’re great for workhorse yarns at decent prices, whereas I go to the yarn shop if I want something special, in a very particular color, or that KP just doesn’t carry¹.
Anyway, I discovered today that the new Felici colors are out; Felici is one of their sock yarns that comes in limited-edition colors. So I went and looked. I have two words for the current selection of colors, in both sock and sport: ugly and boring. The only color I vaugely like is Caprica, which I resent because I hated the way Battlestar Galactica ended² and it’s not fair to name a color after the project Ron Moore mutilated BSG for.
Seriously, what is with the horrid 60s colors of late? Everything’s grey and olive and beige and teal and aqua, except for the occasional bit of tomato-orange, surely one of the world’s ugliest colors. Even the Rainbow color has lavender and acid green instead of proper purple and grass green.
Felici used to have gorgeous colors. I have three skeins of Alexandrite I have no idea what to do with, but I just love looking at them, and enough of the shades-of-red color that was available at the same time (I can’t remember the name) for a pair of socks. These days, boring and ugly. It’s depressing.
On the other hand, they have a new yarn line called Aloft which is clearly aimed at the Kidsilk Haze portion of the market (75% mohair, 25% silk) and comes in some really lovely colors. So not an entire loss.
1: Actually a fair bit. For example, they’ve got next to nothing in DK, and no faux-Fair-Isles sock yarn, which I like a lot. So no, I am not starving the physical yarn stores of my business.
2: Yes, I am a geek, we have established this.
In Her Web She Still Delights 