I can’t believe I haven’t made the time to write about one of my  favorite yarns, O-Wool Balance by Vermont  Organic Fiber Company.  I think it’s partly because I didn’t have the best pictures of this sweater I made for my son last Christmas.  As well as the fact that I have just been knit, knit, knitting my hands off.   I have a lot of things going on in my life including raising two little boys, losing my sister to cancer, and losing my precious chickens to my precious dogs.  Heavy, heavy things on my mind mean lots of knitting to keep from fretting.  I have also noticed that some of my favorite bloggers are non-existent for a few months.  Makes me wonder what is happening in their lives.  Hope all is well with them. 

In my knitting frenzy I cranked out some cute baby sockies for a neighbor, and I’m motivated to knit another kiddo sweater with Vermont O-Wool Balance.  I have also had some great photo-ops of my youngest son in his sweater which still fits him.  It’s fall and the colors I picked go well with harvest colors and activities.  The pattern is a modified version of Jared Flood’s Cobblestone Pullover.

Here are the baby socks made out o-balance

I evaluated the yarn a while back with my handy-dandy matrix, and it came out lower than I would have expected since I love the yarn so much (3.5 out of a possible 5).  I scored it low for “sustainability” and “dying  processes” because I couldn’t find any information from the website on these areas.  Green Knitter’s yarn matrix says chemical dyes are used, but what does this mean?  To be certified organic I don’t think you can us chemical dyes.  Standards say dyes must be animal or plant-based, etc., etc.  I need to follow up more on this yarn as well as consider adding some type of measure on how good a yarn feels and/or knits up.  My matrix would put a handspun yarn close to 5 out of 5, but what if it’s rough and scratchy I don’t want it close to my skin. 

One of the main reasons I love this yarn, organic or not, is that it just feels great, has a neat tweedy look, and knits up beautifully.  It does stretch out as one might expect from a cotton-wool blend, but the vegetable matter is low.  I have read a few comments about this on a Ravelry thread, but after buying it from two locations I have tracked just a few shards of VM.  Love this stuff.  Try it out.