Going a long way

Conspicuous frugality is big these days. Up-cycled clothes, soothing casseroles of less popular cuts of meat, holidaying at home - the press is full of these. Yarn crafts are no exception. We're all wondering how to maintain our craft with smaller budgets. Well, we can share the secret with you - work finer. The economics of this is simple: the wholesale yarn industry works by weight. 50g of yarn is going to be a similar price, regardless of whether it's spun as laceweight or 4-ply or DK or Aran. But the difference in the spinning spells an enormous difference in the amount of enjoyment you get from that 50g - the Aran will be around 80 metres long, the DK around 100 metres, but the laceweight can go as high as 400 metres, which means five times more knitting or crochet for you. To put this in concrete terms, the lovely piece of lace at the top of this post (the Cold Mountain that's on display in the shop) used 56g out of a 100g skein of Dublin Dye Company Alpaca Lace. That's less than twenty euro for three months' worth of knitting pleasure. So if you want to make the budget stretch a little further, use finer yarn. But this doesn't mean that you're stuck making only shawls. One skein of sockweight yarn will make the All Seasons Cardi, which is also less than twenty euro for most yarn options. And ten euro will provide all the yarn you need to make a lovely Swallowtail shawl like Jacqui's, if you choose Rowan Fine Lace: With fine weights and beautiful projects, you can have luxurious yarn in generous amounts, without breaking the bank.