My Needles Are Here!

After a painstakingly long wait...(okay, okay, it was only week), my Knit Picks TRY IT Needle Set arrived! My first impressions are good! I pulled out the needles so I could inspect and feel them. I'm not a needle expert, but they were a lot lighter weight than I expected, which is a good thing in my book, as long as they don't snap. The needles came with some charts of stitch patterns to try, so I will take a rest from my baby blanket knitting for a little while to play around with the needles and form an opinion. I am making a swatch with the Harmony Wood ones first, and I like them so far.

Knit Picks TRY IT Needle Set: 2 - 24" cables, 1 cable key, 4 cable caps,  Harmony Wood tips (size 6),  Zephyr Acrylic tips (size 8) and Nickel Plated tips (size 7)

I decided new needles deserve new yarn, haha. I've been wanting to expand my yarn horizons, so I looked up some local yarn shops. I've been knitting almost exclusively with Caron's Simply Soft which is easily obtainable from Hobby Lobby and Michaels, and I really like it, but the self-proclaimed yarn snobs say there is yarn out there that is so much better. Well, time to see if they're right. The most popularly used yarn on Ravelry right now is Cascade 220, so I thought I'd start with that. I like it so far, I guess, but I'm not convinced yet that it's better than my cheap and soft Simply Soft. I'll keep going for awhile, but I'll definitely go back to my Simply Soft if it doesn't get better. I love the Simply Soft color choices, and people claim there is a big variety in the Cascade 220, but the store I went to must not have been carrying the whole line (which I can't blame them for), because I didn't see a "huge" variety. I've been looking at Ravelry reviews for Knit Picks yarn, because hey, if they make good needles, why not good yarn? But, they reviews are less than impressive thus far. So I might stick with exploring my LYS a little more.