Bird of Paradise

The second installment of the second Sundara Petals sock club arrived yesterday...didn't open it til evening so wanted to wait until I could look at it again in semi-daylight (semi because it's a grey dreary day from all the rain). It's...okay. I was sorely disappointed in the Lenten Rose first installment...while some people got a true semi-solid with tonal differences, mine was a dull flat dreary depressing grey with a tinge of purple. Now, it's well known that I adore purple...and it really took some doing to find/make a purple that I hated...and boy, I hated it. I've bought yarn from Sundara before joining the club and always loved it...very sophisticated with a lot of depth of color so the last thing I was expecting was flat dead color. And it was especially disappointing after seeing the three installments in the first club...all gorgeous, all yarns I would've bought. So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I opened installment number 2. Sundara had assured me via email that the second and third installments would indeed be multicolored yarns as the club description states...and ok, this is definitely multicolored, but I'm still surprised that the colors are very one-dimensional which is not what I think of when I think of Sundara's yarns...and it's really not a color combo I'd ever buy on my own.

However, it does invoke the flower from which its inspiration is derived. I don't like the pattern (I generally find rib-pattern socks too boring to knit so will probably try something like Blue Moon's Hippy Crunchy pattern. I suspect this yarn will pool alarmingly since it did so even in the pattern included which was intended to break up pooling a bit. At least I don't hate it so will actually be able to stand working with it. Might be a nice colorway for socks for my 10 year old niece.

I'm expecting the first installment of the Socks That Rock Club hopefully today and I'm really hoping I love it. I've loved every bit of STR that I've gotten so far and have never actually seen a colorway of theirs that I didn't like (which always makes it hard to choose only a few) so I'm really crossing my fingers. I will not be rejoining the Sundara club, however, as two of the three so far are yarns I would never buy on my own. Hopefully the final kit will make up for it, but at this point, I'm not holding my breath. Her presentation is beautiful and obviously a lot of effort goes into putting the kits together, but they just aren't up to Calla Lily or Hydrangea from the first club.