Getting to know you, getting to love you, Soja

Last winter I had a meeting with a very nice rep named Matt.  I was planning on looking at Trendsetter yarns, but when Matt arrived, he had Vincent, owner of Bergère de France along for the appointment.  I had met Vincent several times before.  He's genuinely friendly, kinda cute, and very French.

I had considered Bergère for a while because they have such great patterns - very French and very chic.  I was especially impressed with their Origin line of luxury fibers.  One of my favorite customers, Deborah, had fallen hard for this cute vest in Soja, so I decided to order Soja for the spring. 

With the exception of yarn that comes in half pound skeins, I  order yarn in bags of 10 or 20 skeins.  Vincent said that we could order any amount because each skein is packaged individually.  What?  It took me a minute to process this concept.  Then he produced this little packet with a skein of Soja tucked safely inside and the ends securely sealed.  This is yarn ready for a voyage on the Titanic. 

Vincent said that the packaging was meant to emulate high end cosmetics.  Um, okay. It made Lynne and me think of Cheetos...or sanitary products. Yeah, I know...sorry. 

I told Vincent that customers like to touch the yarn.  Ah, yes, well there is a handy little display case where interested parties can see and touch a sample skein of the yarn.  Well, maybe that works en France, but here in the good old US of A, we like to see all the colors piled up on the shelf.  We want to touch it - every color.  I want you to touch it.  So I spent a couple of hours opening up every single plastic pouch, moving the price tag from the pouch to the ball band, and shelving the yarn. 

You know, I'm really glad I did, because outside the sanitary wrapper, Soja is a gorgeous yarn.

I asked Jenny to knit a swatch using several different needle sizes.  The ball band says 5 stitches to the inch, but I think it's a little firm at that gauge - much better at 4.5 stitches.  It's a nice crisp fabric, and I wondered how it would fare in the washing machine.  Here it is after a trip through the washer and dryer.  On the sturdy cycle.  With Johnny's jeans.  It's perfect.  This swatch didn't change one spec.  It looks exactly like it did before the machine.  That's super good news.

I still thought it was a little stiff at 4.5 stitches to the inch, and I wondered if it would work at the 4 stitch/inch gauge of the Krista Tee.  Lynne kindly offered to swatch it in the Krista lace patterns.  Looks fabulous.  I think this yarn was made for this design!  I am so jazzed.  There's a Krista Tee in Soja in my immediate knitting future.  I cannot wait for First Friday!