Being more than 600 yards into a project using Gina I’m pretty comfortable throwing up a review for this yarn.
This is a variation on the Sheep Wagon Shawl on Ravelry it’s still pretty chilly in the mornings down here in Georgia so I wanted to make a piece that I could just wrap around and go.
I picked up a few skeins of colorway 12 and got to work. I’m a huge fan of long color change, self striping yarns but I’ve not been a fan of some of the price tags associated with them *cough Noro cough*. Gina is 100% wool and amazingly soft and 100% not itchy for those folks that have dodged wool because of the itch factor. I forget it’s a worsted wool most of the time I’m working with it.
It’s entertaining to see the yarn transition from one color to the next with several yards between each transition. It works up quickly and slides nicely on and off the needles.
Plymouth made this yarn as a competitor to Noro Kureyon. After using both yarns I won’t be returning to Noro for long color changes. Having knit several pieces with Noro over the years I think it feels scratchy and almost stiff at times. I really am amazed at the feel of Gina and it’s considerably more affordable than that competitor I mentioned in that previous sentence. I’m dying to finish this project up and hoping it will be off the needles by the end of the weekend and get this shawl into service.
Update! 2/10/15
This made it off the needles two days after the original post. Blocking went well and it’s happily in service. I finished off the final rows in Malabrigo’s worsted wool in Tortuga. I’m still very pleased with Gina and will use it again when the opportunity comes up.
Rough Purls 