Noro Madara - a sleeper of a yarn

In high school, my twins, Katie and Johnny, had entirely different friend groups, so they didn’t socialize together that much. But one year, a boy a grade ahead of Johnny invited him to a Halloween party.  Johnny was pretty sure he wouldn’t know very many people there, so he asked his sister to go with him.  Katie wasn’t at all jazzed about the idea, but she wasn’t doing anything, so she deigned to go.  Afterwards, Katie said it had been one of the best parties she’d ever been to. She admitted that she’d figured it would be a bunch of boring guys standing around awkwardly, but she said they’d had cool decorations, they’d played good music, and that the kids were all really nice and fun to talk to.  She added, “I guess it was so much fun because I wasn’t expecting anything special.  It just turned out to be so much better than I thought it would.”  Isn’t that always the way.

I had my own Halloween-party-moment last week when huge boxes of Viola and Madara arrived.  All the hype had been about colorful Viola and super special Haunui.  I had ordered Madara simply because it was a new Noro, and I always order all the new Noro, but it wasn’t really on my radar.  Sample skeins of Viola and Haunui arrived, but no Madara.  I figured that was okay because Madara wasn’t the star of the show anyway. You know, just kind of a solid with some flecks.  Yawn. 

The Viola was every bit as lovely as I’d expected it to be, but the Madara--this was my first time seeing it - rich and saturated, and so much prettier than I’d expected.  This silk - 30% - drank up the dye and just gleamed.  The overall impression is of a solid color, but when you look closely, there are juicy flecks of blue, green, and orange throughout.  I am not an orange person, but I actually love that little orange pop in this yarn. I’ll be doing a full review of Noro Madara in this week’s episode of the podcast live on YouTube - so be sure to tune it.  

A sample sweater arrived too--the Sia, from Noro Magazine, Issue 19.  Everyone had loved this sweater from the trunk show, and I was so glad this was the sample.  With its simple styling and subtle colorful flecks, It’s a perfect wardrobe basic. You can wear it like you would a comfy sweatshirt with jeans and trainers, or dress it up with a blouse and a skirt, or with black pants.  I can see myself reaching for this sweater every single day.  I pulled it on today at the shop and just didn’t want to take it off.  I did take it off because everyone wanted to try it on.  

We had a bit of a feeding frenzy, and we’re already sold out of two colors.  When I went to reorder, Madara was sold out.  Every. Single. Color. So I’m not exaggerating when I say that if you want some, order it now.  I promise you will be so glad you did

Order Madara here. 

The small takes 5 skeins, the medium and large take 6 skeins, and the XL takes 7 skeins.  

Finished Measurements
Bust: 45 (47, 50, 53)“
Yarn: 5 (6, 6, 7) skeins