Or, I guess I need to buy more yarn
A few weeks ago I ordered some yarn for a new project I want to do. I selected The Fibre Co Lore because I’d used it previously to make my leg warmers, and I choose Brooklyn Tweed Shelter because I loved the colors, and because it seems to be a really popular yarn – lots of stores, even in Germany, carry it and yarn stores hold events when they first get it in.
I received the yarn a little while back and finally used some of the long weekend to get it caked up and knit up my swatch:
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t very far into the Shelter part of the swatch before I suspected I wasn’t really a fan of the yarn. But I finished it and blocked it. While it was blocking, I took a closer look at the yarn and identified the issue I was sensing. The yarn is advertised as more “delicate” than many, but frankly, I think it’s shoddy… I can easily pull the yarn apart without untwisting it at all and pinching it just a couple finger widths apart. I’ve worked with yarns I’d consider delicate (fine lace weight, luxury fibers, singles), but this is a woolen spun from sturdy breeds of sheep and even lightly spun, shouldn’t fall apart like this. Both colors are the same, so I don’t think it’s just a one-off bad batch.
The yarn feels overly processed and far too dry, and either it’s made of short cuts or the processing is destroying poor quality fibers. I’ve come to this theory after untwisting and pulling apart the fibers in a short length of yarn.
I took the image above to help illustrate what I mean. Any tweed is going to have some slubs and short fibers (that’s part of the tweedy look), but the whole thing shouldn’t look like it’s spun from dryer lint. For comparison, you can see the length of the fibers in the Lore and the Icelandic yarn I have. Both are yarns I consider easy to break by hand and without scissors, but both require a small bit of untwisting, and pinching the yarn a couple inches apart. The Shelter is several times easier to pull apart.
Honestly, I don’t want to use the yarn for the project I was planning – it doesn’t feel in the least bit sturdy enough, doesn’t feel great, and I don’t feel like I could stand by the finished object. I’m sad because the colors were so pretty and I expected better based on it’s popularity. So, I’ve gone (online) shopping again for an alternative contrast yarn. I’ve picked out a couple Schoppel Wolle options, since I have worked with that brand before. I feel a little leery of picking out another tweed site unseen.
And now I have to wait for my order to arrive from Hamburg to get started on my project again… I did order from another local yarn store (though not one I’ve personally visited since it’s in Hamburg) to support local businesses, even if they aren’t local to my city.
What am I going to do with the yarn I ordered? I’ve already wound it and knit up some of it, and it’s the yarn I ordered so it’s not the yarn stores’ fault. I think I might make a mini-blanky for my cat to snuggle with instead. She, like me, loves a nice woolly object. Maybe we’ll be able to reclaim our wool blanket.
P.S. Pattern Giveaway is still open.