Hello, my name is Martha

• Posted by Kamicha on June 28th, 2007 filed in Uncategorized

Yesterday I went to nearest post office to fetch my Colourmart order. I thought that this would be the perfect time for another boring “look-i-bought-some-yarn” -post. But then something happened. I really had to play with these yarns, immediately.

Colourmart yarns are leftovers from textile industry - so they are prepared for machine knitting. Soft casmere is oiled - my nose is telling that lanoline might be the main ingredient - for firmer and thinner appearance. But washing the oil away makes the yarn bloom. Please don’t get wrong that “leftover” part in first sentence. All yarn is from quality manyfacturers, see for example Todd & Duncan reference list in the net.

I washed a very small skein and sample swatch in hot water, using dishwashing liquid as detergent - good option for getting rid of grease. This can be done more than once, if one bath is not enough to take away all the oil, but my small samples bloomed very well in just one bath. I used hot water and some hair conditioner to rinse my samples and rubbed them in towel and throwed the sample swatch in tumble dryer, low heat for ten minutes.

Is this really the same yarn! Even oiled yarn is not unpleasant, it feels somewhat like good quality wool-cotton blend. But when washed the true nature of cashmere is revealed, I can’t describe the softness of my swatch. Also the appearance of the yarn is different, yarn seems lighter and gentle halo of cashmere is hiding some detail of knitted surface.

In this image you can see the unwashed and washed strand of yarn and beginning of my newest project, unwashed so far…

I had to decide if I’m going to wash the yarn or the knit. Shrinkage was substantial only in horizontal direction. I’m lazy. So, the latter option might be the best. I don’t really enjoy skeining (don’t have any equipment for this)… …and yarn is impossible to tumble dry - dryer really seemed to give the finishing touch for sample swatch.

Let me introduce my newest project: Rowan Martha.
I started from sleeves, thinking to wash and dry the first one immediately to see if something is going terribly wrong.

Knitting the sleeves was really a snap, I was surprised the ease of knitting the oiled yarn. It is nearly impossible to split the yarn and knitting was quick and pleasant.

On this picture you can see the unwashed sleeve at the bottom, washed one on top of it and unwashed beginning of back on top of all.

Hmm, here are the yarns. I’m using the grey 100% kashmir in dk weight for Martha. Kashmir-silk dk weight yarn is really unusual purchase for me - I don’t have a slightest idea what to make out of this.

I had a very positive experience with Colourmart. They shipped my order quickly, my yarns were well packed, quality of yarns seems to be excellent and their sample pack can be described with just one word: generous. Even small swatches can be knitted from the mini skeins of sample pack. Of course you have to order all the yarns you need at once, no guarantee that you can ever get the same color and quality combination if reordering later. Colourmart is also processing the yarns if you want to, services include twisting thinner yarns together, winding several strands to one cone, winding to ball or skein and washing the yarn. But I do recommend to try knitting with oiled yarn, not bad experience at all!