Phat Ulmus

Phat Ulmus
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

There comes a time when you look in your drawer full of those lovely samples of fiber you JUST COULDN'T RESIST and wonder... what the heck do I do with all this yarn? There's not enough of any one thing to make something out of unless you're into knit jewelry or ear-warmers. But there is enough, combined, to make something lovely if you put your mind to it.

Enter the Ulmus (Ravelry link). Ulmus is a lovely little shawl pattern originally written for two skeins of sock yarn, knit in alternating rows. It is somewhat reminiscent of the ubiquitous Noro Striped Scarf or at least I thought it could be. If managed right, my samples would provide the slow march of color that Noro would normally perform, and work out wonderfully in this shawlette. Ulmus also sports a beautifully subtle pattern of slipped stitches, which I hoped would blend the color changes a bit more.

Happily it worked! I had originally thought to try and make a shawl with a more subtle color progression from one end to the other, but I don't know what sparked the idea of striping. It was serendipity that let one color or another run out early, so the transitions between one type of sample to the next were concealed in the stripes of the other color which remained constant.

Of course, I couldn't just wing it and let it go. I knit most of the way to the end and looked over my work and just did not like the way the colors stripped through the leaf-lace border at all! I very carefully frogged back 15 or 20 rows (I lost count) -- and at the end of a shawl, let me tell you, even five rows is nothing to scoff at ripping back. And I re-arranged the order of the final samples so they blended gently into each other.

I am so very pleased with the final product! Not only was it a joy to knit with my handspun, but I was able to revisit each sample and enjoy again the process of making them and the beauty that each individual Phattie (as the contributors are called) provided! This has become my go-to garment to keep off the encroaching chill. It's wonderful to toss around my neck no matter what else I'm wearing. And with so many colors it is sure to coordinate somehow.

I can't wait to figure out what to do with some of my other bits and pieces!

Phat Fiber Box Wrap-up - September 2009

Phat Fiber Sample box - September 2009
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Well, we're all done with Phat Fiber and there's nothing left to discuss... or is there?

Here's a line-up of all the yarn I spun from the samples. There is milk, linen, domestic wool, bamboo, Merino, Wensleydale, Shetland, alpaca, sparkle and who knows what else. They were prepared as commercial top and carded batts in braids, coils, twists and poofs. Most of my spun samples are 2-ply, but there is one 3-ply in there, and one single.

I have them lined up in a row because I'm considering knitting them for a project in this order. The single, and the linen, are off to the side because they simply don't blend in with the rest of the yarn. They are lovely in their own right and might become a beaded bracelet or something else that is fun. When totaling the skeins I have picked out to use, there is just over 460 yards. I've already designed a project and will probably knit it sometime this month. We'll see.

Because I'm a bit of a numbers girl, I can't help but sit down and figure out what exactly I paid to get.
If we total what everyone included we have:
5.2 + 6.8 + 2.5 + 6 + 7.8 + 9.9 + 5.4 + 12.2 + 8.9 + 7.4 + 9 + 10.2 + 5.5 + 14 + 6.6 + 28 = 145.4 g or 5.1 ounces. Those that sent in larger samples seem to have outweighed those that didn't. (Otherwise 16 samples at 1/4 ounce each should be 4 ounces).
The box was $33 so it comes out to about $6.60 per ounce. That's a little steep compared to what I can buy a carded batt for on Etsy if all we are looking at here is fiber but that doesn't take into account the discount coupons and little extras that were put in the package as well, nor the variety and other intangibles that came in this box.

Considering how many different and wonderful things I got to try and how many new shops I got to try out through this sampler, it was worth every penny.

Into the Whirled - Phat Fiber Sample

Into the Whirled - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

It was with some sadness that I picked up the final sample from the September 2009 Phat Fiber box. It had been a fun ride and had its ups and downs, but I was going to miss getting to go to my big box and pull out something random! (This is not entirely true, as I have plenty of other random stuff to spin.. just not quite THIS random!)

But I saved the "best" for last. I will admit that many other fibers in this box wowed me, but this sample from Into the Whirled had me drooling from the start. Fine merino at its best, it had been dyed into a lovely colorway named "Minotaur" in honor of the September theme. Cris did a great job.

Not only that, but every single contributor to Phat Fiber ought to take a look at the labeling on this sample. First off, she sent a full 1/2 ounce. That's way above and beyond the requirements. I do wonder if I somehow got a "bonus sample" but we'll at least give her full credit for more than 1/4 ounce, right? On top of that her fiber is VERY CLEARLY LABLED. It has full fiber content (admittedly not a mix, but still there were some with no information at all). It has the colorway and dyelot. It has the weight right there. In addition the back of the tag tied to the braid has space for all of this information to be re-written AND space for WPI, yardage and other spinning notes.

The colors were rich and evocative of the name. On top of that they're very fall-appropriate and I liked them, so she really hit the nail right on the head. The combed top spun just like I would like Merino to do--smoothly, easily and evenly, with no felted clumps or obvious neps.

I was able to make a full 75 yards of 2-ply yarn from this sample. The colors stripe through each other in a pleasing fashion, never clashing. It's really a very pretty yarn and a perfect finish for my box!

Woolen Mill St Yarns - Phat Fiber Sample

Woolen Mill St Yarns - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Oh, merino, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love your soft hand, your well-defined crimp. I love the creamy rich colors you dye into. I love that you spin smoothly and easily into very fine singles, and yet plump back up with gorgeous loft. I love how you get sucked into the whirlpool of long-draw and just dream your way into yarn...

Yes, I do love merino. And really what's not to love? Of course this is straight up yummy superfine merino top and it is the best of the best. It is good to remember that this fiber will felt. So hand-wash only and be gentle!

There's not much to go into with spinning merino. I will say that this top lived up to its name of "superfine". There were no slubby bits or short cuts that jumped out at me. It drafted smoothly, evenly, and exactly as I would expect of a premium product. Called "Orcs and Goblins", the color was rich in shades of gray, tan, and a lovely clay red which made me think of the Lord of the Rings. I was able to spin 35+ yards of 2-ply lace from 6.6 grams.

FarmGirlChic - Phat Fiber Sample

FarmGirlChic - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Well, my friends, we're nearing the end of my samples, and what a lot of fun I've had! Today brings us the only "un-prepped" fiber in the box, a bag of lovely locks of border leicester wool dyed blue, and undyed yearling mohair. Open up this bag and you get a solid handful of curly bits of fiber tumbling everywhere. The mohair has a brilliant shine and the border leicester is dyed to a gorgeous deep blue. So it's not really a surprise that Farm Girl Chic has named it "Little Boy Blue".

You can spin right from locks if you have some way to open them up. Luckily, I do own a couple of dog brushes from the time I spun locks for a Spindler's Group Challenge. So I considered spinning these straight up into a strand of blue and a strand of white. But even more appealing to me was the idea of blending them together. The white mohair would mute the deeper navy blue, and also give the yarn a beautiful halo.

I started by sorting the mohair from the wool, and then pulled out each lock and combed it using my dog brush (much like a flick-carder, but at $3.99 for a set with it and pointy-toothed comb, it's much more budget-conscious than finding a flick-carder). This opens up the fibers so you can draft them from each other. I also sorted the longer locks from the shorter ones and placed everything in a pile. I also had a separate pile of the fluff that stayed caught in the brush.

At this point I still could have spun the two parts into individual singles. In fact if I kept the longer bits from the shorter, I could have spun the border leicester into something very close to true worsted yarn. But as I mentioned, that wasn't my goal.

Instead I got out my hand-cards once again. I felt pretty confident with my recent attempts at their use. I loaded them up with bits of both the wool and mohair and carded four batts. I stacked these up on top of each other, and split them four ways (so that each batt was included in the new clump) and re-carded that fiber again. The batts were a little thin, so I divided them again but three ways and blended one last time.

Now I had three batts of beautifully blended cornflower blue. The mohair softened out the border leicester and gave it a silky hand in the batt. I spun each one from the tips but using a long-draw for a semi-worsted yarn, and doubled it back on itself for a two-ply. Then I wound the yarn over my hand and got out my pedicure brush. The fun thing about mohair is if you brush the yarn gently the halo will pop right up.

This was a lovely sample. I'm not sure what people would do with it if they didn't have preparation tools available. A generous 14 gram sample means I have about a half-ounce of finished yarn that spun into 29 yards of 2-ply, fluffy goodness!

Wildthyme - Phat Fiber Sample

Wildthyme - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

There's no story included with this sample, nor a name that would invoke one. But wrapped up in pretty pink tulle was a pea of fiber fit to go under a princess's bed.

In fact, this sample was such a perfect example of green I found I couldn't photograph it like I did everything else from the Phat Fiber Box. The backdrop of my lawn made the green wool completely disappear.

The blend on the card says wool and mohair, but how much and what sort exactly I'm not certain. It spun like merino and I didn't really notice any mohair blended in while spinning but that doesn't mean it wasn't in there!

The fiber is wrapped very tightly in a ball and the strip is very thin. It was interesting to hold in my hand as I was drafting. I had a little trouble managing the delicate strip, but not too much. I loved the crimp of the fiber and it spun into a lovely single. There is just enough variation in the green to make it interesting.

Sheepy Kitty - Phat Fiber Sample

Sheepy Kitty - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

When I get a fiber I really like, I find it particularly annoying when it isn't labeled! Sheepy Kitty provided this perfect pink twist of combed top, but I have no idea what sort of wool it is. I'd venture BFL or Corridale. (Thank you Naomi! It's BFL. Silly me I tossed the bag and didn't check it for labeling, which is entirely my fault and not yours!) It's a medium-staple wool (longer than merino, but no where near as long as those delicious Wendleydale samples!). It's not particularly soft, nor particularly rough. In short, it's pretty much impossible to identify.

I liked it. I liked it a lot. I liked the color, the staple and the preparation. I liked that she gave us 10.2g to work with. I liked the adorable little twist it was pulled into. I liked the cute little story about her kitty Kilala on her blog. In short, this was perfect--except for not knowing what the heck it was!

It spun very smoothly with a great feel in my hands. It was easy to draft, easy to control, took a nice amount of twist and plied well. Not much more you can ask for there. I'd say this is a strong workhorse wool and would do wonderfully in mittens, or spun up for a jacket or cardigan.

Corgi Hill Farm - Phat Fiber Sample

Corgi Hill Farm - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Oh, how I loved this batt. It was the first to really catch my eye when I pulled everything out of the box, so of course I saved it to spin later on down the line. Named "Pixie Farts" it is a blend of merino and alpaca, with a little bit of firestar added for glitz. Gotta love sparkly wool (I know my daughter does!).

This is the first sample where I had something in mind for it before I started to spin. I recently finished an AbbyBatt by a similar name (Fairy Farts). I'd like to knit the resulting yarn into fingerless mitts. Because I like my mitts a little longer, and because of the similar names, I figured this could make a lovely complimentary cuff at the wrist and knuckles. So I spun with the intention of matching the two yarns.

That meant I needed a two-ply yarn that was a bit fluffier than the laceweight I had been spinning so far. I aimed for a single that looked like it was a little less than half of normal fingering weight. This is because once you ply it, the single will fluff back up a bit.

I was reminded as I spun of something I had read lately. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly where I saw it, but someone mentioned that batts have a tendency to spin up darker than they look. This is because in batt form, all that fiber is fluffed up with a lot of air in between and it reflects more light. Once you spin it you re-compact the fibers and bring them closer together giving more intense colors again. This was certainly true here! What were barely echoes of color in the batt became pronounced stripes in some parts of the yarn. It's a really pretty effect!

Twenty yards may not be enough to do cuffs on both ends of both mitts, but I still may incorporate this into my project. It's that, or this mini-skein may take up a semi-permanent spot in my fiber-shelf bouquet of favorite yarns!

Banana Migraine Designs - Phat Fiber Sample

Banana Migraine Designs - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Banana Migraine Designs -- how can you not love a name like that? This little batt is 100% superwash wool. One thing you should know about superwash, if you think merino wants to be spun fine and silk is slippery, superwash blows both out of the water. Because it has been processed (either coated or stripped of its scales that would cause the fiber to felt) there isn't anything left for the fibers to grab onto one another.

I decided to go for a three-ply rather than two-ply with superwash. It's great for a sock yarn. I split the batt right off into three equal sections. One section was entirely blue/green. One was almost entirely pink, and the third was a mix of both. With each ply containing the blue/green color, I thought it would dominate. But as I spun it blended into a lovely purple!

The three-ply is almost thin enough to still be lace-weight. It's certainly on the lighter end of fingering. I'll also have to keep in mind that as the only superwash offering with this sample-box, I'll not want to combine it into any project I plan on felting!

Beesybee Fibers - Phat Fiber Sample

Beesybee Fibers - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

This beautiful sample is commercially processed top from Beesybee Fibers. It is a merino/bamboo blend. Because merino is protein fiber, and bamboo is cellulose, only the wool has taken the dye in this case. The bamboo is blended throughout and stands out visibly as silken white fiber. It gives the very soft merino a beautiful sheen. The strip of roving is mostly white but has a long section of soft green and a bit of an under-saturated navy blue as well.

8.9g were provided in the sample which gets a thumbs up from me on my "did you send at least 1/4 ounce" scale. I was pleased with the clearly printed business card, but would have liked percentages on the mix of merino to bamboo.

It spun as wonderfully as I would expect a merino/bamboo blend to do. It is a very smooth blend and does well being spun into fine singles with high twist. I was able to make just over 40 yards of 2-ply in a nice lace-weight yarn.

Blue Mountain Handcrafts - Phat Fiber Sample

Blue Mountain Handcrafts - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Now here is a sample I can fall in love with. A carded mix of domestic wool, firestar, fine merino and some extra sparkle, it's just a whole bunch of fun. Blue and green are the dominant colors of "The Frog Prince" but there's a strip of orange running through it as well. Blue Mountain Handcrafts gets extra kudos for very clearly labeling the contents of the batt and sending MORE fiber than was labeled. The batt is marked at 10g, but it measured out at 12.2g.

This is not what I would usually spin. I would call this sort of thing an "art batt". The crazy colors cause for some interesting play, but more than that there are nubs of fiber that don't spin in evenly. What distinguishes this from my disappointment with the After the Sheep batt is that merino/bamboo ought to spin smoothly. A more esoteric blend like this is suited to neps and nubs all over the place.

Because they were so generous with the sample I was able to play with it a little bit. I attempted to spin the first sample as a loosely-spun single. My attempt came out with quite a bit of thick-and-thin. I'm just not that accustomed to evenly spinning with long-draw and the batt itself stuck together in places.

To combat this, I tried re-carding part of the batt with my Ashford student hand-cards. I carefully carded all the colors together, blending them well. This spun much more evenly, but still was marked with small nubs throughout.

Finally I took the last of the batt and spun a two-ply directly from the last section of roving. Like the single, the colors shine out of this sample quite clearly, but because it is plied on itself there is some chromatic blending.

After the Sheep - Phat Fiber Sample

After the Sheep - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

A beautifully blended sample of a carded batt was included in the September Phat Fiber box by After the Sheep. The intense colors of blue jumped out immediately. The fiber content is 70% merino and 30% bamboo--an interesting blend for such a vibrant sample. The bamboo and wool would have needed to be dyed separately. As a cellulose fiber, bamboo requires a fiber-reactive dye and caustic but the protein fibers of wool need acid dyes. Since each process won't dye the opposite fiber, you either end up with something with white streaks in it (because the dye didn't take on one of the fibers) or you do the whole thing twice. Doing them separately means you don't risk damaging the other fiber in an environment it doesn't like.

So I'm guessing that the bamboo and wool were dyed on their own, and then carded together. The bamboo glows with the sheen of silk and really brings out the darker variations in the wool.

I was really looking forward to the yarn this would make until I started spinning. For merino, this batt was a disappointment. There were lots of little bits that didn't want to draft well despite having been carded. There was also evidence of a fair amount of second cuts (little bits of fiber not as long as the rest). These are nice for "art yarn", but when you're trying to spin an even single they make funny little lumps that don't fit in with the rest.

I'm enamored with the colors, but not in love with this blend.

Infinity Yarn and Fiber - Phat Fiber Sample

Infinity Yarn and Fiber - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Wensleydale, part two!

This beautiful braid is Wensleydale wool again, but this time in a combed-top preparation rather than a carded batt. (For those not in the know, a combed prep. of fiber aligns all the filaments parallel and usually sorts the long strands and discards the shorter ones, while a carded prep. jumbles everything together every which way. For true worsted spinning you need combed fibers. For true woolen spinning you need carded. But thankfully there are a lot of in-betweens in these two extremes).

Infinity Yarn and Fiber dyed this wool and named it "Murky". I'm betting there's a story there, but I'm not sure exactly what! I still was thrilled to get to spin Wensleydale again.

Like the MCMercantile sample, the staple seems to be about twelve inches long. This fiber, tho, seems even more glossy than the previous batt. That could be because it is combed and everything lying flat together picks up the light more than a jumbled batt. It could be a natural variation between two sheep. Both fibers were beautiful. Murky has a hint of brown in it near the creamy section, but the rest are subtle shades of aqua blue.

Spinning this was even easier than the carded batt. The combed top is (in my opinion) a better choice for this fiber. The strands slipped smoothly past each other and locked into place with the twist. The luster of the fiber clearly showed through and even though it is much more wiry and firm than Merino wool, its smoothness gives it a silky hand once spun.

I love this fiber, and if I were to start spinning hard-wearing items, I'd highly consider buying a whole lot more.

WCMercantile - Phat Fiber Sample

WCMercantile - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Wensleydale. All I can say is "WOW". I pulled out this Phat Fiber sample and was both curious and pleased with the really interesting fuchsia coloring, and was even happier as I rolled it out. The batt blends from bright pink to purple as if it were space-dyed. It's not a color I'd use a lot, but it is bright and happy and just rather fun. It is a little wiry to the touch and that gives the hint right off that this is a more sturdy fiber. It probably wouldn't be the most comfortable thing in the world to wear right next to the skin.

The next thing I did was pull a little sample out of the end of the batt. I've begun to do this to save a small pinch of fiber tied to the information card so I have an idea of what it was like before it was spun. In this case, the wool shocked me. I've never spun Wensleydale before and I was not prepared for the length of the staple. "My goodness!" I thought, "This stuff must be at least nine inches long!" I am accustomed to Merino wool which has a staple around 3 inches. And even now I must report I was mistaken in my initial estimate. I took my sample bit to a ruler and it is TWELVE inches long! Considering that is four times as long as my usual spinning it becomes extremely difficult to do a long-draw on this fiber. I would have to hold my hands over two feet apart!

So I spun the Wensleydale short-draw (ha--a short draw still twice as long as my usual long-draw, which should tell you it's all relative to the fiber you're spinning) with worsted techniques and got a gorgeous, mostly smooth single. There are still some uneven ends poking out in odd places that makes me wonder if it might halo a bit when worked. More than that it was fun to spin. When I pulled out a few filaments with my drafting, they just kept coming and coming and coming, rather than drafting apart.

Doubled back on itself I made about 20 yards of fingering weight yarn. It was harder to gauge exactly how much fiber to draw out to get a thinner single, but I'd like to try. I'd also like to work with a combed preparation, rather than carded, to see if would come out even smoother with worsted techniques. Lucky me, someone else packed in Wensleydale as a sample, too, so I'll get to try again.

Giffordables - Phat Fiber Sample

Giffordables - Phat Fiber Sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Oh, look! More Phat Fiber! I'm going to have to come up with new and inventive ways of saying, "Gee, here's our next installment" because I still have 12 samples to go and that's going to get old really fast.

This lovely pink sample is a blend of milk fiber, Shetland wool, alpaca and "wool top" in unknown amounts coming from Giffordables and named "Princess" to fit in with our September box theme.

I have to mention that the lack of information included with each sample is becoming one of my bigger complaints with the Phat Fiber box. If you're going to send a sample, label it clearly. I want to know what I'm spinning, and in what percentages, or I can't really get a good feel for what properties I should try and exploit in the spinning. There are some samples in this box that don't say anything at all about the fiber! At least I have some idea of what's here.

Because of the Shetland and generic wool content, I decided to spin this carded batt with a long draw. This technique yields a softer yarn with more air in it and typically it will be much warmer because of that trapped air. I still spun pretty thin with the intention of being 2-ply yarn, but this sample came out much closer to fingering weight than the laceweight of earlier samples.

The long strip of fiber spun well and was nicely blended. Only the milk fiber wasn't distributed throughout but showed up more as shiny stripes much like a caramel ripple in ice cream. Everything drafted together nicely and I didn't end up with a handful of shorter-staple fibers at the end.

One of the fibers must be brown or grey because the whole sample has a gentle heathery appearance. That adds a nice depth to what might otherwise be a monotone pink. In fact, I can't always decide if it's pink, or perhaps it's lavender. I really like that.

The finished skein is nicely squishy. The milk does show up it some places with a soft luster and no doubt the alpaca will make it very warm.

Lampyridae - Phat Fiber Sample

Lampyridae - Phat Fiber sample
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

If you want to see a beautiful drum-carded batt, then Lampyridae is a good place to look. This lovely poof is our next installment in Phat Fiber spinning. It came packaged up in a small pop-up box and tied to the lovely little card you see here. The verse on the front is "Beware ye do not slumber by the water, for the devil's darners shall knit thine eyes closed!". This quote references old myths that call dragonflies "The Devil's Darners" and is the theme and name for this sample.

Unfortunately there isn't a content list for this sample, but I'd lay odds on wool and either milk, soy, or silk blended in. The other major disappointment is that after all that packaging (pop-up-box, blue ribbon, card and gold ribbon holding the card on) there was only 2.5g of material provided. I realize this is a sampler, but 2.5g isn't even 1/10th of an ounce. If I had any advice to the seller, it would be to dump the packaging and include a full 1/4 ounce of fiber instead. I can't spin cardboard, or even re-use the box with the amount of hot-melt glue that was applied to it.

With so little available I didn't save a little tuft for reference later, but rather spun the entire sample. I also went for spinning the fiber as thin as I could get it (and still want to knit it). So with that in mind, I carefully spun it worsted to see what I could get.

The batt drafts very easily and the fiber was lovely as it slipped through my fingers. I was pleased that the quality seemed to be high and I didn't run into nubs or noils. I found myself wishing for quite a bit more to play with, but went with what I had and was able to create 15 yards of 2-ply yarn. The resulting yarn is very soft with a nice luster from the blending and the subtle shifting of blues and greens creates a lot of color-interest.

Bohemian Knitter Chic - Phat Fiber Sample

Bohemian Knitter Chic - Phat Fiber
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here is our second installment of the Phat Fiber September sampler ("Legends, Folklore and Fairytales"). Bohemian Knitter Chic provided this lovely sample of drum-carded flax in a pale wheaten color called "Rumplestiltskin".

In contrast to the milk fiber, the flax is very clearly made of plant material. It is slightly rough to the touch and brings instantly to mind the feel of grass or rope. It was a bit daunting to plan on spinning this fiber since most of my skills tend towards wool and similar materials. Flax can be spun wet or dry, and after a quick note off to the Bohemian Knitter, herself, I figured I might as well spin it dry to get the best comparison to how I'm spinning everything else lately.

The flax actually spun quite easily. I used a worsted draw on it, smoothing the irregular strands together as I went. There were some little bits that fell off or flew away, but what was really interesting was that it was a little bit warm while I was spinning. As I got a little toasty and sweaty, the flax in my hand actually got softer. I can see how spinning wet would be very different! And that of course tempts me to get some more to try it.

I finished with around 20 yards of spun flax. The yarn itself feels very sturdy. I washed and whacked the skein--not because I thought this would set the twist (because it is plant material and not wool) but rather I wanted to see how it would behave wet, and if a little extra finishing would soften it at all. It soaked up a lot of water easily, wrung out well and dried fast. But after it was just as tough as before. It predictably has no loft to it at all and it lacks the instant softness of spun cotton.

However, it is really beautifully smooth. I'm looking forward to knitting it up into a band or bracelet. I had a friend with linen sheets she had used for years and I have never slept on anything so smooth and silky soft. I'd love to see how this yarn behaves over time.

Hampton Artistic Yarns - Phat Fiber Sample

Rumpelstiltskin
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here is my first sample!

I have to say that more than anything else, the color drew me to this sample. Vibrant yellows reach out to grab your attention, and the hank had a gorgeous sheen. But while first glance might suggest it, this isn't silk top. Instead, Hampton Artistic Yarns has contributed a sample of 100% milk fiber dyed to invoke the spun gold of Rumplestiltskin.

I'm not enamored with milk fiber for a number of reasons. Milk fiber is actually processed milk protein, so it dyes just like wool or silk would. It is chemically created and extruded as a fiber and then processed into top, or reeled off for weaving. Many manufacturers tout how "Green" milk fiber is, and it may be. Without sitting down with someone inside the industry I have no way of knowing for sure and part of me has doubts. It is also touted for many other beneficial properties like making your skin softer, and being somewhat anti-bacterial.

Milk acts a lot like silk. It's even more slippery than the tussah top that I have spun. But it is not as strong as silk and will snap a lot sooner from over-twisting, and being quite so slick it is difficult to join again. I didn't have much trouble with snapping while spinning, but I did break my single several times while winding it off to ply. This was a lot more annoying since it's much harder to splice yarn once everything is all off the spindle and tangled up on itself. The fiber I had came with a tiny and regular crimp and I'm curious to see if that will make it more lofty than silk would be.

Milk has a similar sheen and feel to silk when spinning and in the spun skein. It appears to take color quite vibrantly and this yarn is really a joy to see in person. Once I have a few more samples created and figure out what to knit, I'll come back and comment on that, too.

All said, milk fiber is really interesting. I can see why people would like it and it could make a really stunning addition to a blended batt. I wouldn't pick it over silk to spin solo again, but that doesn't mean it isn't a lovely and useful fiber.

If anyone knows anything more about the creation of milk fiber and its environmental impacts, I'd love to read more!

Phat Fiber Box - September 2009

Phat Fiber Box - September 2009
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here, my friends, is my impulse buy of the month.

For quite a while I have been watching these items called "Phat Fiber" boxes on Etsy.com. The creator of the Phat Fiber box has been able to get many of the retailers on Etsy to pool together and contribute samples of their product. She then compiles these samples into packages and distributes them. There is a yarn box, mixed box, and fiber box. Each comes with an assortment of goodies with a theme-of-the-month.

September's theme is "Legends, Folklore and Fairytales" and the box is filled with all sorts of lovely items. the first thing I found upon opening the package was a "book". Inside this book is a single page of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. I love this book and it has to be one of my favorite fantasy novels of all time (although I must admit to a wee misty tear to see that a page had been excised to send along in this package... I still loved getting it). Along with the page was a packet of business cards from all the contributors to the Box. Most of them come with coupon codes for the month so you can purchase more of their stuff! I'm sorry you can't see all the contributor names, but it was really too difficult to show them all without giving away the coupon codes as well. In addition, there was a stack of lovely shell buttons, a pumpkin stitch marker and a glass bead stitch marker. Pretty!

The rest of the box was stuffed full of every kind of fiber imaginable. There is merino, alpaca, silk, bamboo, milk, Wensleydale, and sparkle and more, some solo and some in blends. Each one was named for a folktale or myth and colored appropriately. I would list them all out now, but that task is rather formidable and instead I invite you to keep reading over the next few months as I spin and review each item individually!

I hope you have as much fun reading as I will spinning!