Our Testimonials
“Caroline is a class act – she made an online purchase feel like a visit to my local yarn store. I bought a book from her and she surprised me with samples of her hand dyed yarn. Lovely, soft yarn. I’m mesmerized by the colours and mystified how she knew just the right ones to send to me. We’ll be doing more business! Janie729 on Ravelry.”
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Self isolation is dragging a bit so was lifted by finding issue 172 of The Knitter that my daughter had left lying around. What lovely read! Your article on page 79 caught my eye as it mentioned reusing yarn by carefully unpicking a garment, winding the resulting wool on something called a niddynoddy to make skeins, then washing it. Until now I had no idea I had been a human niddynoddy. My mother would simply get to the creating the skein stage of things then sit me down (aged about 4 or 5) with arms, fingers and thumbs at a certain angle and away we went. This would involve keeping fairly still for quite a long time but along the way there would be a lot of useful conversation. Thank you,
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Caroline and Gorgeous Yarns, in a few words, are the best! I saw her Newgale Beach Cowl pattern and had to knit it…it was quick, easy and turns out beautiful. She generously offered her last 2 skeins of gorgeous Superwash Merino Sport yarn, used in her original, for sale to me. And included a sample of another lovely yarn, all arriving from the UK to Savannah, GA in a week. I needed help with the strand weaving and a correct bind off both of which she answered immediately. It’s been a pleasure working with Caroline and hope to continue.
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Dear Caroline,
Just to thank you very much. Although I am being given your yarn as a Christmas present, we had a quick look when it arrived and it looks absolutely lovely. I cannot wait to get started on my project when the wool arrives under the Christmas tree!
Many thanks,
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About our yarns
All the Gorgeous Yarns are carefully sourced with sustainability, luxurious quality and provenance in mind. This is so that you can buy our yarns with confidence for your projects; whether you are a knitter, crocheter or weaver, or a hand dyer.
Merino Wool
Merino wool is renowned for its fine, fibre quality and soft lustrous texture. It is not itchy, and is smooth and silky to wear, whether knitted, crocheted or woven into fabrics.
It is an ideal yarn where a hand knitted garment needs ‘’drape’’ and needs to be soft and fluid, such as a shawl or wrap, or anything near the neck. Longer, heavier garments may go out of shape as a result so Merino is often mixed with other natural fibres such as a small percentage of wool or silk to give the knitting yarn ‘’body’’ to hold stitches in shape. Merino can be used for lace patterns but it does not give good stitch definition so is better for larger lace patterns rather than intricate ones where the beauty is in the stitches.
Washing must be done carefully to limit the amount of stretch put on the garment by the weight of the washing water and handling. It should only be hand washed, and dried flat.
Blue Faced Leicester Sheep wool. (BFL)
The yarn spun form the Blue Face Leicester breed of sheep is becoming very popular with hand knitters. It is very light, with a demi-lustre which is thought to be the best of any native coloured sheep. It knits well, garments are comfortable to wear, with good stitch definition, and with gentle washing will last years. It is very suitable for indoor garments, and is sometimes blended with other yarns such as silk or cashmere for added softness and luxury.
It is often treated to be ‘’superwash’’ so can be washed in a machine though Gorgeous Yarns does not recommend this for any yarn.
Alpaca/Baby Alpaca
Most fibre from alpacas comes from Suri alpacas because the fleece is softer and silkier than those from Huacaya alpacas whose fleece is more wool like, however, both are softer than wool.
Alpaca has no ‘’memory’’, this means it doesn’t hold stitches well and is slippery to knit with. It also doesn’t crinkle when you knit with it and remains smooth and soft. It is ideal for garments where drape and softness are essential, such as wraps, cowls and snoods, it is very soft next to the skin and unlikely to cause irritation as it’s not itchy like wools can be.
Like merino wool, washing must be done carefully to limit the amount of stretch put on the garment by the weight of the washing water and handling. It should only be hand washed, and dried flat.
Bamboo yarn
Bamboo knitting yarn is a relatively new entry in the knitting world, but it has become quite popular very quickly, and with good reason. Bamboo is a beautiful natural fibre that wears well and is from a quickly renewable resource which makes it an environmentally friendly choice.
Bamboo yarn, when not mixed with unnatural fibres, is biodegradable and is naturally antibacterial, it has ultra-violet protective properties.
Bamboo has a good lustre, shine and drapes well and is strong, flexible, and can be softer than silk when spun into yarn.
Bamboo yarn loses strength when it is wet and swells considerably in water.
The yarn may not be very cohesive and some brands split when knitting with them.
If the antibacterial property is something you are looking for, stick with a 100 percent bamboo yarn or choose one that has at least 70 percent bamboo for best results.
Use blunt-ended needles to cut down on the splitting (perhaps bamboo needles?) and knit slowly at first to avoid splitting.
If you’re looking for strength in the fabric but are using a fine bamboo yarn, try knitting with two strands held together.
Bamboo needs to be hand-washed, so it isn’t a great choice for things that need to be washed frequently.
Silk
Silk is a protein fibre from the cocoons of specific moths, usually the Mulberry Silk Moth.
The fibres have a triangular structure which refracts light, making silk lustrous and glistening. When used in hand knitting silk yarn is usually smooth and cool to knit with and wear. It has no ‘’stretch’ and so can be hard to knit with as the tension of the knitted work may vary, but a garment knitted with silk is very beautiful and rewards the knitter with lovely feel, drape and colour quality.
Knitting with silk yarn can also feel dry and a bit squeaky, not great if you can’t bear pulling cotton wool apart! (it’s the same sort of feeling!)
Silk can be mixed with other luxury fibres such as alpaca, mohair and merino which makes it easier to use, and gives more structure to the yarn, whilst keeping its lustrous qualities.
Gorgeous Yarns recommends that silk garments are only hand washed, if possible gently smoothed into shape without pulling or stretching, and dried flat.
