I’m so excited to talk to you about the new samples that Blacker Yarns sent me before the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. They released their new Blacker Breeds Jacob yarn at the festival, and sent me some to play with.
My first every encounter with Blacker, way back in 2011 at Wonderwool, involved a sweaters quantity of Jacob yarn. It was a woollen spun DK weight yarn, and I used it to make my first CustomFit cardigan. The cardigan is lightweight, has held its shape well, and has never had to be de-pilled. It’s a garment that non-knitters comment on a lot. The fit and the fabric always look smart. The fabric is quite prickly, so it works well for an outer layer.
This new take on a Jacob yarn is quite different. For a start, Blacker have worsted spun the new version. The resulting yarn is much smoother and more dense. It comes in DK and 4 ply (fingering), and the colours are really interesting. Jacobs are a spotty sheep. The folk at Blacker have sorted these multi coloured fleeces to make four natural colours. Then they’ve dyed each of the natural shades in purple, blue, and green. So you end up with sixteen shades that all work really nicely together.
As usual, I’ll start with the yarn specs today, and carry on with my impressions of the yarn in swatching latter this week.
Yarn weight DK; Skein weight 50 g; Fibre content 80% Pure New Wool (consisting entirely of Jacob); Length 110 m; Tension 20 stitches over 10 cm; Recommended needle 4 mm; No. of plys 3; Made in Cornwall, UK.
Yarn weight 4 ply; Skein weight 50 g; Fibre content 80% Pure New Wool (consisting entirely of Jacob); Length 175 m; Tension 28 stitches over 10 cm; Recommended needle 3 mm; No. of plys 2; Made in Cornwall, UK.
louleigh 