Out of the 4 yarns I was sent to swatch for TNNA’s Great Wall of Yarn, two are from Australia. I posted yesterday about the Australian kid mohair yarn yesterday. Here is the other one — Kaalund Yarns Classic Two 100% Australian wool in the color Wisteria. This is a relatively fine 2-ply yarn hand-dyed in closely-toned touches of blues, purples and greens.
This Classic Two yarn arrived already wound into an overly tight ball. The compactness might be planned this way so that the balls stay neat and tidy on store shelves rather than possibly falling apart, but I am concerned that the yarn might be unduly stretched out. So the first thing I did was to rewind into a soft, cushy ball to let the yarn ‘breathe’ and rest for several days to restore some of its natural elasticity.
Both the yarn grist and color name worked on my subconscious mind to ‘tell me’ that this yarn wanted to be knitted in my pattern #A26 Hanging Vines Lace Stole. Using US 6 / 4mm needles, I knitted a 10″ by 10″ swatch (after blocking) using the 45-stitch Narrow Neck Scarf version of the pattern instructions.
I liked the way this yarn felt in the knitting. There was no tendency to split, and the stitches flowed easily. I do want to mention that the ball band indicates a 2.25mm needles (i.e. US 1), but I was using a US 6 since I was making a lacy accessory fabric, not a sweater-type fabric which would require a firmer hand.
After hand washing my swatch and laying flat to dry under the tension for lace blocking, the yarn remained soft and retained good stitch definition. The resulting fabric has good drape and feels silky — not at all like wool!
The ball band of Kaalund Yarns Classic Two indicates a 50g/356m put-up, so that should be enough for a good-sized scarf, smoke ring, etc! I did like this yarn (after it was re-wound), and since I have a good amount of yarn left after my swatch, I will be thinking about what else to knit later with the remaining yarn.