I love what Blacker Yarns is all about- they care about natural wool and diverse sheep breeds, as well as about continuing the tradition of wool mills in the United Kingdom. I personally love their sheep-to-sweater video that shows how they mill their wool, it’s so awesome. To celebrate their 10th anniversary, they have created a limited edition series called Cornish Tin, with is available in a fingering weight and a DK weight. Cornwall used to have tin mines, and – fun fact alert!- that’s where my grandmother was born. In Cornwall, not in a tin mine. Come on you guys, jeez.
I’ve never been very good at figuring out if I like a yarn through swatching alone, so I decided to knit a DK version of Fairy Mist, previously seen in this blog post. My cowl took two skeins of the DK weight in Levant Grey, but it seems that the grey has been all snapped up! Still three beautiful colour options left, though. That’s what makes a limited edition yarn so special- a finite quantity helps support rare breeds and diversity of fiber (worth clicking through if you want to learn more about different sheep breeds, or if you just enjoy looking at pictures of awesome sheep!). They got in touch and asked if I would be willing to review the yarn. And since I was already thinking about knitting Fairy Mist in a DK weight, this seemed pretty serendipitous.
My thoughts on Blacker Yarns Cornish Tin yarn- this is a wonderfully woolly yarn, with a great halo that bloomed even more once wet blocked. It’s not a superwash, so if I describe it as sheepy, I think my fellow knitters will know what I mean- it has a natural feel to it, but isn’t scratchy. I thought it gave great stitch definition, and the yardage was good- two skeins for an easy, big cowl that is just right doubled up. I think this is going to be wonderfully cozy as the temperatures get colder!
How to know if Blacker Yarn Cornish Tin is for you? If you like wool, yarn that has great stitch definition and holds it’s shape well, small batch production, knowing where the fiber comes from and supporting old-school production mills, then this is an ideal yarn for you and you need to get your hands on some, pronto! (they have excellent shipping rates, I checked). If you only like superwash, and think minimally processed wool is scratchy (this is as soft as Cascade Eco, for a comparison), then this might not be the right yarn for you.
Oh, and if any of you were curious on a bump update:
Almost 7 months in! I definitely feel a lot bigger than I did with Lila at the same stage. But at least now I look obviously pregnant, even to total strangers. Doesn’t always mean they’ll give up a seat on the train, though! Ah big city living, where courtesy is optional.
