‘Cumbria’ is an Alpaca and wool sock yarn. It is my own blend of 47% British alpaca, 43% Blue Faced Leicester wool and 10% nylon. This yarn was spun specifically for knitting socks, so it has more twist than most hand knitting yarns and appears skinnier. It does bloom out when it is washed.
This really is a local yarn. I collected the Blue Faced Leicester fleeces from farms in Cumbria and the Yorkshire Dales and carefully prepared them at Town End farm. I combined this with white and coloured British alpaca fleeces which I painstakingly cleaned of hay and other bits. The fibres have been scoured, carded, combed, dyed and spun in Yorkshire. Most of the yarn is being knitted into socks by Arbon Socks, but I have plied some for hand-knitters.
Cumbria Alpaca Sock yarn is available in its natural oatmeal and eight over-dyed shades which give depth to the yarn.
This yarn knits to Sock, Fingering weight or light 4 ply knitting patterns, (but always knit a tension swatch). There are approximately 400m per 100g. The yarn is sold in 100g hanks and mini-skeins which are just over 30g.
Wash gently by hand or in the wool cycle of your machine with a small amount of non-bio detergent. Do not tumble dry. The yarn has been washed, but some surface residue dye may come out in the first wash, particularly with the deeper colours.
