rowan wool

[magicfarawaytree]

does anyone know where i can get cheap rowan wool from can only find big wool for £7.25 online there must surely be some cheaper places. many thanks

Fio is an expert on this kind of thing, when she comes on msn i will link her to this thread.

thank you

No, there's no cheap place I'm afraid, they keep standard pricing everywhere unless it's in the sale. You need to find a cheaper alternative I'm afraid, but I'm not sure there's much of an option with Big Wool unless you get something synthetic. You could try eBay but even they are rarely cheaper IME. Sorry.

Thanks tamum. have you got any big wool in your stash in colour 20? by any chance suew

dont suppose you have pattern book 34 suew? I am after one of the patterns in it. I am happy to pay a small fee for the pattern.

hehe at being an expert I love you ff

but big wool is expensive! sirdar do chunky for cheaper butit isnt rown iykwim

fio - will it knit to a similar size and tension? I'm not fussy - just cheap and lardly (10 balls at 7.25 each almost enougth to make me diet )

Sirdar chunky is a very good lower price alternative to Rowan Big, MFT

no, there is, let me look-

here, for example

does it HAVE to be rowan? I get most of my wool from texere and dye it using food colouring and vinegar

oh and you can use several strands at once to get the correct thickness.

Filly, have fallen in love with two rowan patterns. the first call for big wool i went into john lewis to have a look at it and compare it to some of the other wools but couldnt in the short time that I had see anything of a similar size. didnt know that you could use several strands of alternative to get the same weight how difficult is it to do?

thanks marina

Yes, sure you can get sale yarns, but those ones are discontinued lines. Big Wool isn't discontinued as far as I'm aware. I use Texere a lot too, they're fab, but you'd still have to watch the price quite carefully if you used a double thickness. There's stuff like this , but it's even thicker than Big Wool. You could probably substitute it, but you might have to do some maths!

tamum, filly - how does texere work - do you just buy the plain wool skeins and they dye an wind your own? is their any way of knowing how many rows/ stitches on a 10cm tension square for the different wools they have?

should say 'then dye and wind your own..'

its not really difficult to use 2 stands or more but you have to mess about a bit to get the tension

no there isn't a way to know tension in advance with texere. Give them a call, maybe? Or order one of their catalogues (around £10). Or go see them at the knitting and stitching show id you are in London! (good bargains on rowan too, now i think of it)

food dye colouring is easy. Big pan of boiling water (enough to submerge dye) , vinegar (around 2 cupfuls to be cautious, white vinegar better but doesn't matter overmuch) and supercook dye of your choice. Boil til the water is clear (or vinegar coloured, if you're using malt. Will take around 10 minutes. Then let the pan cool, and then gently wash the wool using lukewarm/cold water (avoid any sudden temeperature changes, this can cause wool to felt). Hang wool up to dry, et voila!

Will work on animal fibres (wool, alpaca etc) and also nylon. The shade you'll get will depend on the fibres-I have got some very nice results by stranding several fibres then dying all together.

The dye is as colourfast as they come. I've dyed wool for kids clothes this way and its fine on a wool wash. If you boil-dye the wool like this, it won't streak but will dye evenly.

Oh, you'll need to know how to wind a skein, really. Do you know this? Can talk you through it.

how do you wind a skein ftbe? (is that you nqc?)

do you know, you may mock, but someone, somewhere may need that information.

Has everyone seen the Latest Knitty ? Some lovely patterns, it's the best issue I have seen, I think.

Incidentally, with Texere it's sometimes worth googling the names of the yarns if it's a specific name like "Destiny Mohair" because the tension is often given somewhere online, as the yarn will have been made for another company initially.

good tip re texere, though i usually buy the generico stuff.

i like serrano!

Yes, me too! I like Ivy too, and the Noro blanket (which would cost about £1000000, sadly)