people who know about yarn - what does this mean?

[warthog]

Pure Cashmere Knitting Yarn in Oil - 3/28NM

link here

what do they mean by 'yarn in oil'?

Is "oil" the colour?

this might help

thank you - very informative!

from your link i think it's saying that after knitting (usually on a machine) it still has to be washed in special water (soft water) with special soap. it's this process that gives the cashmere its super-soft texture.

so i don't think this yarn is for me!

it means it's oiled to go through machines. you can still hand knit with it, but it looks a bit stringy while you're working. it fluffs up beautifully (and shrinks a little) when it's washed though. i love this kind of remaindered cashmere it's sooooo scrummy and relatively very cheap cos people are scared of it!

oooh mileniwmffalcon - so would you buy it and just wash it on a delicate wash? what about washing it before knitting with it? would that work?

you can skein it up and wash beforehand if you like, if you're happy to deal with skeins, winding into balls etc. (i spin so i'm used to it, but it can be a bit daunting if you're not). you could soak the skeins in hot soapy water (using the creamy kind of shampoo iykwim), squish water through, no agitation, leave it to go cool, rinse in cool clear water.

that way you'd have to deal with less shrinkage in the finished item. depends what it is really, i've only made scarves, blankets, non-gauge-critical stuff so a bit of shrinkage (more in length than width ime) isn't a problem and i knit staight from the cone saves a load of work. then a gentle washing machine wash fluffs it up beautifully. (will continue to shrink and fluff first few washes).

you may have some handling issues if you choose to wash before knitting depending on how they've plied it for hand knitting. basically the yarns come very fine for machine knitting and they're plied together to make something thick enough to hand knit with. but they're not usually finished after plying and that can cause issues if you wash first (e.g. excessive twist in the skein).

hang on i find the colourmart site that has loads of info on working with these yarns.

the yarn you're looking at is very fine, you know that? somewhere between laceweight and 4ply. the 3 means it's 3 strands plied together - the twist on the plies is usually minimal if it's twisted at all.

colourmart sell these type of yarns and have loads of info, there's a yahoo group too, iirc.

thanks - you've been so helpful! well i think i won't really know how it handles until i knit something. so i was thinking of a mobius scarf type thing. i can't take wool next to my skin so was hoping to make something really soft.

i was after lace-weight yarn, so yes, i love it very fine!

would you unwind the cone and use only one strand, or would you knit 3 together directly off the cone? and do you need to twist the strands in that case, or would the process of knitting them be enough?

oh if a scarf you're fine to skip prewashing. it will feel a bit stringy and disappointing to work with but it's worth the end result def knit all 3 together off the cone, i find they hold together fine for knitting even if they're not twisted at all. proof i can waffle forever about this stuff heres my swatching notes from my blog. oh my poor neglected blog

thanks. that's really helpful!

so - if i knitted something like this, could you machine wash it forever more, or is it just the initial wash only?

machine wash forever - it makes wonderful baby blankets

i just can't believe it! cashmere that you can machine wash! why isn't everyone using it???

i'm going to get that stuff off ebay now...