2009 Tour de Fleece Output

[altivo]

2009 Tour de Fleece Output
Originally uploaded by Altivo

Photo of Argos' output from the Tour de Fleece. Inspired, one suspects, by the use of the term "spinning" for bicycle racing, the goal is to spin every day that the Tour de France rides. These four yarns were the result.

The white merino and the multicolored merino-bamboo blend will be in this year's show as yarn. The plan is to weave them into a soft shawl or scarf for the 2010 show.

Comments

[saythename.livejournal.com]

*eyes the pic with bitten lip*

I'm torn between the wool and the
mohair...but...I just can't have
either against my skin, sorry. Not
an allergy I just go insane wrapped
in either.

*takes the cotton*

Can I have that gift wrapped? In wool
and mohair?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

If it's not an allergy, then I think superwash wool would surprise you. It's soft like cotton, warm like wool, and you can put it in the washing machine. The secret is a thin nylon coating applied to seal the scales on the wool fibers. The total fiber content of superwash wool is something like 95% wool, 5% nylon (or polyamide as they call it in EU, I guess "nylon" is a trademark.) That white merino is just luscious, and I'm sensitive to wool too.

The colorful skein is merino with 50% bamboo fiber added. The bamboo is smooth as silk, but the fine fibers are more flexible than real silk and don't cut like wire the silk and nylon can. You just might be able to wear that as well.

The two wool skeins are destined to be woven together into a soft scarf or shawl piece.

The darker wool is the more traditional stuff, but I intend to nålbind with that, and no one wears underwear of that stuff. It's more for mittens, hats, and things like that.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Hats and mittens and things don't bother
me for some reason.

@.@

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hands and feet have tougher skin due to exposure and rough treatment. Wool socks, even fairly harsh ones, don't bother my feet but they will make my ankles itch and break out in a rash. Mittens are fine if they don't have long cuffs that reach up onto the softer skin on the inside of my wrist. Hats don't bother my head since I still have enough hair to protect the scalp (so far) but if pulled over my ears they may bother there.

Different breeds of wool have different levels of harshness. Some, like merino or blue faced Leicester, are so soft that I could wear them as underwear without trouble. Others are not tolerable even to the tougher skin on the palms of my hands. It's the fineness of the wool fibers and the kind of scales they have that makes the difference I think.

Supposedly wool itself is non-allergenic. People who have an allergy to "wool" are actually reacting to the oils from the sheep's skin that are still present in some wool, or else to chemicals used in preparing the wool for use in garments (often these are moth repellents.) Wool that is completely cleaned of coatings and left untreated will not cause allergic reactions. However, it may still irritate the skin physically, which is what happens to me and, I'm guessing, to you. Try some of the really soft wool, and you may be surprised.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

I don't have an allergy to wool, I learned to
love the old green US wool blankets in the
army, your best friend outside if you could
get one, and its a tough fiber that bounces
back, I mean they make baseballs with it
wound inside for just that reason.

Wool underwear?

I'd rather go commando.

>.<