Extrafine 19 Micron Merino Top

Several related colors drafted together give a yarn with depth in it, one that shifts as the light moves across it. A single dye lot tends to read flat by comparison. Knit up, a marled yarn looks rich rather than plain.

At 19 micron most spinners wear it straight against the neck. It also keeps merino's crimp, so the yarn holds its memory and ribbing snaps back.

Extra fine is the standard trade name for merino at this grade. What matters is the number. This is 19 micron, against the 23 that most merino top runs, ours included, and four microns sounds like nothing until you have the two side by side.

No. Each colorway is separate solid dyed tops laid side by side and gilled together, so the colors run the full length in their own lanes. Spin eight ounces and the last skein still matches the first.

Yes. Peel the top open lengthwise and they come apart cleanly enough, though it takes patience. There is no sequence or gradient to work around.

Carding works well and blends the colors into a true heather, where they optically mix. The only thing it really costs you is the option to peel the colors apart afterwards, since that is a one way trip.

They were dyed separately as solid colors and combined dry, so they never sat wet against each other. The soft edges you can see are the gilling, not dye migration.

Fine merino drafts slowly, so twist gets ahead of your hands and the singles come out wiry. Most spinners want to ease off the treadle or draft a little quicker, though it depends on your wheel's ratios.

If you are plying, the singles should still want to curl on themselves when a length hangs slack, because plying takes some of that twist back out. For a singles used on its own, spin it to hang close to straight.

Either. Worsted from the end spins dense with drape. From the fold it goes lofty and springy.

That depends entirely on how fine you spin. As a two ply most spinners land somewhere between 250 and 400 yards at fingering, more at lace and less at worsted.

Yes, it felts, and it is popular for both wet and needle felting. It is not superwash. Hand wash finished yarn cool, without agitating it.

Yes. All lots are mulesing-free, sourced from flocks where the practice is not used.

By the ounce, cut as one continuous length, roughly 4 feet per ounce. A four ounce order arrives as one piece rather than four.

The cost is in the dyeing and the gilling rather than the grade. Each color is dyed as its own solid top first and then combined, which takes more work than dyeing one top a single color.

These are standing colorways we restock, not one-off runs.