Paradise Fibers Extrafine Multi-Colored Merino Top- Rosewood

Weathered wood and faded petals. Warm brown running through dusty rose, a little coral, a thread of cream, each one dyed as its own solid color and laid in side by side so they run the length of the fiber.

That construction is the reason to spin a multi instead of a solid. Four related colors drafted together give you a yarn with depth in it, one that shifts as light moves across a sleeve, where a single dye tends to just sit there.

It's 19 micron. Most merino top runs around 23, ours included, and four microns sounds like nothing until you've got the two side by side. Rosewood is the one that goes next to skin without you thinking about it.

What it turns into, and the choice you make first

Spin it whole and every draft picks up all four colors at once, so what goes onto the bobbin is the same from the first yard to the last. Four ounces makes a cowl, a hat, a pair of mitts, or a long scarf if you spin it fine. Eight ounces holds together as one piece of fabric, which covers a shawl, a vest, or most baby knits. An adult sweater wants nearer 26 ounces, figuring a mid-size pullover at a sport-weight three ply, plus the ounce a sample costs you.

You don't have to draft a big top as it comes, either. Peel it into narrower strips through the thickness so every strip still carries all four colors, and the match holds. Splitting along a color boundary is the thing that separates them. For a garment, weigh it into equal portions and cut. Cutting a continuous top is normal rather than waste, and even bobbins ply evenly.

Split it lengthwise first and the browns come away from the roses, so the colors stay as separate runs instead of blending. That's the trade. Split it and you've given up the guarantee that eight ounces match, because no two strips carry quite the same mix. Spin whole for a garment, split when you want the color to show.

How it actually reads knitted up is the part nobody can tell you from looking at the top. A chunky single, a three ply fingering, a three ply chunky and a worsted single all made from this same colorway land in the same family and look genuinely different up close, because grist and ply structure decide how far the four colors mix. Plying against a solid calms it down, and our Whitest White is the same 19 micron if you want to try that. Split the total between the two rather than doubling it, so a 26 ounce sweater is about 13 ounces of each. But directionally is as far as anyone can honestly go.

So spin a sample and swatch it before you commit a garment. That's true of any multi from anyone, and it costs you an ounce. Wash and dry the swatch the way you'll wash the finished piece before you measure it, because merino blooms and grows, and an unwashed swatch gives you the wrong gauge and the wrong idea of how far the colors mix.

Spinning it

The fibers here are a little over two inches long. Drafting from the end, keep your hands at least that far apart and let it slide rather than forcing it, because closer than that you're pulling against fiber that hasn't let go yet. From the fold you can work much closer, since the fiber is doubled over your finger and the effective length halves.

When you have a bit spun, let a length hang slack and watch what it does. On a spindle, let it hang from the hook and watch the same thing. A gentle curl back on itself is right for plying. A tight little corkscrew means too much twist, so draft faster or slow the wheel down. Going thinner makes it worse, because twist runs to the thinnest part of the yarn. If it drifts apart instead, there isn't enough, so give it more. That check works whichever way you're off, so you don't need to know in advance which way that is. For a single you'll use on its own, spin it to hang close to straight, since there's no plying step to take twist back out.

Worsted from the end spins dense with drape. From the fold gives loft, and it's the easier of the two here, though a lofty yarn at this grade will pill where a sweater rubs. For something that gets hard wear, spin worsted from the end, or use our 23 micron, which is the tougher of the two.

Carding is the one call worth making on purpose. It works, and it blends the four into a single heather that optically mixes, which is a real yarn and a fine thing to want. It's also a one way trip. Splitting and predrafting leave the lengthwise colors intact and a carder or blending board doesn't, so card it because the heather is what you're after, not to rescue a patchy sample.

Finishing it

Once it's plied, wind it off into a skein, tie it loosely in three or four places, and soak it twenty minutes in cool water with a little wool wash. Rinse cool until the water runs clear, because warm water is what loosens loose dye and a colorway carrying a cream is where that would show. Squeeze rather than wring, roll it in a towel, then hang it to dry with no weight on it. That's what sets the twist and lets the yarn bloom, and it's also where you find out what you actually spun. Cool water and gentle handling won't felt it. Heat and agitation together are what does.

You'll want a second bobbin and a lazy kate to ply from, both matched to your wheel, and a niddy noddy to wind the skein.

The details

• 19 micron, 100% merino wool, mulesing-free. Extra fine, or superfine depending on the mill. What matters is the number.
• Combed top: every fiber laid parallel with the short bits taken out, so it drafts smoothly with no neps to pick
• Staple a little over two inches (58 to 60 mm), gilled with the colors laid in side by side
• Sold by the ounce (four ounces is 113 g), cut as one continuous length, roughly 4 feet per ounce
• Yarn from it: four ounces as a two ply lands around 250 to 400 yards at sport to DK, and considerably more spun finer. Weigh and measure your sample if you're matching a pattern.
• It felts too, wet or needle. Nineteen micron is about as fine as feltable merino gets.
• Care: not superwash, so it will felt with heat and agitation. Hand wash finished pieces cool, and send a care note with anything you give away.
• Storing the rest: sealed bag, out of the light. Moths find loose fiber.
• Photographed in daylight without filters. Screens still vary, so read the photo as close rather than exact.

We keep Rosewood in stock rather than running it once, so it's here when you come back. Whatever you order comes as one continuous length rather than pieced together, so a big project spins from one piece. Need more than the site will let you order? Email us.

New to spinning? Our Corriedale is the easier place to learn the motion. It's a heartier wool though, better suited to a bag or outerwear than something worn at the throat, so come back here for the next-to-skin projects.

Not quite the colorway for what you have in mind? Have a look at the rest of the line. Same fiber in every one, so whatever you pick spins exactly like this.