As Promised, the Peace Fleece Review

Review of Peace Fleece DK weight

30% Mohair, 70% Wool
350 yards per 4oz skein
$8.25/skein
www.peacefleece.com

Cake!

Texture

It is a crunchy texture, which I love. It is slightly less crunchy than Noro Kureyon, but I think that part of the reason why is due to what ever spinning oil they use. There is a fair bit of hay and other vegetative material in the yarn, but fairly easy to pull out.

In the hank, the yarn felt pretty stiff, but it softened as I wound it into cakes, and softened further as I knitted with it. Post blocking, it softened up even more, and according to Veronik Avery, it will get softer as you wear it, which is totally believable. Right now it is a little rough against my bare skin, but not too bad. I will not be able to wear this against the skin on my neck (I have notoriously sensitive skin), but as I write this I'm leaning against the shawl with my bare arms and am not feeling itchy at all.

Crunchy!

Colors

One of the downsides of this yarn is that there are only eight colors available in the DK weight. There are some truly gorgeous colors in the worsted weight which was slightly disappointing to me when I was choosing colors for the travel shawl.

That said, the color of the yarn that I chose, Father's Gray, is really gorgeous. While it looks solidly charcoal gray in the photos, as I was winding I discovered flecks of white, green, blue and purple.

Flecks!

Stitch Definition

Due to the mohair content of this yarn, stitches aren't terribly well defined, which is a bonus for folks such as myself who are highly imperfect and irregular knitters. (I guess I probably shouldn't qualify that sentence with knitters... heh) However, the stitch definition is considerably better than I expected.

The yarn is a little bit hairy, but not as bad as what I thought it was going to be, we'll see how it wears.

Hairy!

Also, the yarn is "sticky" enough so that you can rip back stitches without worrying about dropping them, however it is VASTLY easier to rip back than 100% mohair. I didn't find this yarn to be splitty at all, but then again I was using pretty sharp metal needles.

I'm not sure how well this yarn would felt, mostly because I've never actually felted a project before. I can tell you that it won't felt as quickly as Malabrigo does (as that yarn has actually felted WHILE I've been knitting with it). Somebody else who is more experienced with this sort of thing can opine in the comments.

Conclusions

I loved this yarn. I really enjoyed knitting with it, and loved the texture too, and will definitely use it again for another project. I just need to find the right one. (I'm also tempted to buy some more and knit another Travel Shawl in a different color)

The value is pretty fantastic at $8.25 for 350 yards, and the story of the yarn is really cool. (Click link for story). However, it smells pretty strongly of spinning oil and sheep, so keep that in mind if you have sensitivities.

Personally, I would not use this yarn for a garment that will be work next to the skin of my neck (no scarves, turtlenecks, cowls, gaiters, etc), but then as I mentioned above, I have quite sensitive skin. I wouldn't use this yarn for a child's garment either.

I think Veronik Avery did a fantastic job designing a shawl in this yarn, and the pattern suits it perfectly. I think a sweater or a jacket would be fantastic made from it would be lovely, and would likely hide any animal fur that collected on it.