Real Irish wool

[peapod]

I received a fantastic present from my in-laws.(Imagine that?) I got a bunch of dark green Irish wool. They know I love anything Irish and while they were in Ireland recently, bought all of my Christmas presents there, my favorite being some yarn. NOW! What should I make? My first issue is figuring out how much I have. I was told I have enough to make "very large sweater" but, how do I go about getting the skinny on what I have and what to do with it? Any ideas?

[LeslieJo]

How lovely! You think it's hand-spun and -dyed? Is it marked at all? Maybe you could call the manufacturer. I was thinking you could weigh it, but not sure what good that would do! Maybe you could take it to a yarn shop; maybe someone there would know how to help you estimate how much is there. Good luck! It'd sure be a shame to start something with that treasure and not be able to finish it.

[Dejhia]

Well there are things out that measure yardage of yarn. It's called a yarn meter . I just looked it up at Herrschners. It's like $50 there, but you might be able to find one cheeper. Most local yarn shops should have one. Your LYS might let you use theirs.

 

Also, if you know the weight of the yarn and how many Wraps Per Inch it is. (the WPI tool is ususally only about 10. ) THere should be a way to figure out how much you have. The only way I can think to do that is by finding a simlar yarn in terms of WPI with a known weight and length. But, I am not sure exactly how accurate that might be.

 

I like the idea of takeing it to your LYS. They should be able to help you out.

[Harvestar]

ooh, I totally spaced out in Ireland and didn't buy the lovely Irish wool I saw in the Aran Islands! sigh...

 

I'm also wondering if they meant "very large sweater" in knitting, since crochet takes more yarn than knitting does... Just a caveat.

 

Hope you have fun with the lovely yarn!