HARRISVILLE | SHEAR Thicket: Merino-Dorset Aran

Harrisville blended the creamy white wool of Cottage Hill Farm's Merino-Dorset with a touch of natural black Dorset from Wellscroft Farm to create an all-natural, tonal heather. The combination of softness and durability in these undyed wools brings the best of both worlds together into one skein. 

Thicket in Aran weight is an excellent choice for cables and cozy sweaters, warm accessories, blankets...items you reach for when extra warmth is needed. Its heathered characteristics remind us of a favorite, well-worn sweatshirt, in woolen form. Pure comfort.

The yarn is a lofty, woolen-spun, 2-ply with next-to-skin softness and an underlying strength. The Dorset crimp and woolen construction yields a yarn that enjoys being worked at an open gauge, as the fiber resists compression and blooms significantly when washed.

Most woolen-spun yarns can be knit at a wide variety of gauges, and while this yarn is no exception, it loves being knit on bigger needles than you might expect, giving it room to bloom and breathe. 

Like many domestic wools, this yarn contains vegetable matter, and you will likely notice this in the skein of yarn. It’s best to remove the vegetable matter as you knit, but don't be fooled by this yarn's rustic appearance in the skein. Once you wash it (and we recommend using a liquid soap like Dr. Bronner's or Dawn for your first wash), all the residual dust of the farm washes away, leaving a delightfully soft and cloud-like fabric with a tendency to puff up and round out. 

Knitting with Shear Merino-Dorset

When knitting with this yarn in plain stockinette, you will see a soft blurriness to the stitches, which is a combination of the fiber itself and the woolen spinning. What this yarn particularly shines in are textures and cables (the bigger and bolder, the better).