Harrisville Designs Shetland

Beautiful color and drape.

I recommend anyone interested in either of the Harrisville yarns (Highland or Shetland) offered through WEBS read up before buying. I recommend this for all yarns, but for these it is particularly needed. I did my research and I was not disappointed. I love this yarn! However, I could see how an uninformed customer could end up in a situation for which they are not prepared. These are yarns sold on the cone and, as such, they are still coated in spinning oil. They will need to be washed before you will be able to get an accurate gauge/create your project. There are lots of situations where leaving the spinning oil in until your project is complete makes sense (weaving, machine knitting, etc). However, if you plan to knit or crochet these yarns, you've got two choices. First, you can swatch and then wash with dish soap (e.g., Dawn) to remove the oil and then block. Use the blocked fabric to calculate how to get the final product you want. Second, you can wash all the yarn before knitting (though, of course, swatching and measuring to get gauge is still recommended). I chose the second option because I like to be able to try on sweaters while they are still in progress and adjust accordingly. This would not work well if you have not washed the yarn prior to use. It will be thinner and less fluffy if you have not washed it and your gauge will be very inaccurate if you try this. For me, this was worth it and I have two lovely colorwork sweaters to show for my effort. The work upfront was more time consuming than buying a yarn that is ready to knit immediately, but I've been in this for a while and I've long-since become familiar with the amount of work that is sometimes needed to get the final product you want (I mean, I didn't even spin this yarn!) If you don't want to go through the trouble then buy a more expensive yarn that has already been washed. That said, what I did was not difficult, just time-consuming.

I recommend anyone interested in either of the Harrisville yarns (Highland or Shetland) offered through WEBS read up before buying. I recommend this for all yarns, but for these it is particularly needed. I did my research and I was not disappointed. I love this yarn! However, I could see how an uninformed customer could end up in a situation for which they are not prepared. These are yarns sold on the cone and, as such, they are still coated in spinning oil. They will need to be washed before you will be able to get an accurate gauge/create your project. There are lots of situations where leaving the spinning oil in until your project is complete makes sense (weaving, machine knitting, etc). However, if you plan to knit or crochet these yarns, you've got two choices. First, you can swatch and then wash with dish soap (e.g., Dawn) to remove the oil and then block. Use the blocked fabric to calculate how to get the final product you want. Second, you can wash all the yarn before knitting (though, of course, swatching and measuring to get gauge is still recommended). I chose the second option because I like to be able to try on sweaters while they are still in progress and adjust accordingly. This would not work well if you have not washed the yarn prior to use. It will be thinner and less fluffy if you have not washed it and your gauge will be very inaccurate if you try this. For me, this was worth it and I have two lovely colorwork sweaters to show for my effort. The work upfront was more time consuming than buying a yarn that is ready to knit immediately, but I've been in this for a while and I've long-since become familiar with the amount of work that is sometimes needed to get the final product you want (I mean, I didn't even spin this yarn!) If you don't want to go through the trouble then buy a more expensive yarn that has already been washed. That said, what I did was not difficult, just time-consuming.