Thank you everyone for your patience—because here, at last, is my review of Oasis Camel Silk Fingering from Expression Fiber Arts!
This review has been on the back burner for almost six weeks now; Clair de Lune came out in early December, but my routine of reviewing the yarn in the next week or two was interrupted (thank you, Cowl-Along…). But here we are. I’m excited to dive in and tell you all about this yarn!
As soon as the yarn arrived I could tell it was going to be pure awesomeness—just look at that sheen! The skeins were orderly and nicely twisted, and even in hank form the yarn draped beautifully. It wound like a dream and I don’t think I’ve ever made prettier center pull balls before. (I wish I’d taken more pictures!)
Oasis Camel Silk Fingering (let’s just call it OCS Fingering from here on out…) is 50% camel and 50% mulberry silk, a unique blend that I’d never used before. Animal hairs have microscopic surface ridges known as scales, which dictate the roughness of the resulting fiber. Camel hair scales are much less pronounced than wool scales, producing a sleek, lustrous finish.
I was also incredibly impressed with the dye job. The striations of lighter and darker colors are gentle and well-distributed, creating a soft but eye-catching tonal effect with great visual depth. I did alternate skeins to break up any potential pooling, but if I doubt that it would have done any harm if I hadn’t.
The yarn has an interesting feel while passing through the fingers. It’s slick and the temperature is cool, but at the same time there’s just a bit of resistance that, for lack of a better word, I can only describe as waxy (but not in a negative way). It’s unlike anything I’ve worked with so far and I found it fascinating. It also isn’t super pretty before blocking, as I’ve come to expect with camelid fibers of any kind—goat, camel, alpaca, etc.
OCS Fingering is incredibly strong and doesn’t pill easily; don’t even try to break it without scissors. It’s on the heavier side of fingering weight, though I wouldn’t say it verges into sport. However, both the camel fiber and the silk are lighter yard-for-yard than the same yardage of wool, so this yarn clocks in at a generous 500 yards to 100 grams.
Interestingly, the resulting fabric doesn’t appear to have a whole lot of body and is quite laidback. Perhaps this is the result of blending two slinky, languid fibers together; if there’s one thing that this yarn isn’t, it’s sproingy. It doesn’t stretch out of shape easily, and if it did, it wouldn’t bounce back.
30 minutes in warm water and wool wash did not produce any significant loss of dye, which is always a major test when working with hand-dyed yarn. The fabric blocked into shape easily and dried quickly. I didn’t time it, but I don’t believe the shawl took longer than 36 hours to dry completely. The decreases relaxed significantly, which I was extremely pleased with; however, I did notice that imperfections in the fabric (yep, I’ve never made a perfect shawl and I do this for a living) didn’t even out as much as they would have in a wool blend yarn. For example, the purl stitches on one side of the lace columns are looser than the purl stitches on the other side, and the disparity is still quite visible after blocking, at least to me. Can you spot it?
But this one drawback is far outweighed by the rewards. The shawl has a glorious fluid quality that makes it a joy to style and drape. It also squishes down quite nicely so that it can be bundled around the neck as a scarf, but it doesn’t come away crumpled or wrinkly. The shine is out of this world and, as I’ve mentioned the color is stunning. (This is the Crystal colorway, not available at the time of this writing; so I am referring here to skill of the dye job alone, which is ovation-worthy.)
All in all, this yarn gets a solid five stars from me; I’d recommend it for any knitted or crocheted piece that requires drape, strength, and a bit of shine. Anything made in this yarn will instantly become a special occasion piece. Well done, Expression Fiber Arts!
Expression Fiber Arts Oasis Camel Silk Fingering is available here. The skeins pictured in this review were sent to me by Expression Fiber Arts as part of their yarn support program.
My Clair de Lune shawl, featured in this review, is available as an individual pattern download from Ravelry and Lovecrafts, and as part of my ebook Mélodies, a collection of lace shawls inspired by French art song. More details available here.
