Ever made cinnamon rolls? I’m not talking the kind that comes in a can (though I will most certainly eat that kind with relish); I mean from scratch, where you mix the dough and knead it and sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar with your own two hands. If you’ve ever done that, you’ll understand what I mean when I say that working with Miss Babs Woodbury is like making homemade cinnamon rolls.
(As you may have heard, I received this yarn from Miss Babs for my Le Soir shawl pattern, which is available as an individual pattern download and as part of my Mélodies ebook; more details on that at the bottom of this post.)
The yarn arriving in the mail is kind of like seeing the tantalizing photos in a recipe—just the potential makes you hungry. The skeins are lovely, neat, and perfect. I was fascinated by the look and feel of the yarn in person; as opposed to the glossy shine and squishy hand that is common in merino/silk blends (Woodbury is 65% merino, 35% silk), it has a sturdy and almost-but-not-quite rustic texture with just a hint of gentle sheen. My best guess is that the Tussah silk in this yarn gives that effect; the majority of similar blends contain the more traditional mulberry silk.
Those orderly, neat skeins were easy to wind and didn’t tangle. Even once it was wound into balls and in use, I don’t remember ever having to stop and undo knots. Woodbury doesn’t have much of a halo, which means no bits of fuzz to stick to each other and cause snarls. Personally I found, however, that the yarn was a tad hard on the hands due to the tight twist and the slightly rough texture. Not nearly as hard as woolen-spun Rambouillet or even a mohair blend, but not kitten-soft either.
Oh, and another resemblance to cinnamon roll production—while in progress the work looks…not the way it’s supposed to.
That firm twist makes for a lot of bounce—I’ve met sock yarns that were less lively to work with—which means that if you’re knitting lace, it springs and sproings and generally refuses to let your yarnovers open up. The decreases are also pretty overpowering, as you can see in the photo below. This is like the part when you’re kneading the cinnamon roll dough, and it sticks to the counter and comes off on your hands: you know it’s going to be worth it in the end, but it’s a little hard to believe while there’s gluten and sugar and butter all over everything.
But oh boy, is it worth it!
After a good soak in warm water and wool wash, everything relaxes, like when melted butter and steam puff up all the holes between the gluten bonds and make your cinnamon rolls soft and fluffy. (Herein lies the difference between silk content, as in this yarn, and nylon content, as in the sock yarns I mentioned earlier.) As you can see, the yarnovers open up and the decreases calm down. That twist is no longer making a nuisance of itself, but we still benefit from the crisp stitch definition. And did I mention drape?
Yep, it’s worth it. The final fabric is incredible; this piece immediately became my go-to accessory on Sunday mornings for the perfect touch of elegance, beauty and warmth. It hangs and swings with just the right balance of airiness and weight. And that twist, which was causing so many shenanigans, is what makes me feel comfortable actually wearing it and not babying it.
I do have a few tips for working with it, based on my experience. Firstly, don’t pull any gauge stunts; that would be sort of like adding extra flour or butter on a whim. My hunch is that this yarn likes to be knit at a certain gauge and isn’t a shifter (for info on gauge shifters, try this article by Jillian Moreno). Originally I tried knitting the shawl on US 5s and found that the fabric was a bit too hole-y to show the lace well, and that tight twist means that if it’s knit at too firm a gauge, the resulting fabric will be stiff. (Now, if hole-y or stiff is actually the effect you want, then go for it!)
Secondly, on a related note, swatch. Not only will this help with the first point—finding your gauge sweet spot—but having a beautiful blocked swatch to look at will give you a boost of encouragement to persevere through the sticky, funky raw dough stage of work (see above). This will not only help you find the best needle size for you, but the best needle material. That lovely silk content is slick enough to possibly pose a challenge on slippery needles; I personally didn’t have trouble knitting with it on my nickel-plated needles, but it may be worth a test run to figure out what works for you.
So, in short, do I recommend giving Woodbury a try? Absolutely! With a little cognizance and care, I can see this yarn and its unique properties being good for basically anything: lace, cables, textured stitches, even colorwork. (Not to mention the fact that Miss Babs dyes this yarn in about a million amazing colorways or something like that.) Just imagine those cinnamon rolls…
Miss Babs Woodbury is available here. The skeins shown in this review were sent to me by Miss Babs as part of their yarn support program. I also received a skein of Katahdin to make a second sample of Le Soir, which you can view at the links below; I’m looking forward to reviewing Katahdin next week.
My Le Soir 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 four lace shawls inspired by French art song. More details available here.
