Here at ECY Shedquarters we have always had a major focus on sustainability which we wrote about back in 2018 HERE. One thing that we have debated over time is including yarns containing nylon in our range. On the one hand many of us are trying to reduce the man made fibres we use, but the addition of nylon to wool yarns will increase the longevity of handmade items meaning that arguably we will have to replace them less often.
When one of our suppliers let us know they had a yarn with biodegradebale nylon we were intrigued and had to see it for ourselves. There are a few different types of so called eco-friendly nylons with different benefits and drawbacks. The nylon in this yarn is a biodegradable synthetic nylon which is a polyamide fibre that also contains an additive which makes it decompose within anaerobic conditions as found in landfill sites. This means the nylon will be completely decomposed within 5 years when disposed of in this way but until then the yarn will behave in the same way as traditional nylon.
Brimham Bio Fingering has 430m (470yds) per 100g skein and 18 Wraps Per Inch (WPI).
The yarn is designed as a 'light fingering weight' or roughly a 3ply. Don't let that put you off though - it works just fine as a 4ply yarn and it's hard to tell it's slightly thinner. Once it's been washed it blooms too which helps. It also goes really soft and lovely - we recently had the swatches I made in it on display at a festival and they got lots of 'oooooh that's lovely' responses!
Talking of washing.. this yarn is technically machine washable as are many of ours. It should be able to be washed on a low-temperature gentle cycle although I would say hand wash your woollens whenever possible as it will increase their longevity. I did try putting this yarn through a 60 degree cotton wash just to see how much it might destroy it, and it came out a little bit smaller with the fabric looking much more fuzzy. Hardly a surprise, but sometimes you have to try these things just to see.
A group of testers from our Facebook group put this yarn through thorough testing, making sure to include knitting, crochet, garments, colourwork, lace, socks, and so on. I felt it was particularly important with a not-standard 4ply so that we could test whether it would work for all these things as a 4ply.
I didn't have time to make quite as many swatches as I normally do so I went for knitting and crochet on both 2.5mm and 4mm hook/needles, to try and encompass the full range of gauges. Note that when blocking these I could definitely have stretched them a bit more or less - I tried to stretch them a bit without overdoing it.
Knitting on 2.5mm needles got me a gauge of 28sts x 45 rows in 10cm square after blocking. I basically wanted to test sock knitting gauge here, and the fabric is fine for socks because of how the yarn blooms when it's washed.
Knitting on 4mm needles got me a gauge of 20sts x 30 rows in 10cm square after blocking. In all honest I wouldn't normally use 4ply on 4mm needles but I just wanted to test it. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it looks - the fabric isn't as 'gappy' as I expected. My instinct would be to use this yarn with 3-3.5mm needles for most projects (2.5mm for socks).
Crocheting on a 2.5mm hook got me a gauge of 23sts x 20 rows in HTR (UK) in 10cm square.
Crocheting on a 4mm hook got me a gauge of 17sts x 16.5 rows in HTR (UK) in 10cm square.
Sally - Buttermere by Victoria Magnus - Meadow Rue
Buttermere is a single skein shawl with a plain body and a lace edging.
Elizabeth - Rokeby hat and Rokeby mitts by Victoria Magnus - Sage and Woodland
Matching houndstooth accessories in shades of green.
Elizabeth has made several Rokeby hats. Comparing the Brimham Bio Fingering verion to the one using Brimham High Twist, the new version is smaller but they were both knit using the same needles. The Brimham HT version has grown a little with wear.
Elizabeth has also been swatching Brimham Bio Fingering held double with Lowther Lace in Green Tea.
"Pre blocking the 4mm gave a lovely dense but not stiff ’warm jumper’ type feel. The 4.5mm was more floaty but also lovely and warm feeling"
Robyn - Treit by Kate Davies - Clay
A short sleeved tee.
Robyn said: "... absolutely beautiful to knit!! It's so beautifully soft and smooth. I'm making a short sleeved top so want a bit of a drapey fabric, so am getting gauge at 24 stitches and 32 rows to 4" / 10cm on a 3.5mm needle. I'd suggest using maybe 3mm or 2.75mm if you want a more dense fabric for hats / gloves etc. Loving it so far!"
"It knits beautifully"
"so soft and drapey"
Elsa - Frosted Neckerchief by Helda Panagary - Meadow Rue
An elegant crochet lace neckerchief.
Elsa said: "...it is such a beautiful yarn to work with and stitch definition is fabulous!"
Lisa - Royal Mile by Justyna - Sage and Elderberry
A two colour crescent shawl with lace details.
Lisa said: "Such amazing stitch definition!" and "this yarn is perfect for lace!"
Marina - Aisneach by Liz Corke - Meadow Rue
Socks with pretty cable detailing.
Marina said: "so soft, it will definitely be my sock yarn of choice"
Mari's Altair Shawl by Joanne Scrace - Woodland
This pattern was written for one full skein of laceweight yarn but can also be made smaller using heavier yarn.
Here's Mari's review: "The more I’m making the better the drape of the yarn. It’s almost like working a v. fine cotton silk. Very nice yarn to use."
"there’s more stitch definition & more sheen with the new yarn but less give [compared to Hayton 4ply]. ... It’s very easy to work and crochet’s up beautifully; ‘flowing’ through the crochet stitches neatly."
"unfortunately some of it went into the vacuum cleaner! I have rescued it from the brushes and despite it being wrapped around them several times, it seems ok!!! It doesn’t seem to have affected it apart from a very small amount of the yarn breaking."
Sari - Vintage Prim by Andrea Mowry - Sage and Elderberry
Beautiful brioche hat showing great squish and stitch definition
Here's Sari's review: "I’m liking the feel of this Brimham Bio yarn. So much so I decided to wind the skeins by hand! No knots, no issues, just a pleasure to work with."
"this yarn will be great to learn [brioche] with. It can handle frogging, so far hasn’t shown any piling, it’s not fuzzy so it’s easy to handle and you can see the stitches clearly.
I had messed up a stitch a couple of rows down and was able to drop the stitch and pick it back up again with a crochet hook. It’s quite tricky with yarns with fuzz but Brimham Bio feels almost cotton-like and it was very easy to fix!"
Machine knitted sock (an experiment by Victoria)
"This was an experiment to see how this yarn would work on both on the knitting machine, as a sock and also to try out washing conditions. The toes and cuffs are hand knitted - I have enough experience now to be able to match my hand knitting and machine knitting tension quite well most of the time. One thing I always say when I mention machine knitting is that although it can be immensely satisfying and does have benefits, for me it is absolutely not the lovely relaxing pastime that hand knitting (and crochet) can be!"
