Introducing: Titus Fingering-weight merino/silk hand dyed yarn

It’s time to introduce our latest new hand dyed yarn! I have been working on this for a few weeks, making sure that it’s as good as it sounded, so here we are!

The new yarn is Titus Fingering. I’m sure many of you will be familiar with my Titus range - I’ve had Titus 4ply for the full ten years that I’ve been in business. Its name harks back to a time before I started taking name inspiration from local places so it sort of doesn’t fit in with the brand any more, but it’s such an ECY stalwart that I’m not about to change it now! 

Below are colourways Rust and Falling Leaves 😍

The blend in the Titus yarns is 75% superwash extrafine merino (which always comes from non-mulesed flocks) and 25% silk, so Titus Fingering is the same blend (hence the name!), but it is spun as a singles yarn rather than multiple strands plied together as in the other variations. This means that you can really see the shine of the silk, plus of course it’s a bit of a different texture to use a singles yarn. It is very soft and smooth of course, and I’m finding that it works up with a little bounce from the wool, but plenty of drape too - this does of course depend on the gauge/tension of the fabric. 

Below shows colourways Starling, Granite, and Steel

This yarn is spun as a standard 4ply/fingering weight thickness, but the wraps per inch (19 WPI for me) show it to be a bit thinner than most of our others, and it certainly looks a bit finer too. However, I’m finding that it’s still working well at the gauges I would use other 4ply/fingering weight yarns at, so it should substitute in to most patterns. As always - check your own gauge to decide, and don’t judge it until after you’ve washed and blocked it as that really lets it bloom.

I have so far knitted it up at a tighter gauge as a pair of fingerless mitts, and at a looser gauge as a lace beanie hat; plus I’ve knitted and crocheted swatches on various sizes of needles and hooks. I’ve blocked them of course, but note that I didn’t block them aggressively, and for some projects I would tend to. Plus how you block the swatches will really affect how many stitches and rows you’ll get in 10 x 10cm square, so you will need to swatch yourself in order to see if your gauge is working for any patterns you choose. Hopefully my swatches will give you a good starting point though! 

Crocheted swatches:

• The first swatch I have here is crocheted on a 2.5mm hook. I did trebles (UK term) throughout, and got a blocked gauge of 24.5 stitches and 14.5 rows over a 10 x 10cm square. 

• The second swatch is crocheted on a 3.5mm hook (this is generally my go-to size for crocheting with 4ply/fingering weight yarn). Again I did trebles throughout and got a blocked gauge of 20 sts and 12 rows over a 10 x 10cm square.

• The third swatch is crocheted on a 4.5mm hook. Using trebles throughout, I got a blocked gauge of 17 sts and 11 rows over a 10 x 10cm square. This one would definitely have blocked out more openly if I’d wanted it to.

Knitted swatches: 

• The first one is knitted on 2.5mm needles. I got a blocked gauge of 31 sts and 46 rows in stocking stitch over a 10 x 10cm square. That seems like a lot of rows actually - I think the swatch would have blocked out with fewer rows to 10cm had I wanted it to. 

• The second one is knitted on 3.5mm needles - again these are my go-to size for most 4ply/fingering weight projects as I like the fabric I usually get. I got a blocked gauge of 24sts and 34.5 rows in stocking stitch over a 10 x 10cm square. 

• The third one is knitted on 4.5mm needles - I really thought this would look too open, but the yarn filled out more than I expected it to. I got a blocked gauge of 20sts and 28 rows in stocking stitch over a 10 x 10cm square.  

Opinions so far:

This is only what I think - you may differ, but here goes! I am pleased with how neatly this yarn knits and crochets up, and it has good stitch definition. The 2.5mm crocheted swatch was especially pleasing in its neatness. As per usual, the 3.5mm needles and hook are probably working best for me so that’s no change there. Depending on the project I could use a 3mm - in fact I have done for the hat I’m going to show you in a moment, but it’s quite a particular fabric that I was aiming for. Lacy, but needed to still be structured (what with being a hat). In all honesty the 4.5mm needles are the least nice outcome for me, closely followed by the 4.5mm hook. I think the stitches are too open - although as I already said, they did fluff out more than I expected so they don’t actually look as bad as I thought, post-blocking. But.. I wouldn’t really choose the larger needle or hook sizes. However, again that is totally standard for me! Given the right project, I am sure that the larger sizes could work. And you might completely disagree anyway - that’s ok! 

Here are my fingerless mitts knitted on 2.5mm needles. They were blocked, but I only wanted the lace panels to just open out a little so they’re blocked lightly, certainly not stretched. I like my fingerless mitts to be a very close fit you see, and these are just perfect for my hands. The fabric is nice and sturdy - perhaps more so than you might think for a merino/silk singles yarn - and I’m impressed. I know I said it already but I just love how neat and perfect it looks.

The second project is completely different - this is a lace beanie. So I need the lace to really block out, but also without becoming overly drapey. AND I needed the brim to be lovely and stretchy. I’ve done that by using 2.75mm needles (well, a circular) for the brim, and 3mm needles for the body. It’s currently blocking on a squishy pilates ball as I type, but I’ve tried it on my head and it’s perfect - the brim is good, but the hat body just has a teensy slouch at the back. 

As an aside - both of these patterns are ones that I’m designing, and in fact hoping to publish fairly soon (I do still need to type up the drafts and get them test-knitted though, so ‘soon’ is all relative!). They’ll be called Willow Fingerless Mitts and Willow Hat, so if you’re reading this more than a few weeks/months in the future I sincerely hope they’re both published and available by then. 

I hope this blog post is really helpful for you - please do let us know if you have any questions or if I've missed anything!