Fibre Focus Friday: Marble DK

Marble DK is one of our longest running yarn ranges not just due to its versatility but also to the look and feel of the final fabric.

But where did it start?  Like most things here at WoW HQ, it probably started with someone having an idea while waiting for the kettle to boil!  We knew that Merino and silk were popular fibres for spinning and crafting with, and this popularity carried through into finished yarns as we kept getting requests for a yarn range in it.

With a huge range of colours to choose from, it took us quite a while to narrow down the core shades for Marble.  We wanted tones that could be used across a variety of projects; whether it was knitting traditional jumpers that may require more neutral colours or something with a bit of vibrancy and zing.  Eventually we settle on the 16 shades that you see today.

When producing a coloured yarn range there are a couple of way of introducing the colour.  You can spin everything in it's natural shade and then dye the hanks, or you can work with dyed tops and blend the component fibres together.  We opted for the second choice as it gave us much more control over the colours and also meant that we didn't loose the natural white/cream shade of the silk to the dyes.  You can see the silk content in every ball of Marble which is what helps to give it the subtle, heathered look.  

Marble is a non-superwash yarn which means that it will felt if you get over zealous with the washing machine!  We had considered using superwash Merino but we wanted to be able to offer the flexability of felting projects to our customers.  While some of our customers like to knit, crochet and weave with Marble, others use it to embellish felted works and some created felted bags and slippers with it!

If you want to give this yarn a go, but you're not sure which shades to try, we've put together three handy collctions for you.