Farm Market Yarn

While we were in Wisconsin last month, we visited the Northside Farmers Market in Madison. My daughter was eager for me to meet the local yarn vendor who had a stall there. Yorkshire Rose Farm offers lamb and chicken products, and at this market, wool products including yarn. The proprietors, as suggested by the name, came over from England and have been farming in Wisconsin since 2008.

To my chagrin, I failed to get any photos of the stall or the couple, due to my need to corral the toddler. But I discovered that the farm had a blog, so you can read about it here:

http://www.yorkshirerosefarm.com/index.php/about-us

The yarn was displayed in groups by weight. I focused on the fingering weight. It was made from the wool of the Tunis breed. As expected in a natural yarn, it was a bit scratchy. I chose the colorway Peacock and Turquoise. It has short color repeats.

It seems to be a 2-ply yarn, in my mind very comparable to Knitpicks Palette. I found it combined beautifully with a grass-colored fingering twist yarn I had in my stash. Since the Tunis yarn has no nylon reinforcement, I decided not to use it to knit socks. Instead it will be made into a hat and/or gloves.

Here are the two yarns knitted in stripes.

And here they are in a stranded pattern called Rose Window.

Another option would be a mosaic stitch.

So, what do you think of the two yarns together? And should I work them in stripes or Fair Isle pattern?