We have the most glorious new to us, Tasmanian grown, Australian made non-superwash yarn bases to share with you.
Meet Lexington Woolies Tasmania Cormo, hand dyed by Louie & Lola. Lexington Woolies is a small farm located in southern Tasmania on the banks of the River Derwent where they raise stunning alpaca and Cormo sheep, focusing on responsible and sustainable practices in animal welfare and land management.
Since becoming a knitter in 2014 I had often heard of the deliciousness that was Cormo wool from various US knitting podcasters and wondered why it wasn't a widely available yarn here in Australia.
A little more research revealed that Cormo was actually developed here in Bothwell, Tasmania by Ian Downie in the 1960s. He crossed Corriedale rams with superfine Saxon Merinos to achieve a breed that offered consistently high quality fleeces suitable for production, with good fertility rates.
The Cormo breed became known for its white superfine fleeces, well defined crimp, excellent elasticity, good staple length and gorgeous lustre.
To then learn that there were in fact a few Tassie growers still producing this incredible fibre today got me very excited. Mind blown, I had to find out more!
After discovering Lexington Woolies Tasmania and getting to know Alice and more about her fibre over the last few months, we were delighted when she allowed us to sample her beautiful 100% Cormo 4ply/Fingering and 100% Cormo 8ply/DK bases.
It was truly love at first squish. We've learnt that dyeing these yarns takes a slow and steady approach, but the resultant colour saturation, lustre and delicious handle & bounce of the yarn in your hands as you work with it, just makes you realise how truly special this yarn is and deserving of all the love and care we can give it.
We have dyed up a launch collection of 14 semi-solid colourways, which will be available on both Lexington Woolies Cormo Fingering and Cormo DK from 12noon AEDT, Saturday 17 December as part of a dyed to order release, shipping mid January.
Cormo DK has a meterage of 215m/100gm and Cormo Fingering 365m/100gm.
For further yarn specifications please check out our Yarn Bases page here.
Prior to launching we took the Cormo Fingering through her paces, knitting the beautiful Myst Shawl design by Melody Hoffman.
We knit the shawl in our Bronze colourway, taking a little over two skeins. It was a fun and easy knit, with an interesting construction and graphic lace design, which showed off the Cormo's excellent stitch definition to great effect.
What I couldn't get over was before blocking, just how open the lacework already was - which improved even more post blocking.
We hope you will enjoy this truly special Tasmanian yarn release.
All images supplied by Lexington Woolies Tasmania and Louie & Lola Yarns.
