Cormo 3.0

This release features the very last of the Cormo 3.0 that's been dyed by the Saco River Dyehouse. 

Quick Facts

Gauge: This plump, three-ply, combed American Cormo yarn has two distinct modes depending on what you want to make out of it. If your intent is a spongy, decadent cowl or scarf--something where abrasion concerns will never enter the picture--then you can pull out your US 11 (8mm) needles and finish your 3-3.25 stitches-per-inch project in no time. If, however, your goal is a garment where structure, dimensional stability, or abrasion resistance are a concern--which is to say, any kind of sweater--you will want to stick in the US 9 to 10 (5.5-6.0mm) needle range, seeking garments with a gauge of 3.5 to 3.75 stitches per inch. While Cormo 3.0 performs equally well on all types of needles, I particularly enjoyed working it on bamboo needles with a somewhat blunt tip. But the choice is yours: use the needles that feel right in your hands. 

Put-up: 120 yards (109m) 

Skein weight: 100g 

Source: Wool from purebred American Cormo sheep raised in Montana. Scoured at Bollman's in San Angelo, Texas. Picked, carded, combed, pin-drafted, spun, twisted, and skeined at Kraemer Yarns in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Dyed and finally twisted into the skeins you see here at the Saco River Dyehouse in Saco, Maine.

Care: Hand wash in warm water with mild soap, let dry flat in a quiet spot away from direct sunlight.

Yarn Story

Elsa first mentioned a third bale to me back in the summer of 2014. For our third Cormo experiment I had just one thing in mind: Bulky.

Think of it. What more delicious way to enter a long cold winter than with a plump, three-ply Cormo that almost knits itself? This is a comfort yarn, like your favorite comfort food only better, with fewer calories and a plush wool hug that will comfort you for years. It longs to be a cowl.

The yarn's rounded construction renders a full, mostly steady stockinette with a hint of wabi-sabi wobble. The tighter your gauge, the more noticeable that wobble will be -- that is, until bath time. This yarn adores stockinette and will give you a highly spongy, corrugated garter stitch. But where it really thrives is in knit/purl textured patterning. Cables will be of a phenomenally high relief--just keep in mind that the more cables you work, the more the potential for bulk in the finished garment. 

As with all our yarns, Cormo 3.0 is not machine washable. It needs to be washed by hand. If you thought Cormo 1.0 and 2.0 bloomed, just wait until you take your still-wobbly, somewhat vulnerable stitches off the needle and drop them into a warm soapy bath. Give them a few squeezes, let them rest, and only then give them a good rinse (in the same temperature water as the initial bath). The cohesive relaxation and bloom on the finished fabric surface may take your breath away.

Project Ideas

Just two skeins of Turmeric completed this version of Ysolda Teague's Suloinen, which is a wonderfully engaging and satisfying knit -- like a crossword puzzle where you know every word.

Cormo 3.0 is a comfort yarn that thrives in the simplest of stitches and projects. I took great delight doodling this cowl, which used exactly three skeins--and can be shortened or expanded depending on your own yarn supply.  

Here's what I did: Using US 11 (8.0mm) needles, I cast on 135 stitches, joined to work in the round, and then worked (k2, p2) ribbing around and around and around until I felt like stopping. You could easily substitute any other motif. If you like the barber pole effect, simply pick a motif that is ONE stitch shy of being divisible of the total number of stitches you cast on. 

The secret is having an odd number of stitches on your needles, causing the rib to spiral sideways in a manner that looks far more complicated than it really is. My gauge was 3 stitches per inch in pattern, and my finished cowl measured 46" circumference and 12 1/2" tall--though, again, all of this is easily changed to suit your own desires.