i guess its best i use the wool to make an orenberg shawl. orenberg shawls are the type of shawl that might be considered the "ring shawl" because they are so fine that they can be passed through a ring once knitted completely. i bought a book called "gossamer webs" by Galina Khmeleva & Carol R. Noble.
normally you would use goat down from the russian white goat to make orenberg shawls, but it really is not available nowadays at least for us in the u.s.a.. the goats downy undercoat is as warm as a fur coat when it's knitted in warm shawls. the downy undercoat is only good if the goat is raised outside in very cold climates and its coat changes its fiber abilities if raised elsewhere. that makes it is hard to come by. i will definitley not use the wool for bobbin lace. once i rework a few areas they will be stretched out farther than other pieces of worked lace in the pattern. i just thought i would ask if it had been used other than for lace knitting. it's very easy to spin to small diameters. i have not yet tried the water retted flax only the dew retted, and the dew retted is too course. i can get fine thread with it, but not worth the effort when i can use the water retted much easier at much smaller diameters. i'll stick with that and keep the wool for mittens and hats! as far as shrinking the oversized sweaters go, i read on a website a few years ago about the irish who make their winter coats and sweaters like that. they knit them, then throw them in a pot to boil and agitate to shrink them up and make a tighter weave for a warmer coat and sweater. i also read they put oil on them to make them wind proof. something to try when i knit an oversized big warm fuzzy wool sweater. i won't tell what size i would need to shrink up to fit! good thing i'll be knitting it myself because they probably don't make them that big! lol. that is why shawls must have been so popular! it must be hard to grow out of an item not fitted and square shaped! thanks for the help!! --- Tamara P Duvall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Wool's not like cotton or linen, which you preshrink once/twice and then it stays the same size (more or less); it'll keep shrinking with every washing, until it's felted and stiff as a board, and as impenetrable. > > Yours, T, who buys mens' wool 3X sweaters (dirt cheap on post-season sale, even in US), tosses them in the washer (run through 2 rinse cycles), dries them flat, and ends up with lovely, thick and warm, size (women's) medium :) > > -- > Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ > Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) from suzy in tennessee,u.s.a. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
