My first new fiber experiment out of the Big Pile O' Fiber (see yesterday's post) was to try the Cormo wool. After following jsandell around Ravelry, hearing her extoll the virtues of Cormo, and drooling over her beautiful Cormo batts, I decided that was a good place to start. So I pulled out the bag that contained red dyed, unpicked locks and sat down at the wheel.Not red as much as it is a lovely salmon pink, as it turns out, the wool still has a bit of lanolin in it, so I spun it "in the grease" to yield a water-resistant yarn. The small amount of VM came out pretty easily, too, as I teased it open a lot as I spun, because it was fairly well-felted. What a dream though! It is soooo soft, with a cotton-y hand, and spongy (I think that is due to the high crimp, which I tried to show in this photo; it can be seen best in the large version).
After reading this thread on Ravelry, I'm wondering if maybe my prep-method and style of spinning for this yarn didn't really take advantage of the wonderful properties of Cormo. I think I might card the rest of it before spinning. But I still like the yarn that came out of it. The Cormo yielded the 
lovely WoolyBear style yarn shown here on the bobbin. (Sorry the color seems to be off slightly; its not such a deep pink.)Wanna try it yourself? Here's a list of breeders in the US, which will provide some links to farms selling Cormo fiber. Have fun!
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That is an interesting thread. I have yet to try Cormo, but I'm trying to try new things, I got some CVM at guild thing it is nice, and I'm eying my moms 10lbd Rambouillet fleece. But the Cormos sounds fun, and so does that big bag O stuff. :P
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you like the cormo! It's a wonderful wool to work with - lots of possibilities.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you want to card it, unless you do so very gently, as you might end up with lots of neps (as with any fine wool.) You might try flicking it instead. JMHO, of course ;-)
Enjoy!
monkey, how'd you like the CVM? I don't have any yet, but am looking forward to finding some and trying it.
ReplyDeletehi mary!! thanks for the feedback. i have read that cormo is difficult to process w/o getting neppy, but you can see by the styles of yarn i prefer making that isn't such a big turn-off for me. ;) i just thought it would be fun to try and see what comes out the other side.
I smooch cormo. I love how fast I can spin bulky barely fit through the orifice yarn and I love how puffy (lofty?) it can be if carded. Not the best for beginners but very versatile to play with and refreshing after the very predictable corriedale it seems that every one starts with.
ReplyDeleteI am now officially in love w/ Cormo! I started w/ NZ wool myself, but only the first yarn was made from that, then I immediately moved on. I want to try carding, but understand it is more difficult than most to do well. We'll see... Thanks for the visit!
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