Fibra Natura Kingston Tweed: Not your everyday scratchy tweed yarn

This week I’ll be focusing on a lovely, versatile yarn by Fibra Natura called Kingston Tweed.

Kingston Tweed is truly an updated tweed yarn. It comes in 15 colors and in my opinion, they’re fresh, while muted and subtle, but not dusty or faded like so many tweed yarns of the past. Another thing I really like is the fiber content. It’s 50% sheep’s wool, 25% alpaca and 25% viscose. To be truthful, some of the labels say 25% mixed fiber, and some say 25% viscose. A mixed fiber is typical of tweed yarns because the little bits of tweed are often felted blips of different fibers, often a blend of man-made polyesters, acrylics, or animal fiber, usually wool. Regardless, the viscose does add a slight sheen to the yarn. It also gives it a light loftiness, which is only enhanced by the alpaca fiber.

Two plies of a mix of long and short fibers are twisted together to make Kingston Tweed. The neps, which are those little felted specks of different colors, gives tweed its characteristic look. The neps are spun into each single ply first, then secured when the two singles are spun with an S-twist together. Most of the neps appear in a range of neutral colors from beige to light gray, to black.

I think Kingston Tweed is very versatile because you can knit with it in various gauges and it maintains warmth and drape. The animal fiber content is also key to its success because it takes blocking very well.

Kingston Tweed by Fibra Natura is an excellent yarn for both garments and accessories. In my tomorrow’s post, I’ll share some pattern ideas you can try with this yarn. Also, take note of the stitch pattern on the left end of the scarf pictured below. That’s called the Braid Stitch. I’ll show you how to do that on Wednesday, and Thursday will be the day I share a fingerless mitten featuring the Braid Stitch. Stay tuned.

Happy knitting!

This is part 1 of 5 in this series

Go to part 2: 4 free knitting patterns perfect to knit with Kingston Tweed