Welcome back! This week we’re looking at the qualities of Major, a soft, bulky yarn by Universal Yarn and its strongest attributes. These should make any knitter excited about casting on with it.
Introducing Russet, a calming colorway of Major yarn.
Major is a bulky weight yarn that knits up at around 15 stitches to 4″ [10cm]. The recommended needle size is a US 10 [6mm] but you could use a size or 2 smaller or larger depending on the drape you want to achieve. This substantial 7oz [200g] ball comes in 30 different colorways, which guarantees that every knitter or knitwear recipient will find a color for them from this palette.
The yarn is 100% acrylic, so it’s great for those who are allergic to animal dander and lanolin, and those who just don’t want to invest a lot of time in hand-washing their sweaters or scarves or hats, or whatever lovely items they make out of Major.
This large ball of yarn has lots of colorful, soft goodness that is easy to care for.
The structure of Major consists of 2 individual plies of spun fiber that is space-dyed with a series of colors that gradually transition from one to the other and cycle through a 3- or 4-color sequence. In the skein that I received to review, the one ply consisted of a terracotta red, a mocha brown, and a camel beige. The other ply was mostly cream.
At first I thought it was only cream, but as I knit with it, I discovered that at times it transitioned to a lighter version of the camel beige and even had some segments of the terracotta in it. The marled plies (or barber pole, as I like to call it) allow for gradual striping and a built-in tweedy look.
The colors of Major transition gradually from one to another and the marl twist creates a tweedy, luxurious look.
I found that this variety of acrylic isn’t squeaky while knitting, and has a very soft hand to it. The twist isn’t too tight, so there’s a lot of loft in the yarn itself, and also in the fabric when I knit it to the recommended gauge. Over the next few days, I’ll share my experience swatching and designing with Universal Yarn Major. Join me!
This is part 1 of 5 in this series.
Go to part 2: Should you hand-wash acrylic knits?
[shareaholic app=”follow_buttons” id=”23784471″]
