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Heirloom Romney take Two

Knitted rectangular color swatches in the colors of the rainbow all in a circle.  Up close photograph of the colors.

Back in 2012 we launched our first ever yarn line, Heirloom Romney. Heirloom Romney is a US grown, milled and dyed yarn line produced for us by Jeane DeCoster of Elemental Affects yarn in Desert Hot Springs California. The wool is sourced from two women-owned farms Tawanda Farms  in Montague California and Silver Cloud farm in Ashland Oregon. Heirloom used to be milled in Massachusetts, but recently, the mill discontinued working with smaller companies like Elemental Affects. Jeane was unable to find a US mill that could make the woolen-spun Heirloom we had gotten to know and love over the years. She found a new mill (Kraemer in Pennsylvania) who could make a semi-worsted version of Heirloom using the same fiber. This resulted in a yarn that is different in two major ways, accounting for a new-and-improved, re-released Heirloom Romney. Here are the major differences:

1) The new Heirloom is softer. That's right, it's much softer to the hand than the previous woolen-spun version. While the old Heirloom was a workhorse yarn that would stand up to years of wear, it was not a next-to-skin yarn. The new Heirloom is still the durable Romney fiber, but the spinning process has given it a softer hand. It might not be next-to-skin for everyone, but it is much softer than before. What a serendipitous surprise!

Yarn swatches stacked in a pile in a rainbow pattern being held by a hand straight out from the camera.

2) The new Heirloom is lighter. The old Heirloom was a blend of light and dark natural fiber that resulted in a light heather grey that was the base yarn that was dyed for all colors. The new Heirloom was blended differently - there are now two shades of natural grey and the "natural" is a much creamier white than before. This meant we had to develop a whole new color palette! The colors just didn't look the same on the new light base yarn. Now the new palette of 22 colors consists of colors dyed on both the "natural" base and the "medium grey" base for a beautiful range of hues.

Rectangular knit swatches in the color of the rainbow in a circle to show all 22 colors.

Heirloom is a beautiful 100% US made yarn that we are proud to carry the Fancy Tiger name. In order to celebrate the new-and-improved Heirloom - we've redesigned the labels for a complete makeover. It's the same gauge, weight and yardage as before so it will work in all of your favorite worsted-weight patterns.

Up close photograph of yarn to show the newly designed labels.

Heirloom is great for colorwork, cardigans, pullovers, rug hooking, mittens and more. We have plenty of free and paid patterns already made for Heirloom, but are going to be working on some new samples using some recently released favorite worsted weight patterns. We are excited to make all sorts of projects out of this yarn in the coming fall and winter months.

Tawanda Farms in Montague, California

Tawanda Farms sheep on a farm in CA.  A Momma sheep and two little babies in a green field with mountains in the background on a sunny day.

Silver Cloud Farms in Ashland, Oregon

Silver Cloud Farms in Ashland Oregon.  Two big sheep in tall green grass with trees and mountains behind them.

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