Dee Dee writes: <<But it wouldn't be the same weight as the lace yarn used for ring shawls unless I'm an extraordinarily good guesser. <<
Well, to paraphrase the good Doctor on Star Trek--one of your guesses would be much more accurate than some people's computations. :)>> Thanks for the compliment, but it's not deserved :) I'm no expert on lace knitting, lace yarns, or Shetland shawls, ring or otherwise (would like to see more of the 'otherwise' shawls, too, as I've always had a fascination for the stuff everyday people made for their everyday use). I can make guesses, just like anyone else, but hard information like Deborah's 48,000 yards per pound is what I really needed. That yarn might well edge toward 1 thread per ply <g> My singles that wrapped about 90 per inch had about 12 threads (of what I call 'medium' style Shetland, distinctly different from either primitive or modern Shetland such as Robin mentioned) as near as I can guess. I didn't have enough for a McMorran yarn balance sample, but combined with another piece about the same weight which together didn't quite bring the arm down to level, I made a very rough guestimate of 8000-10000 yards per pound as a 2 ply. A LOOOONNNGGGG way from the goal :) I do have two modern-style Shetland fleeces; one is soft, the other very much like a Down breed (indistinguishable from Suffolk, my dh says, who had sheared a Suffolk the same day he sheared this modern style Shetland), but I don't think we saved the neck wool, as the rams were a real mess. The softer fleece is nearly as soft as Merino (going by hands, not by microns :). I might wash some of that and try spinning it to 5 threads per singles, just for the heck of it. It occurs to me that one couldn't do a yarn that fine without modern-style wool, since it's much crimpier than any other form of Shetland. I would think at 5 fibers in a singles, the extra crimp would be needed to make the yarn hold together, especially since neck wool (that I've seen, anyway) is shorter than the rest of the fleece, which is already just 2-4 inches long. Sara sent me a very nice website that gives yardage equivalents for machine spun laceweight 2 ply, 1 ply cobweb, and what she calls handspun gossamer. That one is listed at 1,400 per ounce as a two-ply, which my calculator tells me is about 44,800 yards per pound as a singles, very close to Deborah's report. Here's the page: <http://www.heirloom-knitting.com/pages/substituting_yarn2.html> I appreciate the time everyone took to dig up this information for me! I also appreciate Fibernet coming alive again :) You folks don't know how dry I get without your inspiration! Holly To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
