Yarn Review: The Fibre Co. Luma

There seem to be new yarns popping up all the time, and every season I take a look at what's on offer and decide what I like best and what's going to fit into the shop well. I always get excited when I hear that The Fibre Co. has created a new yarn as they always seem to come up with something beautiful.

The latest yarn from The Fibre Co. is Luma a DK weight blend of 50% wool, 25% cotton, 15% linen and 10% silk. Each 50g hank is 125m / 137 yards and should be hand washed. As is typical for a yarn from The Fibre Co. it is hand dyed and "intentionally crafted with subtle texture and colour variances."

Luma arrived in the shop a couple of weeks ago and the first thing I noticed was the art deco feel of the color palette. Sure, I had seen the shade card and some images beforehand but its just not the same as seeing it all in person. The palette really works together and there are several possibilities for interesting color combos in a project. Because of the fibre content the shades are all slightly muted versions of themselves while still retaining good color saturation if that makes sense. For example, Flamingo (used in my swatch) is a pastel at first glance but it also has a depth of color, something I quite like.

I got to swatching the other night and was knitting away without really thinking about it. I suddenly thought to myself 'ooops, I was supposed to be concentrating on the feel of the yarn so I could write about it later' but then decided that the fact that I had zoned out so quickly was actually a really nice quality of the yarn. It wasn't splitting and was moving with ease along my needles. It got softer the more I worked with it, a lovely result of the linen content and the swatch held it's shape well after I blocked it. (Yes, I absolutely blocked my swatch!) The resulting fabric is lovely and lightweight; perfect for for creating garments to be worn as light layers or a spring shawl. 

The Fibre Co. also released the April in Paris Collection last week which has some great pieces in it. I quite like the cardigan pattern Rue Cambon and the sweater pattern Rue St. Antoine, I could see both fitting into my wardrobe well. Galerie d'Apollon is also stunning and you can so clearly see the inspiration of Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face. In addition to be stunning with a red ball gown, I would love to see it with some cropped black trousers, a crisp white blouse and black loafers - perfect outfit for sitting in a Parisian cafe enjoying a glass of wine in April. Galerie d'Apollon is FREE for the whole month of February too, just use the code "lumalove" at checkout on Ravlery. 

So all in all, I'm once again impressed with what Daphne and the team at The Fibre Co. have produced. Luma is a truly year round yarn with it's unusual blend of fibres and the totally wearable fabric it creates.

You can see all the shades of Luma and a trunk show of the April in Paris collection next week at the AYS stand at Unravel.

- Carmen