Malabrigo Yarn

Why Malabrigo behaves the way it does

Malabrigo is a family-run Uruguayan company whose yarns are hand-dyed in small batches, mostly on soft merino bases. Two practical consequences follow. First, the colour is not uniform: skeins vary between and within dye lots, and the depth comes from layers of dye rather than one flat shade. Second, singles yarns such as the popular worsted-weight singles are loosely spun for softness, which gives an extraordinary handle and a fabric that blooms after washing, but also means the yarn pills more readily than a tightly plied one and can drift apart if you tug at it while knitting.

Weights here run from lace through 4 ply and DK to aran, worsted and super chunky, and prices reflect hand dyeing and merino content.

Working with hand-dyed colour

• The best advice we can give you is to alternate skeins as you knit or crochet. Work two rows from one skein, two from the next, all the way up a garment. It is the single most effective way to stop a visible line where skeins change.
• Choose the stitch to suit the shade. Highly variegated colourways drown cables and lace; keep them for garter, stocking stitch and simple shawls.
• Semi-solids for texture. These are where the cabled and textured patterns belong, since the tonal variation lifts the stitch pattern instead of fighting it.
• Swatch the colour, not just the tension. Pooling behaves completely differently over a sleeve's stitch count than over a body's.

Choosing a weight for your project

The lace and 4 ply weights suit shawls, socks where the base includes nylon, and fine garments. DK and aran are the sweet spot for jumpers, cardigans and hats, giving warmth without heaviness. The chunky and super chunky yarns make cowls, hats and blankets that grow visibly by the hour and show off the dye at its most dramatic. Buy to the metres stated in your pattern rather than by skein count, as yardage varies considerably between the bases.

Tension, blocking and pilling

Merino singles relax and spread when washed, sometimes noticeably, so wash and dry your tension square exactly as you will treat the finished piece before you calculate anything. A garment measured from an unwashed swatch in a softly spun merino can come out a full size larger. Block gently by soaking, pressing out water in a towel and drying flat. Expect some pilling at points of friction such as underarms and cuffs; a fabric comb or a gentle sweater shaver dealt with weekly at first keeps it looking new, and the pilling slows down after the loose fibres have gone.

Care

Unless a base is specifically superwash, treat Malabrigo as hand wash only in lukewarm water with a wool wash, without agitation, since merino felts readily. Dry flat away from heat. Store folded with a moth deterrent; soft untreated merino is exactly what moths prefer. Keep the ball band, since the base names differ in fibre and washing requirements even when the colourway is identical, and a hat and a shawl bought in the same shade may need quite different treatment in the sink.

Malabrigo yarn questions

Is Malabrigo machine washable? Only the superwash bases. Check the ball band and hand wash anything else.

Why do my skeins look slightly different? Hand dyeing produces natural variation. Alternate skeins every two rows to blend them.

Does Malabrigo pill? The softly spun singles do, particularly at first. Comb or shave the surface gently and it settles down.

What weights are available? Lace and 4 ply through DK, aran and worsted to super chunky, depending on the base.

Which patterns suit variegated colourways? Simple shawls, garter stitch and plain stocking stitch, where the colour is the feature rather than the stitch pattern.