Recently Stitchcraft Marketing contacted me to see if I would be interested in knitting with Brown Sheep‘s new Prairie Spun DK yarn. Brown Sheep is a family-owned and operated company up in Mitchell, Nebraska. I’ve actually always wanted to visit! Prairie Spun DK is a 100% US wool spun into a 3-ply DK weight yarn. It comes in skeins of 256 yards per 100 grams.
Brown Sheep generously offered to send me a pattern as well, and I selected the Prairie Grass Cowl designed by Patricia Kalthoff. I had trouble choosing from the vibrant colors in the lineup, both solid and variegated colorways. I ultimately picked 2 skeins of the Lost Lake colorway, which happened to be the colorway used in the pattern photos. Upon reflection, I might have used Honeycomb, which is more the colorway of prairie grass here in Kansas, but the teal blue I received was so gorgeous I don’t have any regrets.
The pattern itself is a good pattern if it’s your first time trying out cables. You can choose whether to knit the pattern as a scarf, using 1 skein of Prairie Spun DK, or as an eternity loop/cowl using 2 skeins. The pattern is a 4-row repeat which includes cabled edges, and then a series of cables that wave through the pattern a bit like prairie grass does in the wind. The only modification I made to the pattern was I went up one from the recommended needle sizes; the pattern calls for a US 7 but I thought the fabric was a bit dense, so I ended up using a US8.
The yarn performed beautifully. It held up to a bit of ripping at the beginning, but in general knit smoothly with nice stitch definition. The wool is surprisingly soft and yet a bit rustic at the same time. The biggest thing I noticed is that the wool is a bit sticky; I suspect it would be great for a steeked colorwork sweater. I don’t know if you can tell from the photos, but it appears that the wool may be a bit mixed. Every so often there were darker strands in the yarn that gave it a bit of a mottled look and added texture and depth to the color.
I expect I’ll be ordering a sweater quantity of Prairie Spun soon!
A special thank you to Stitchcraft Marketing and the folks at Brown Sheep who sent me 2 skeins of Prairie Spun DK (retail: $22.00) and the Prairie Grass Cowl Pattern (retail: $3.50) for free. I received no other compensation for this review. All opinions and photos are my own.