My new wool love is Isager Tweed, made in Ireland and the most gorgeous commercial tweed yarn I’ve seen in my local yarn shop to date. Ever since Rowan discontinued their Fine Tweed yarn, I was not sure how to improvise a substitution for a rustic multi-color tweed single ply.
What is it about tweed that is just so utterly sensual, timeless, and tasteful?

Isager Tweed in Navy and Winter Grey
It must be color variegation which happens only when yarn is spun from pre-dyed fibers, blended together so that those little explosions of random ~~ sometimes quirky, sometimes quiet ~~ contrasting color flecks just pop out, and make the visual as well as tactile texture very distinctive.
Ireland and the British Isles have been for centuries steeped in the wool mill industry, its countryside once peppered with countless woollen mills during the Industrial Age, but in modern times there are only a handful of the old mills still producing, for major yarn companies (like Isager) as well as a growing number of indie knitwear designers who wish to have their own mill spun label.
The yarn is fingering to fine-fingering weight, a blend of wool and mohair , in a beautifully rustic single ply. It has a very subtle coarseness , I am guessing from the goat hair, which gives it an old world feel and ever so like handspun with slight thick and thin variation in the yarn, but at the same time it is soft to the touch from being mostly a downy breed of wool to balance out and gives it a very versatile feel. Even though I am deeply involved in the spinning of my own tweed, and I actually aspire to produce a single ply tweed much like this yarn, but if hand-spun isn’t handy, I can’t go wrong with the real Irish spun. I must say how lovely it is that my local yarn shop has this great yarn, and in the best colors too.
♣ ♣ ♣
Oh! I found yet another wool film in the “Hands” series about how to make a Donegal spinning wheel! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have …
Love the film. Thank you! I adore that tweedy gray color.
xx
Yummy yarns. I’m particularly drawn to the mustard tweed 🙂
Glad you looked on Isager’s website, some beautiful colors… mustard indeed! x
I love tweed yarn. Thank you for posting the video about making a spinning wheel, I enjoyed it.
Wen, you probably guessed I am now knitting forthcoming design in this yarn ~~ two yarns, and two ‘sizes’, Isager Tweed fingering weight for the size with more sts in repeat, and Rowan Felted Tweed sport/dk weight for smaller size with fewer sts in repeat ~~ xx
Oh that is beautiful yarn!!!
Thanks AJ, I hope your LYS stocks it too…
I’ll have to check it out:)
Love your choice of yarn! I can’t wait to see what you make with those two skeins. 🙂
I have seen that nifty film a few too many times. It eats up my data limit on my cell phone, you see. But I still find it fascinating, especially when the fellows wife is spinning on her 300 year old wheel. If I was 300 years old, I might be a bit crickety and rattley too! I think that beloved old wheel has earned the right to be a bit crochetey in her joints.