Yarn Review: Atlas

I’ve got a new pattern on the needles, and a new-to-me-yarn that I’m excited to review for you: Modern Daily Knitting’s Atlas.

I don’t often have time to knit up non-design work, but at the most recent Strungalong Retreat I got a chance to see and admire Debbi Stone’s Avena sweater (Rav link) (pattern by Jennifer Steingass, available on Ravelry) and decided I really wanted to make one for myself.

Like Debbi, I wanted to do a dark background and lighter colors for the contrast stitches. I thought it would be fun to have a number of different colors in the yoke rather than one or two. But what yarn?

I’d heard about Modern Daily Knitting’s Atlas last year when it first came out, and got to see it in person at Wool & Folk last fall. But I didn’t buy any at the time. I couldn’t think of a pattern that it was the perfect match for back then. But it must have kept rattling around in my brain, since it popped into my head right away as an option for Avena.

Atlas is made from 100% Rambouillet, a fiber I love to spin but don’t often see in a commercially-made yarn. Rambouillet has a delightful crimp that makes it bouncy and squishy to spin — one of my favorites to play with on the wheel. I was excited to see whether that bounce and squish would still be evident in the yarn and what that would mean during knitting and in the finished project.

Some of Atlas’ colors are a little more muted or grey in tone than I often go for. It’s true, I’m a fan of clear brights and jewel tones. That’s not Atlas’ color story, and perhaps that’s why I didn’t snap any up on first glance last year. But after a more careful perusal this time around, I was really drawn to Mallard, a deep blue-green, for my background color.

For the contrast colors, I decided to push myself out of my normal comfort zone just a bit and explore the yellows in the Atlas collection, as well as some of the lighter greens and blues. I ordered up one each of Natural, Citron, Pear, Leek, Seaglass, and Skyline, with plans to use them in that order.

When the yarn arrived I was not disappointed. The colors where just what I had hoped they would be, and putting them next to each other, I was convinced that I’d made great choices in my color selection: near to my comfort zone, but also enough outside it to provide the necessary frisson that keeps colorwork from becoming insipid.

In the skein, I could definitely feel the squish factor that makes Rambouillet such fun, and that was equally present in the cakes once it was wound. These cakes are fun to squeeze!

As all good knitters must, I began to swatch. I really wanted to see what this yarn would do over several different needle sizes, and wanted to test my planned color order to make sure it would still look good when knit up. I cast on enough stitches to work a small circular sample, just a bit skinnier than an actual sleeve, since I’ll be knitting the real thing in the round.

Atlas knits up beautifully, and made good fabric over several different needle sizes. For this project I preferred it knit a bit tightly, especially as that helps keep the colorwork neater. That slightly firmer fabric matched the pattern gauge of 5 stitches to the inch. (For an accessory, I would happily knit Atlas at 6 or even more stitches to the inch.)

At that point I would have said (and did, in fact, say to my friend Ron) that the yarn was pleasing to handle, wonderfully bouncy, and the fabric I knit from it was soft but not “Merino soft.”

But of course, a swatch is not truly a useful object until it’s been washed, so into the bath it went. A little soak in some Soak not only settled the colorwork stitches, but revealed the true nature of Atlas yarn. After drying, the signature bounce and squish of Rambouillet that was noticeable in the skein and cake was also very much present in the fabric. It’s fun to squeeze and has a certain springiness to it. But also, and most importantly for this tactile girl, after a little wash the fabric is, indeed, “Merino soft.”

The positive change that happened during blocking — that transformation from good yarn to great yarn — is what prompted this review. Atlas surprised me in really good ways, and if you’re anything like me you’re going to love this yarn for a wide variety of worsted-to-Aran weight projects. Its three plies make it round, which means it’ll give good definition to cables and textural patterns. It’s non-superwash, which means it’s sticky enough to behave well in stranded or just about any colorwork application. And it’s got that bounce, that squish, that lofty thing going on that makes it just a touch lighter than you think it’s going to be, and just a hint more fun.

It’s worth noting that the Mallard color did bleed just a touch into the soaking water. (Testing colorfastness is yet another good reason to WASH YOUR SWATCHES.) I don’t consider that a big problem; I’ll just make sure to add a bit of white vinegar to the water when I block the finished sweater. But I’m always glad to know in advance when I’ll need to do that.

Atlas is available directly from Modern Daily Knitting via their website, in 23 colors. Put-up is 145 yards (132 m) per 50g (2 oz) hank, and it retails for $15.95. I did not receive any material consideration for this review, and paid full price for my yarn.