Inspiration
Atlas: Up Close with This New Yarn
Pear, Merlot, Skyline, Mallard, Cork
I’ve been good about keeping this Modern Daily Knitting secret. A yarn!
Not just any regular yarn, but an intentionally designed, squishy, soft, and delectable yarn. Atlas.
Cue Kool and the Gang! Dance party in the warehouse! Let’s celebrate!
The MDK team built this yarn from scratch, making decisions to create a lofty, smooth, buttery-soft yarn with good stitch definition.
The yarn is made from single source Rambouillet sheep, spun with a worsted draft, and low twist, and twisted into three plies. Let’s see what that means for your future projects.
Fiber
Rambouillet fiber is known for two things: softness and amazing crimp.
See the squiggles in the locks that look like crinkle-cut French fries? That’s crimp, a lot of crimp. Crimp makes a yarn elastic, springy. A garment made with this yarn will keep its shape and stitch definition. Crimp also helps a yarn made with light twist keep its structure, which is key for this yarn.
Just as fine as Merino, Rambouillet has more spring and durability. Rambouillet has a matte surface that gives it has a particular richness when dyed.
Single source means it comes from one farm in California. These are happy sheep treated with care and compassion. Just look at those faces.
Construction
When will we develop squish-o-vision? Oh, for a way to allow you to reach through your computer screen and feel yarn. The squish may be the first thing you notice about Atlas when you touch it. You know it’s going to be soft; it looks as soft as that pair of jeans you’ve been wearing for ten years, and it is. The squish is what’s surprising.
You can see in the strand that the yarn has a lighter ply twist than say a sock yarn, or even some everyday yarns. Looking at the untwisted yarn photo you can see the lower amount of twist is also in the individual strands.
A low-twist yarn is usually more tender than Atlas. The crimp makes the magic here. The crimp of the fiber adds stability to the yarn at this lower twist. If this was another fiber, say Corriedale, a fiber with less crimp, I doubt the yarn would hold together as well as this Rambouillet.
The yarn is spun with a worsted draft which keeps the outside smooth. The light twist traps air in the yarn making it light and warm, and the springy energy of the crimp makes the yarn elastic as well as helping to hold it together.
Making this yarn a 3-ply is genius. Even with all that crimp, the yarn is fine and soft, which gives it an inclination toward lax stitch definition and pilling. Adding a third ply protects the individual plies; the surface of each strand is exposed to less abrasion since the plies all roll in and tuck together. Three plies makes a rounder yarn, which gives this soft-looking yarn better stitch definition than you might expect.
Swatches
It surprised and delighted me how well this yarn works with all my stitch samples. It has a fascinating quality of looking (and feeling) soft, yet having good stitch definition. I wouldn’t call it crisp stitch definition, but look at the stitches. I see edges, and every stitch pattern I used is clear.
I knit all these swatches (except one) with the same needles that gave me 4.5 stitches to the inch.
Stockinette
Atlas makes a great stockinette fabric. The fabric is smooth and even, perfect for all kinds of knitting. Because it is a 3-ply yarn, it makes very tidy stitches even if they aren’t crisp. I won’t stop talking about how soft this yarn is either. It has a different type of softness from Merino. Merino is like buttercream frosting, and Rambouillet is more like homemade whipped cream.
Gauge Shift
I went up a couple of needle sizes to see how Atlas shifted to a looser gauge. As I knit at the larger gauge, I could see that the stitch definition became softer. You can see in the closer photo that it loses stitch definition. The gauge is 4 stitches to the inch, and I’m not sure I would knit a shovel-the-snow sweater at this gauge, but I would make a cardigan to wear while I work at my computer every day, or to go out and about into the world.
Drape
The larger gauge makes a fabric that’s not quite as durable or has the quality of stitch definition that the tight gauge does, but it does give us something else that is elusive with a loft yarn, a bit of drape. You can see that the swatch on the left (4 stitches/inch) drapes, and bends differently than the swatch on the right (4.5 stitches/ inch). I would definitely go up a needle or two if I wanted a shawl, scarf, or cowl to move a little.
Lace
Usually a 3-ply yarn knit into lace emphasizes the decreases—a 3-ply yarn really wants to stack and show texture. But because of the softness of the fiber and twist in this yarn, I find this lace swatch to be really balanced between holes and decreases. I don’t see a big ridge where the decreases are and the yarnovers are staying nicely open, two things most 3-ply yarns wouldn’t do.
Cable
I pulled a cable pattern from Field Guide No. 9: Revolution with patterns by Norah Gaughan and was astonished at the stitch definition in my swatch. The twists are bold, and the cables have enough lift that they cast shadows on the reverse stockinette. The cables look clean, if a little soft. It’s pretty amazing. Even more amazing is that this swatch is knit at the looser end of the yarn’s gauge range. If I knit this with a gauge of 5- 5.5 stitches/inch, the cables would be even meatier.
Slip Stitch
How did I forget how great slip stitch colorwork is? This yarn knit in a two-color slip stitch from Barbara Walker One. It has excellent texture, and the three plies of the yarn help to keep the colors and yarn distinct in the pattern. Do you remember how waffle-weave Henley shirts used to feel? It’s like that. At this gauge with stranding, the fabric is all squish and no drape, it would make an excellent warm sweater or snuggly accessories.
In Conclusion
Atlas is a shapeshifter of a yarn. It works in unexpected and sometimes mysterious ways with texture, color, and lace. It’s a yarn that’s happy snuggling on the couch as a blanket or keeping you warm as you wander in winter woods. You could do some swatching to test drive its versatility, or jump in and make a sweater right from the start! Disco or ballroom, Atlas is a dance party in your knitting bag.
Save it for later. Here’s how to save this article in your MDK account with one click.
Those cables look so magnificently squishy that I can hardly stand it! I so love a fluffy cable. Can’t wait to try one of my own!
Your new yarn looks amazing! Will there be stockists in the U.K.? High customs/duty taxes make it prohibitive to order direct. I would love to try it out.
So much to love! Can’t wait to squish!!!
Lovely! Would you give us that slip stitch recipe, please?
Looks like the three and one tweed pattern from here:
https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2013/06/16/whits-knits-slip-stitch-dishtowels/
Thanks for that comprehensive assessment, Jill. Really helpful!
Thank you, Jill. This is a big help….I can’t wait to squish it!! Congratulations MDK!!
I actually prefer my yarns to have less crisp definition, so your description of this is a plus with me.
I don’t like too much drape but also don’t like knitting with small needles, so would need to play around with this yarn and my looser style of knitting to find what works best for me.
And I love buying yarns from single breeds, just for the uniqueness of it. I buy a lot of British breed yarns and knitting with them ups my coolness factor.
I appreciate what sounds like an honest critique of the yarn. And girls, I love the price. I expected the yarn to cost more.
Fascinating article, thank you!
Great article! Full of what we want to know and not science-y. Looking forward to getting my hands on Atlas.
As soon as I saw Jillian’s mini-manikin holding swatches in my inbox, I knew it was going to be an exceptionally good MDK day. Now I feel truly introduced to Atlas and all it’s potential. Thanks for another super-post Jillian!
I love these Jillian Moreno pieces – I learn so much. And I’m super looking forward to trying out Atlas.
Jillian this is so great! My box of Atlas arrived last night and it is exquisitely squeezy! But there’s a little “je ne sais quoi” that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I have a habit of listening to new yarn and when I held it up to my ear and gave it a squeeze, it whispered. It seemed to be saying “Yes, I’m squeezy but I’m not crazy. I’ve got your back.” It’s a barely perceptible crispness that makes sure the squeeze stays good and warm and cozy and doesn’t go too far. There’s a fine line between a squeeze and a choke hold.
I love it. And now you’ve helped me understand that it’s not just my vivid imagination but actually part of the structure and nature of the fiber. I have a zoom in a few minutes but will be casting on a swatch with my lunch.
Karen, this reads like literary non-fiction. Love it!
An excellent rundown as usual from Jillian Moreno! Now I just have to restrain myself for that lovely golden brown to be back in stock 🙂
I’m sold! And hoping for many, many, many more colors!
Thanks for this comprehensive and comprehensible piece! I was lucky enough to try some Atlas, and what really struck me was how pill resistant it is for such a soft yarn. And I did a cable hat at a 23 over 4 inches gauge and loved how they turned out!
Love the picture of the sheep least we forget where all that goodness comes from.
I wonder how Atlas would work for a temperature blanket? It would be heavier than Felted Tweed, but I might like that. What do you all think?
I got my box of yarn for the blanket of joy kit. This yarn is just equisite. I actually thought about using it for a temperature blanket myself. But I love the pattern for the kit! The color card is spot on for the actual yarn also if anyone is wondering about that.
Lovely! Could I suggest adding an abrasion test too, like Clara Parkes does in her reviews.