Recently I purchased two skeins of tweed Quarry yarn from Harrisville Designs.  I’ve been looking for tweed yarn in dark colors to knit hats for my boys.  The company is located in New Hampshire.  The tag notes that the yarn is “sourced” in Wyoming, “spun” in New Hampshire, and “dyed” in Pennsylvania.

I purchased “Obsidian” and “Slate”, which are black and gray.  The colors are nice.  The yarn is not very soft, but I had hoped that it would become soft after washing.  However, I can’t even get this yarn onto my needles without it coming apart!  I’ve tried twice to start a hat in the round, and any pulling on the yarn (unless you are super careful) will cause it to come apart.

So I finally had the cast on figured out and had just joined the yarn in the round.  I went to tighten it up, and it came apart.  I can’t knit with yarn like this!  Apparently this type of yarn does this, but I wish I had known.  I spent a good amount of money on this yarn and I am not happy.  UPDATE: I have found this PDF about Quarry yarn and it recommends twisting the yarn before putting stress on it. That should strengthen the strand so it won’t split.

I’m happy to support home-grown yarn, and I used to live near Harrisville in New Hampshire, so I was excited to buy this product. Once I give it another try, I will post updates here.

I’d love to hear suggestions from knitters who have used Quarry yarn, but in the meantime I did find this post by someone who knit an entire cardigan sweater using Quarry. It came out lovely, and here is the link to her sweater page.