Yarn Review: Expression Fiber Arts Pearlescent Fingering

I saw the most beautiful yarn on instagram last week in a project by @thinminnt (who is definitely worth a follow, BTW!).  She told me that the yarn is from Expression Fiber Arts in the Firefly colorway.  Now, as you know I’m not a fan of variegated yarn, but this one spoke to me.  (Or screamed at me, more like.)

Thinminnt was using the DK weight which has a fun sparkly fiber in it, but I went with the fingering weight on the Pearlescent base (my only other option in the Firefly colorway).  It’s a 50/50 mix of merino and silk in a single ply yarn – the combination of the two fibers is what makes it appear kind of shimmery (hence the name “pearlescent”). It’s gorgeous.  Observe:

The yarn is not cheap at $30 + $5 to ship but it is a generous skein of approximately 115 grams/550 yards. I don’t mind shelling out for something as gorgeous as this.  It’s worth the splurge.

On the down side, the single-ply doesn’t have much twist so the yarn is extremely delicate.  I used my swift and hand-crank ball winder to cake it up and the yarn broke twice – and because it is a superwash wool you can’t spit splice it (the most attractive join, IMHO).  I fixed the breaks with Russian joins but they don’t seem very stable because of the single-ply construction, but I think it will be okay.  All this is to say: I strongly recommend winding the skein into a ball by hand.

I cast on a Favorite Scarf Ever and love the way it is knitting up!  The colors are just amazing.  I was being very light with my tension while knitting because I was afraid of breaking the yarn again, but I’m feeling more comfortable with it now and I think it can handle a standard tension – I was just being paranoid.