$9.00–$40.00
Half a pound of your choice. Most are combed top, with a few slivers. Unless noted, these are protein or protein-like fibers, suitable for dyeing with acid dyes. Priced individually.
All-Wool Combed Tops
Merino is the soft bouncy favorite that's next-to-skin soft, stretchy, and fine. Merino gives you great yardage for handspinning. It felts easily, so handle gently when dyeing.
Organic Merino is marvelously soft and certified organic.
Superfine Merino is even softer. Perfect for sensitive skin and the fussiest babies.
Superwash Merino has been specially treated to resist felting. Garments made of superwash fiber can be machine washed successfully. Ideal for socks and baby garments. Takes dye very strongly and is a bit incoherent when wet, so I recommend winding into a big skein and tying at several spots before dyeing. Due to slickness, a bit more challenging to spin for beginners.
Optim is a modern marvel. It's 100% merino that's been permanantly stretched to produce a superfine (cashmere-level), ultra soft, long-stapled product that is totally unlike merino (or any other fiber, in my opinion). Since it's been permanently stretched, it doesn't have merino's memory and makes a drapier yarn. It is impossibly fine and soft and has a longer staple than untreated merino. Spinning it is delightfully fun--it has a gooey, taffy-like feel and can be spun ridiculously fine. While it's quite pricey for a wool product, it's a fraction of other fine products like cashmere, and has the added benefit of a much longer staple, giving you way more flexibility in how it's spun.
Bluefaced Leicester, aka BFL is a fantastic all-around fiber, with a good length staple, soft, easy to spin, fluffy, with a light luster. It doesn't felt as readily as some other wools, so it's a good choice for beginning dyers.
Superwash BFL is Bluefaced Leicester that has been specially treated to resist felting. Garments made of superwash fiber can be machine washed successfully. Ideal for socks and baby garments. Takes dye very strongly and is a bit incoherent when wet, so I recommend winding into a big skein and tying at several spots before dyeing. Due to slickness, a bit more challenging to spin for beginners. $14.
Corriedale is a great all-around wool. Easy to spin and hard-wearing but still reasonably soft.
Falkands is another nice all-around wool. Medium staple length, sturdier than the other two, easy to spin.
100% Wool is an economical, sturdy, easy-to-spin medium wool that's excellent for beginners. It's made of a blend of mixed-breed wools. I love it for hard-wearing socks, mittens, and sweaters (most people will want to wear a t-shirt under sweaters, which I always do anyway to extend their life). Takes plenty of abuse in carding and gains a softer hand and touch when blended with silk, bamboo, tencel, etc., making it a nice base wool for batts.
Fine Shetland has a long staple and is a favorite of lace knitters.
Wensleydale has a very long staple and luster, similar to mohair. Very popular with felters, as it produces an interesting wavy appearance when felted. Luster gives it a special beauty when dyed.
Romney is sturdy and strong, excellent for hard-wearing items like mittens, socks & outerwear. Bright white.
Polwarth is soft, fine and bouncy like Merino, with a slightly longer staple.
South African Fine is soft and lofty with a nice staple. $13.
Alpaca & Mohair
Wool/Mohair Blend is soft but sturdy, with a lovely luster. Wonderful for sturdy socks or lace shawls.
Fine Mohair is lustrous, slick, and long-stapled. Finished yarn may be brushed with a slicker brush to produce a fuzzy halo.
Fine Alpaca is soft, luxurious and drapey, plus extra-warm.
Silk & Blends
Tussah Silk is sumptuous, lustrous, strong. I prefer Tussah to the more expensive Mulberry silk because I feel it has a better cling factor, making it easier to spin. Spin from the fold and make it as fine as thread. Dyes vibrantly and is a excellent candidate for blending.
Silk Sliver is less challenging to spin than combed top. Sliver is roving that has been slightly drafted, making it somewhere between carded and combed fiber in nature. This one has "flecks" and produces a soft yarn with a slightly textured appearance.
Silk/Linen is a fantastic choice for summer yarn. It's a 50/50 blend with the soft yet crisp qualities of linen and the soft drape of silk.
BFL/Silk adds 20% silk to Bluefaced Leicester wool for a dreamy luster, smooth hand, and next-to-skin softness.
80/20 Merino/Silk adds a nice dose of lustrous Tussah silk to bouncy merino. Easy to spin fine, and very, very soft. Super-deluxe socks and delicate sweaters.
50/50 Merino/Silk is a half-and-half blend of stretchy merino and luxurious, bright cultivated (aka Mulberry) silk. Truly a luxury fiber, a bit more challenging to spin than 80/20 blend. Makes very fine garments, and insulating but somewhat cooler than all wool, so great for hot-natured people.
Luxury Animal/Plant Blends
All of these blends are next-to-skin soft and suitable for baby garments.Merino/Bamboo/Silk is a luxury 50/25/25 blend that gives the bouncy merino some luster and coolness. Think luxury transitional sweaters, shawls, fancy socks. Each fiber reacts differently to acid dye, so it's very fun to dye. The merino takes the dye evenly, the silk absorbs it aggressively and its lustrous nature produces shiny streaks contrasting with the matte merino. And the bamboo doesn't readily take acid dyes, so its component is lustrous but an almost completely dilute version of the saturated colors in the wool and silk parts.
Merino/Tencel is half bouncy merino, half shiny, cooling Tencel. As a cellulose fiber, the Tencel doesn't take acid dyes like the wool does which gives the top a shimmery, watery appearance when dyed with them. Excellent for transition garments and when you want a slight drape and nice luster.
Merino/Bamboo is 60% bouncy merino, 40% fine, slightly lustrous, cooling bamboo. As a cellulose fiber, the bamboo doesn't take acid dyes like the wool does which gives the top a shimmery, watery appearance when dyed with them. Excellent for transition garments and when you want a slight drape. Bamboo isn't quite as shiny or bright white as Tencel.
Superwash Merino/Tencel is half specially-treated merino, half shiny, cooling Tencel. Since the merino component is superwash, you can machine-wash garments without risking felting. As a cellulose fiber, the Tencel doesn't take acid dyes; and superwash REALLY takes up dye, so the blend has a very dramatic appearance dyed. Excellent for transition garments and when you want a slight drape and nice luster.
Panda is a blend of 60% superwash merino, 30% bamboo, and 10% nylon. The superwash and nylon take dye agressively, while the bamboo resists it. The bamboo adds strength, moisture wicking, and luster, the merino contributes memory, softness, and bounce, and the nylon adds strength, making this a very popular choice for luxury socks.
Bamboo/Wool/Alpaca is a really unique luxury blend of 49% bamboo, 28% wool and 23% fine alpaca. It has a nice drape but retains a bit of memory from the wool. As the other cellulose blends, the bamboo resists acid dyes, so this blend has a variegated appearance as well.
Everything Else
Milk fiber was originally invented during WWII as a wool substitute. Similar in structure to protein fibers, it takes acid dyes beautifully and is soft, smooth, and warm.
Tencel is a rayon-type man-made naturally sourced fiber made from wood pulp. It is silky, shiny, soft, and bright white. It adds a silky hand in blends and great to add to somewhat coarser wools in batts for a more upscale fiber. It also cools wool in blends. Won't take acid dyes, but you can use Procion dyes or even RIT dye.
Bamboo is a rayon-type man-made naturally sourced fiber made from bamboo fiber. It is very similar in appearance and feel to tussah silk, but with a bit less luster. It adds a silky hand in blends and great to add to somewhat coarser wools in batts for a more upscale fiber. It also cools wool in blends. Won't take acid dyes, but you can use Procion dyes or even RIT dye.
Carbonized Bamboo is a rayon-type man-made naturally sourced fiber made from bamboo fiber. The carbonized version has been treated with heat to produce a very matte, off-black fiber that is said to have antibacterial properties. Along with its wicking properties, this makes it great to blend with wool for socks or winter activewear.