A Word on Naming

Sometimes yarn names can be confusing, particularly if you aren't living, breathing, and sleeping fiber and yarn info. For example, angora is not only a type of rabbit and yarn made from rabbit fur but also a breed of goat that gives us mohair, not angora yarn. So, while Plymouth Angora is, in fact, yarn made from bunny fur, Plymouth Angora Luks is actually named for the angora GOAT because it is comprised of a mohair blend. See what I mean about confusing? Somewhat humorously, I have received phone calls at the shop asking about doing body work for cars and even once about purchasing old train sets because Google (which does keyword not subject searching; if you really want, some day I can give you the lesson I used to give my students about why Google is an ineffective tool for researching as its algorithm will list ads first and then keywords that may or may not have anything to do with what you are trying to find because of the way its algorithm is set up). All because the name of the shop is Habetrot's Wheel, which, as we all know, refers to the fairy's spinning wheel. Similarly, a lot of people bypass the three lovely bases of yarn I carry from the company Wool Addicts because they assume that the yarns must contain wool. Wool Addicts is the name of the company, not the yarn content. Rather, their fall yarns are wool and wool blends. Their summer yarns, however, are all cotton blends and do not contain wool, so if you look at Happiness, Liberty, or Sunshine at the shop, you're looking at cotton yarns from the company Wool Addicts. Also, some yarn labels will list the fiber contents as including polyamide. While this fiber may sound particularly strange to some, it's actually just another name for nylon and is often used in sock yarn. So yes, some sock yarns will list wool and polyamide, while others will list wool and nylon, but they are actually the exact same thing. While not the same content, many people can sometimes confuse lurex and stellina, or have no idea what they are at all. Lurex is actually an incredibly thin fiber made from a synthetic fiber core that is coated with a metallic substance, typically aluminum. Stellina, on the other hand, is a type of fiber made from nylon or polyester that merely looks metallic, which is why yarns containing stellina are often much softer and lack that slightly stiffer feel of yarns with lurex. Wild, huh?