Yarn Review: Lana Gatto New Baby Alpaca 70

I've been procrastinating for a long time, in so many respects. I have a pattern to write for a sweater I designed three years ago. I put off starting a new sweater for months because I was A: dealing with cancer, and B: I couldn't afford new yarn. I've also been procrastinating about writing a yarn review. But last week, I solved the second problem, so tonight I'm addressing the third problem. 

This yarn is 70% baby Alpaca and 30% Merino. The label has all of the expected information. 

I was lucky to find this yarn in the new yarn store a few blocks from my house here in Tel Aviv-Yafo. What attracted me first were the colors. But then I picked up a ball and it's so soft. I was surprised to see that Lana Gatto recommends 5.5mm/9US needles when the yarn is clearly Dk/light Worsted weight. So the first thing I had to decide was what size needle to swatch with. I decided on US7/ 4.5mm. And since the sweater I'm knitting is in the round, I knit the swatch circularly (if that's a word.) To measure the swatch, I steeked the long floats to lay the swatch flat. 

My finished swatch 8" wide by 5" long. My gauge came to 24 stitches bu 4" and  32 rows to 4". The texture at that gauge was perfect. I simply cannot imagine using this yarn on the needles they recommend unless it's for lace. 

The yarn is pleasant to knit with but on metal needles, it easily slid off the needles, so be warned. It's also a little splitty. 

I wash all of my fine wool and wool blend sweaters on the wool cycle in my washing machine, that's how I blocked the swatch. The picture of the swatch is after blocking. The stitch definition remained quite good. Gauge changed, though. The swatch was now 9" wide but the length stayed the same. And instead of 24 stitches to 4", it's now 23. So it was barely any change in gauge but bear in mind that your gauge might be different and how you block your sweater might affect the gauge. My advice is to swatch with the needles you plan on using and block the swatch the way you'd wash or clean the sweater. 

And after blocking, the swatch is even softer. I'm extremely sensitive to scratchy wool and I have no trouble with yarn against me skin. I'm knitting top down and I've already slipped on the turtle neck and it's scrumptious. 

I paid 40 shekels per skein for 22 skeins for a total of 880 shekels. That's about 14.00USD per skein and a total of about 303.00USD.