Fiber Science is so Cool!

Yesterday, I talked about my scarf that was being made from 2 50-gram skeins of a beaded yarn and how it felt so much heavier than that. The mystery as to why...

So, today, I started working through the questions...

The skeins weigh exactly 50 grams, so the total scarf weights 101 grams. This caused me to scratch my head for awhile...

I took out 2 other 50-gram skeins and held them in my hand, eyes closed and they feel the same, so that pretty much confirmed the results.

Still, the beaded scarf has a weight when it drapes that another 100-gram wool scarf does not have.

So, here's my theory... silk weights much less per volume. 100 grams of silk at this size would have yielded many more than 200 yards of yarn. The bulk of the weight of the yarn, then, comes from the beads. The weight of the beads is greater than the weight of the yarn. As a result, the beads pull the scarf down and make it feel heavy...

Now, this is not a tested theory, but there has got to be something of truth in it. When I put on the scarf, it does not fly away as any other silk scarf I have/know, but it lays against my body like a coat of armor. With or without a closure or tie, this puppy is not going anywhere.

And here she is!

And the detail.

I'm working this up in Jitterbug, too, a really springy machine washable merino. I'll post that soon, and look for the pattern! This is a fun, fun, knit that looks so much more complicated that it is. Will I make this up in a beaded yarn again, probably not. Will I play with beads in knitting? oh yeah, because the theory has not yet been proved...:) and you know how it is with curious minds... we have just got to know!