Knitting with Kauni

I've been curious about Kauni yarn for some time.  Picked up two skeins in the Kirkwood Knittery 50% off sale at the end of May and started making a Citron shawl (Ravelry link) with it.

Both my skeins are 150g with 656yds of sportweight yarn, I have one in colour EZ (shades of blue/grey) and one in EN (light brown, light grey, and cream).  My balls of yarn feel rough and smell like a sweaty sheep.  Before I started knitting, I wound the ball of EZ into a skein to check for knots, see the colour sequence, a vinegar rinse to soften it (½ a cup in a sinkful of water), and ending with a wash in Eucalan for the sheepy smell.  Kauni will felt, so I had to be careful with the soaks and rinsings.

The yarn came out a little softer and a little less odorous, but not significantly different, and it took 2 days to dry out completely.  My skein had no knots in, and only a little obvious vegetable matter.  It's not bad on the hands, just a little rough.  The yarn sticks to itself like Velcro, so a dropped stitch doesn't go far. I started making a Revontuli shawl (Ravelry link) with this yarn, failed, and ripped it out.  The ripped yarn was fine to work into the Citron shawl, no more fuzziness than before.

As I knit I'm coming across sharp bits of vegetable matter that need to be pulled out of the yarn, and there are a lot of them.  The knitted fabric is very warm on my hands as I work, but I wouldn't want this next to my skin.  I'm going to try another vinegar soak when the shawl is complete, using a full cup of vinegar in the sinkful of water, to see if that helps.

I like the long colour changes a lot, but the feel (and smell) of the yarn is off-putting.  I've seen a lot of comments about knots or splices ruining the colour sequence and I feel lucky that my first skein was intact.  Both my skeins came from the 50% off sale at Kirkwood Knittery at the end of May and I got good value at that price.  However, I don't think I'd buy this yarn full price.