I'm back

Finally! I've been promising myself that come the New Year I'd get back to this blog - back to keeping a record of what I'm working on, the wonderful animals that supply fibre for my creations and other daily adventures.

This summer we took a trip to Alaska and the Yukon. Before setting off, I researched wool stores along our route. I wanted Qiviut - fibre from the undercoat of Muskox.

Qiviut is one of the softest and warmest fibres on earth. It is said to be even softer than cashmere. It is also pretty rare and thus expensive. It goes without saying that Muskox are not the sort of animals that one can brush on a regular basis, so the fibre must be gathered each spring from the ground and bushes that the Muskox rub against when they molt their winter coat.

I wasn't able to find any unspun Qiviut - although I bet I could have if my group had let me stop at the roadside shack that was advertising Muskox burgers. In Whitehorse I did manage to buy an ounce of lace weight yarn.

So my Christmas gift to myself, when all the Christmas knitting was finished and sent to family and friends was to make myself this lovely Qiviut shawlette.

Inspired, I also made one from dog hair. The fibre came from Shadow - a lovely old Golden Retriever. It isn't as quite as fine or soft as the Qiviut but it is still pretty luxurious.