Short Story Long

Silent night, holy night

In February, I published a mitten pattern with  Windy Valley Muskox .  It takes about 1 1/2 skeins of this fabulous yarn so you'll have to buy two.  Of course, you could make the cuffs longer!  I'm thinking I need a version with fingers (aka gloves).  It's on the back burner, for the moment.   In the meantime, let me tell you how lovely it is to work with qiviut!  It is one of the softest fibers, definitely the lightest, and so warm for the weight; it's best as a light layer under others, and luxurious close to the skin.  Sometimes, people misunderstand and think that qiviut comes from the inside coat (I'm not sure how to imagine that), or the underbelly of the muskox; that's because it is often described as the "under coat."  What this actually means is that it's the down layer, and grows during the cold months, closer to the skin, all over the animal; it's like down feathers on a duck.  I worked for WVM for several yea...

When I started working for Windy Valley Muskox , I had the pleasure of traveling with and getting to know the owner, Dianne.  She is a fantastic spinner!  Originally, we were introduced through some of my knitting friends who are part of her family.  I started out with WVM designing a pattern .  Once Dianne saw my finished pattern with modeled shots, she hired me to reshoot several patterns, and eventually I shot all of her product photos, provided pattern support, and went to several trade shows.  Traveling together to yarn shows, we became friends.   At one of the yarn shows, we discovered the Glenfiddich Wool Swoncho in the booth across from ours, and thought it was really cute.  One size, easily modified, it looked great on everyone who tried it on.  Later that summer, I was visiting Dianne's ranch, and she gave me a bag of her handspun yarns to knit with.  She can knit, but doesn't spend as much time on it a...