And that means yarn stories…yarns=stories. Get it? So, I now have an instagram account that I have begun using to share more photos than in the posts as well as yarn photos not related at all to any post (at least yet). And as I complete projects down the road that use the yarns I have blogged about, I will post them to Instagram so you can see what these beautiful skeins have become. I’m hoping you’ll enjoy this as well as reading the stories here. Â
And because no day is perfect without a bit of purple in it…here’s yours for the day!
Step back to August. Remember me talking about the DFW Yarn Crawl? The first weekend of the crawl I was sola (I know, that looks incorrect in english but it is a spanish word and I am female, so there ya go) in my pursuit of yarn. I spent an afternoon visiting the shops closest to home. The last and most distant destination was Holley’s Yarn Shoppe where I met Abby from Twisted Owl Fiber Studio, located in Longview, Texas. I arrived at the store with only about 5 minutes to closing…I almost didn’t go since I didn’t think I’d make it but then I decided that, surely there would be a hoard of people there. And, well, not so many people and the folks looked like they were really ready for a cocktail. Abby was packing up and here I came…I so wanted to dive into the bins of yarn.
Instead, I posed the questions I ask a-lot, which are: “Which of your yarns is your favorite right now? Which of the yarns you have with you are one of a kind? Which yarn will I not be able to get after you leave today?” The last is because I knew Holley’s carried some of her yarns throughout the year.
And this is the yarn with which she sent me home: Show Off: If I want exposure, I’ll get my tits out. Â Hmmm. I knew there had to be a story there and indeed there was. Kind of like the yarn equivalent to Top Chef but without the whole getting kicked off the island thing. And, I know, I’m mixing my references but it’s a tv thing and I don’t watch tv so it’s a miracle I even know these things exist. Anyway, I digress.
Abby said that one of her good yarn dyeing buddies made this super awesome batch of yarn. She, Abby, was really taken with the colors and how they all played out and asked her friend about the specifics. Said friend didn’t want to give it up but Abby said she thought she could figure it out on her own and this is the result. Not wanting to rain on her friends parade, she didn’t dye but the one skein. And now it’s mine! Of course I needed something to go with it and also took home a corally color.Â
That was great but I have a thing about even numbers and that only gave me two skeins to work with for a project, yet to be determined at that point. So, in October during the Hill Country crawl, I looked for a third color from Abby. No luck. And then. My in-laws (yes, we really do love each other) were in town and we went to Fort Worth to see the exhibit at the Kimbell. We arrived only to find out the museum didn’t open until noon on Fridays…my fault, but really, why would they do that on Friday? So, Google gave me the good news that there was a yarn shop within walking distance. HOW FORTUNATE 🙂
Emily went with me and Jim went with Tom to the Modern for an hour. And, here’s the reason I’m telling you this: I found my third Twisted Owl color at West 7th Wool. And it’s purple (I don’t know why I fight it, I’m so much happier when purple is involved). Yay! I feel so much better now.
And now I do have an idea of what to make with this fun yarn. It may be more challenging than it usually is since the pattern only seems to be available in German. Hmmmmmmm. I can figure it out, I’m sure. I have a dictionary.
I hope everyone has had a wonderful food and family day this Thanksgiving. I am thankful for so many things.Â
They are the cutest beasties. And the yarn made from their fleece is soooo soft. And warm. Did I mention that they are cute?! One of our stops on the DFW yarn crawl last summer was Trinity Ridge Alpacas. The folks were so friendly and turns out it’s a six degree thing ’cause Janet is a nurse and worked at one of the hospitals my Tom frequents. Anyway, we weren’t able to meet up with any beasties while there but we did have fun asking the Hancocks about their experience as alpaca tenders. Sounds like it’s a Lay’s potato chip thing…you can’t stop at just one.
Just shorn, this gal used to be one of our neighbors in the Hill Country
I have yarn that contains alpaca from other people and places. I’ve noticed it isn’t as itchy on me as merino is. And, as I started reading about alpacas, I learned the fibers hold more warmth than wool. Alpaca fibers are hollow so more air gets trapped than in wool where the fibers have only pockets of trapped air. One reason Alpaca fibers can be less itchy is because there isn’t any lanolin in them. Wool has that. If you see wool yarn that says it is “super wash” that means it has been processed to remove the lanolin. So, less itchy but the process to remove it may involve chemicals. Also, itchiness can be caused by bigger fibers…microns, my friends, are important as well. The diameter of the fibers are measured in microns (1 micron=1 millionth of a meter). The smaller the diameter, the smoother the fiber.
The yarn I brought home from Trinity Ridge is tagged with the names of the the alpacas whose fleece contributed to the skeins. Janet told me that she has customers who ask specifically for fibre from different alpacas, partly because the coloring is so different on each animal. Mine came from Angel, Mattissa and Pharaoh.
Alpacas are a relative of the llama and of the camel. They have been bred to be used primarily for their fleece while llamas have been bred to be guard and pack animals. They are around 3 ft tall at the shoulder and between 120-180 pounds. Llamas are much bigger and bulkier. Since the alpacas aren’t fighters, they need guard animals to keep them safe from predators. You may see llamas included in the alpaca herd to be used for this purpose.
Tom’s been saying for many years that if he can’t have a pony, he wants a llama….if we were at our ranchette (less than 10 acres so it doesn’t really qualify as a ranch) in the Hill Country more (read permanently) and if we had alpacas that needed protecting, maybe, just maybe he could have that llama.  And a pony too…..but that’s in another life 🙂
A couple of years ago when I had just jumped into the yarn world (with both feet), my Sig-O, Tom and our friend Karla, went to Bhutan on a hiking adventure. I very wisely stayed home. Rain, mud, cold. Not my thing. So, they were happy (mostly) and I was very happy!
Because Tom is the fab guy that he is, when they had the opportunity to shop for souvenirs, he looked for yarn to bring me. Yak yarn. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to find any in the local markets. Puzzled him and puzzled me when he told me about the unsuccessful search. Didn’t know anything about yaks but since they are ubiquitous there and the Bhutanese use their fur/fiber/hair (whatever you want to call it) to make clothes and hats, as well as tents and ropes, you’d think yarn would be as easily found as the animal itself. Just check this guy out. Karla took this picture and, wow, he/she is magnificent!
So. Disappointed he didn’t find any but life moved on and I kind of forgot about it. So much other yarn to touch and feel.
Fast forward to the DFW fiber fest of 2017. I was wandering around in a bit of a yarn stupor when I looked at the label on a skein and it said it was made with yak yarn. Holy cow! Or maybe I should have said, “Holy yak”! Neophyte, yes, that’s me. Never occurred to me that maybe yak yarn would be available here. As I’m talking to the man in whose booth I had been gaping, gasping and yes, talking to myself, I got educated a little.
The fibers that the Bhutanese use, mostly, are the tough outer fibers. These produce cloth that is woven to be very dense, durable, odor free, and warm. So, great for their cold temps, snow and rain but not necessarily good for spinning into yarn.
The yarns we get here, so I was told, are made from the part of the undercoat or down that the Bhutanese usually discard because it isn’t tough enough. Yarn folks (and I use that in the royal way since I have no idea how it started) worked a deal to save these fibers. I believe these fibers are harvested (not sure that’s the right word but you get the idea) at a different time than the rest because they are shed naturally.
And then it became a mini quest. A very mini but on-going quest since it is not that common. Â I bought some called Lhasa Wilderness from the Bijou Basin booth where I was getting educated and have been on the lookout for more as I add to my stash.
Really. I hear “Yak, yak, yak” in my brain, but only when I’m yarning. I promise. 🙂
You can see all the color ways from both these companies by clicking the links in the text.
So far, I have only come home with yarn from one other dyer. Yarn Carnival has a yarn they call Yak Attack with which I have just started a shawl. Both these yarns are melanges of Yak and other fibers.
I love finding yarns made using the different fibers. Conjures up all kinds of great stories in my mind as I crochet. I wonder how Curly (remember him from my last post) would get along with a yak?
It’s amazing how small our world really is these days.
From the Northwest to Texas. And really, I should probably have said Washington state as that’s where the dyer/spinner lives. But, since I found her and her amazing yarns in Idaho, I’ll stick with that.
Handspun. Dyed using walnuts. Truly scrumptious
Here’s a pic of what I brought home…goat dreadlocks. So soft, so curly. I wore it around awhile as just the locks in the skein…didn’t really think I needed to crochet with it…couldn’t stop playing with it. Finally realized that I needed to make something. More on that in a minute
Me (with the skein wrapped around my neck) and my friend Nancy, lounging by the fire in Idaho
So, this is kid mohair. And as you may or may not know, mohair is what you call the fiber/yarn from the Angora goat. What does an Angora goat look like you might ask? Read on!
I was in the Hill Country at the Fredericksburg Octoberfest, wandering through the arts and crafts tents when I was brought up short by this guy (could be a gal I suppose). Meet Curly!
Curly. Photo made by Kimberly Clark
So omg, “Here’s my yarn” Â I exclaimed…of course the peeps that were with me had no idea what I was talking about and I’m sure the photographer thought my comment a bit odd. But wow, how awesome is this photo?! Kimberly has lots more amazing images on her Instagram feed as well as more shots of Curly. And, she has done a series of images all framed in window frames like the one Curly is inhabiting. I say it that way because it really looks to me like she is looking in my window, saying “Merhaba! May I have a snack please?” Merhaba because that’s how you say hello in Turkish and that’s where the breed may have come from centuries ago.Â
Here are a couple of links to Kimberly’s  website and Instagram feed. Check her out.Â
Curly is now hanging above my yarn stash keeping an eye on things.
Soft and still curly it’s about 8 ft. long
And, just like that we are back to the yarn. The woman responsible for my take home in Idaho is Juaquetta of Garden Party Fibers. I don’t have her last name but you can find more about her and her yarns on her website. She also has some wonderful images on her instagram feed. It made me want to buy more. And ya know, now that I think about it, it kind of looks like my hair when I was in college, decided it wasn’t quite curly enough and permed it. Hmmmm. Maybe that’s why it speaks to me.
I used a great big hook, very simple stitches and tried to keep it all loosey goosey (I know we say that but there is no way I’ve found to spell it that looks right). I may have to make myself go somewhere chilly soon so that I can wear it without overheating.
Hope Halloween was a fun time for everyone! I’ll close with these pics in honor of the holiday. I made this cute zombie hat from a pattern found on Semi Sweet Crafter.
Another friend made one for her grandson and I found I had to make one too!
