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.
