SoCS – Spin Me a Yarn

Continued thanks to Linda Hill who sponsors this lovely stream of consciousness every week. Every Friday she provides a new word to spark our minds into action.

Check out Linda’s blog if you want to join in – check out the rules and the contribution of other bloggers. This week, the prompt is:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “yarn.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

---

‘Spinning a yarn’ has two completely different meanings. One references telling a tall tale and the other about spinning wool into actual yarn. It’s a good jumping off place for today’s prompt.

When I lived in Alaska, there were certain things everyone purchased or sent ‘home’ as gifts. They ranged from inexpensive gag gifts like moose nugget earrings (earrings made from moose poop) to hand painted gold pans, jade, ivory, and gold nugget jewelry.

My sister and her family lived in Alaska and they were the reason I ended up there – another story for another day. I remember the year she decided to get our parents hand knit Alaskan sweaters for Christmas. These sweaters (jumpers) were big and bulky with zip fronts. Each one knitted with a typically Alaskan scene with moose, cabins, salmon, etc. My sister bought them matching sweaters with cabins and mountains knit into the design. The yarns were earthy colors and the resulting sweater was warm and heavy.

It is sad that the major retail outlets sell these rip-off sweaters as authentic and are often constructed with polyesters and rayon yarns. I know my sister paid a pretty penny for them.

So I left Alaska with many Alaskan Souvenirs – mostly jewelry, but the one thing I regretted was not getting a scarf or hat knitted from qiviut yarn. Qiviut is the naturally shedding wool of a muskox.

Quartl, Ovibos moschatus qtl3, CC BY-SA 3.0

The color of the yarn is a pale brown and is warmer than wool or cashmere. It is very expensive because it must all be hand combed and carded. The scarves are delightful to the touch, soft, lightweight and SO warm. Unlike wool, it will not shrink when exposed to water.

 

Advertisement