Look what Clara made me do
By JC | March 20, 2010
Like many knitters, I’m on a yarn diet. It’s not that I have a huge stash, but it manages to grow faster than I can knit it. And I don’t really have room for a huge stash.
Usually, I’m good about sticking to the yarn diet. I’m strong. I can walk past pretty yarn without flinching (much).
Yet reading Clara Parkes’ The Knitter’s Book of Wool got me hankering for breed-specific yarns. And what do you know, our local farmer’s market often has a stall or two selling local yarn.
The stall with the yarn in Kool-Aid colors? No, thanks. Ah, but the new stall, the one I swear I hadn’t seen before… look! Skeins in a slew of lovely natural colors. And labeled by breed!
With Clara’s voice in my head urging me on, I walked away with two skeins:
skeins of Timberwolf yarn
The skein on the left is Coopworth; on the right, lambswool from Coopworth/Romney lambs.
The best part? The labels name the animals that produced the fiber, and even include photos:
labels naming animals that produced the yarn
The skein on the left is all Anna. On the right, a blend of Berta, Bonnie, and Beau.
I had a nice chat with the vendor, who told me all about the lambs’ parentage, and how the yarn was spun at a local mill willing to handle small lots. I had no idea the mill existed—but I think I can be excused, since the mill has only been in operation for just over a year. Besides, I’m not a spinner.
What will I do with the yarn? I’m not sure yet. I’m tempted to make fingerless mittens in stranded colorwork, but I’m kind of hard on my mittens and I’m not sure the loosely-spun two plies would stand up to the abuse. Maybe a hat, then, lined with something softer. Hmm… what do I have in my stash?
7 Comments