Herefordshire is a pretty, muddy, green English county snuggled up against the edge of Wales, its lush hills gazing at the neighbouring Welsh mountains. My parents live there in peace, tidyness, and rural tranquility, or at least they do until my battered old car screeches to a halt in their driveway, instantly wiping £10 000 off local house prices until we leave again. The car engine is switched off or possibly stalls, and out stagger the Toddler Twinnage, hungry and over-tired after the tedious drive from Oxfordshire. I follow them, struggling under the sacks of yarn I’ve brought with me because we’re here for five whole days, and obviously the very first thing that needs to be unpacked from the car is the yarn. You understand that, right? Right? My parents smile with remarkable tolerance as we burst through their front door and donate clods of fresh Oxfordshire mud to their floor.
It’s beautiful here.
Herefordshire is known for its production of apples (and cider), potatoes, and – in my mind at least – for its complete and utter lack of arctic musk ox. Being in the mood to knit some qiviut, I had to bring my own musk ox tummy-fluff. I’ve been a bit quiet about the pure qiviut lately, because having exhausted my precious 29g skein, I had to wait for more to arrive from the frozen wilds of Northern Canada. Let’s just pretend that I waited with the dignified patience you’d expect of a grown woman, OK? Anyway it’s here now, I’ve stopped squealing, and the adventure in some of the world’s softest, warmest yarn begins again.
I knew already about how qiviut yarn starts soft and, after handling and washing, becomes so soft that it approaches downright heavenly. Well it’s true. Even across the rounds of knitting in the photo above, you can see perhaps the degree of floaty softness that the early stitches have achieved, whilst the recent rounds still look a little more like yarn. BUT, part of the reason for the progression you can see above is because pure qiviut yarn, though gorgeous, is a tad fond of knotting itself and attaching to itself at every available opportunity, and I have spent so many hours unknotting the beast that this yarn has had a lot of handling already. Let me say that again: a lot. But at least the knitting is soft.
Makes me wonder how tricky it is for the musk ox to keep his/her tummy-fluff smooth and combed, because given the notorious grumpiness of these beasts, I don’t imagine anyone else is going to do it for them. Knitting with qiviut really is like knitting slightly knotty gossamer threads formed by angels. And I thank my father-in-law, the Gregarious Grandfather, for giving me the chance to do this, just once in my otherwise ordinary life.
Anyway, enough about the qiviut for now.
Every family has its little quirks and traditions, and ours is no exception. My parents, for example, have this eccentric tradition that knitting must occasionally be put down in favour of activities like chatting to each other and going for walks in the glorious winter sunshine. (I know, I know: do try not to judge.) It is properly lovely round here, though, and we found snowdrops – the very first flowers of the year, hinting at spring’s approach:-
And deep amongst the weeds of my parents’ wildlife pond, we discovered this rather beautiful smooth newt. Isn’t he gorgeous, if a little disgruntled at being disturbed? Unfortunately you can’t see his violently orange belly in this photo. I spent hours and hours of my childhood poking about in ponds and streams, seeing what critters I could find, damming the polluted tiny stream at the bottom of the garden, and even constructing complex graphs of water temperature gradients in my parents’ pond. (We always had a pond, at all the houses we passed through.) Looook:-
But back to the subject of yarn. Stylecraft Special DK in fact – that colourful stash-staple of knitters and crocheters everywhere. I’m whispering this because it’s a teeny bit top-secret for a few more days so I can’t reveal details, but the folks at Stylecraft are teaming up with the souls at Let’s Knit magazine, and there’s going to be an especially cool competition. Seriously, people: look out for it. And the reason I’m telling you this now is because I – as well as Lucy from Attic24 – are involved in this competition in a way that promises to be rather stupendously fun. Watch this space, and get ready to try and win a humungous prize.
Love the picture of the newt. I have never heard of ox tummy fluff so I have definitely learned some thing!
Glad to be of service. 🙂
What a beautiful color!
Last week, it was spring in Texas; this week, winter is back, so today I picked a dozen daffodils so that they don’t get ruined by the freezing temps coming tonight. I don’t know whether snowdrops will grow here, but those in your photo are so pretty.
Gosh, I’m struggling to reconcile my mental images of ‘Texas’ and ‘freezing’! I hope your snowdrops stay sunny and beautiful for days and days.
That yarn looks absolutely amazing! I seriously wish I had the ability to reach into a photo because my fingers are just itching to stroke the glorious fluffiness. It will surely be a wonderful thing to wear once you’ve battled with it and bent it to your will.
Feel free! I’m holding the yarn up to the screen right now…. Can you reach?? Almost?
(I’m not sure I WILL bend it to my will. Its will appears to be considerably stronger. Sigh.)
Love your snowdrops – mine are still buried under several feet of snow [that’s where the snow plow guy dumps the stuff. They survive well, snow is a good insulator – yours will keep me going until mine surface, sometime late April. That qiviut is just so gorgeous – I have a couple of ounces to spin, but it’s very short staple, way beyond my spinning skills, so I guess I’ll just have to blend it.
Word on the street is that blended qiviut is a superior knit anyway, because pure qiviut is just a bit too qiviuty. Isn’t it often mixed with silk and/or merino?
Out of curiosity, how long is qiviut’s staple?
I love the colour! The softest I ever knitted was NZ Kid Mohair, which even ten years later still aerates up into fluffy softness with a good shake or a toss over the clothesline on a breezy day…… though there is irredeemable matting in the fringe now. My condolences to the Twisteds Senior for the disturbance to their quiet rural life and the mud – though I am sure that they are ecstatic with the twinnage visiting.
(Mother Twisted here, hijacking Twisted’s account.)
Thank you for your condolences – but as you say, we love seeing the Twinnage and their mother and it shakes us out of our rural habits for a while, which is good.
Hello Mother Twisted! How lovely to hear from you. Shaking is always good, as long as it doesn’t involve the earth doing so. I adore my ‘girls’ to pieces too, no matter how eccentric they become 🙂
Thank you for sharing your part of world, lovely post. Can’t wait to see your finished knitting. I’m smiling after the read of your post.
Awww thank you. You’re always so kind.
It is all very exciting indeed!! I can see just how soft and beautiful your musk ox yarn is just from the pictures, so can only imagine how it must feel actually in your actual hands!! xx
Oh yes, it’s SOFT. 🙂
What beautiful country. Enjoy all the wonders around you.
Thank you. And yes, I’m making the most of it, especially as my parents are trying to move to Oxfordshire.
“Newts and snowdrops and Aquivit yarn…” they sound like a few of your favourite things Ms Twisted. Rightly so. I wish you had turned that newt upside down to reveal his fleshy bright orange underbelly but I rightly understand your reluctance. PETA can be downright ferocious when it comes to mistreatment of animals, even when said animals owe you an upturning as some kind of payment for their continued room and board…
Oh, is it mistreatment to upend a newt? Oops…
o_O
Well you have certainly got me hooked, poised and awaiting this new competition, I have, as you say like many craft freaks, a huge range of the stylecraft DK, I always keep a stock of at least one ball of each colour. It is such a lovely yarn to work with on so many little projects.
Trust me, their prize is worth winning. And no, nobody is paying me to say that.
Love the detail in your knitting
Thank you, but I can’t take any credit because the pattern isn’t mine.
Where on earth did you find purple quiviut ? I am drooling all over my iPad. Please share your secret stash enhancer. Thanks!
Via the lovely folks at Yarnfest: http://www.yarnfest.co.uk
They’re really rather helpful. 🙂
Just ordered my first ball of qiviut… I’ve been obsessed ever since reading your posts about it… can’t wait!
Oh dear, I’m a bad influence. Sorry. It is amazing stuff, though….
I can’t believe you have snowdrops already–we won’t for MONTHS. probably. Your trip sounds wonderful, especially since you squeezed in some beautiful knitting. And a newt.
I love the colour of qiviut you are using. Any yarn that has a bit of hairiness to it tangles really easily. Try ripping it out!! Sometimes it is impossible to rip it back so you have to be very careful and not make any mistakes.
I was about to say that if you stop buying the quviut you might be able to afford a new car!! But your FIL? Really? What a good egg! Once, in North Wales, on a forest hike, I found the tiniest newt you’ve ever seen in a little puddle. We nicknamed him Mi-newt, because, well, what else was he??
I love the way you write, your description of your arrival at your parents made me chuckle. I’ve never heard of quiviut or Arctic Musk so I googled them, they look amazing and kinda cute, with the tummy fluff. Your yarn is divine.
Oooo dear qiviut! A treat to spin and knit. And oh qiviut … so dear. I have been knitting with possum, same hollow hair, very warm and very soft and very light. And a lot less $$. And you-newts, me-salamanders. I even have a salamander/newt yarn bowl on etsy.com/shop/talkingclay. A salamander once let me take a tiny tic off of its eye lid. A very delicate operation and she stay so still.