Dear Santa...

I've come to the realization that I am totally obsessed with fiber. I love flipping through knitting magazines and looking at all the yarns. I go to my LYS just to touch every skein they have. I spend hours online browsing spun creations. During one of my internet endeavors I discovered a fiber I hadn't heard of before. At least not by this name: qiviut. I've heard a knitter chat about the wonder of musk ox fiber but I still didn't know much about it. So I did a little research on qiviut and this is what I found. Qiviut is said to be even better than cashmere if you can believe that. It is softer and stronger and even warmer. It is not the jumbled, raggedy hair you usually see on a musk ox but the "downy" fur undercoat that is shed every year. The hair is either taken off in one large piece when it has pulled away from the body or collected when patches of the fluffy fiber fall off. It isn't usually bleached and dyed because the process compromises the strength and softness of the ox wool. It's then cleaned, carded, and spun into yarn. So this year, instead of a pony I think I'll ask Santa for a musk ox.
Happy Crafting!
Cerise : )