You asked, and we listened! We are thrilled to introduce our first-ever worsted-weight qiviut yarn, blended with fine locally grown wool, and spun by our friends down the road at Custom Woollen Mills.
Quantities are limited!
Weight: worsted, 2-ply, woollen-spun
Yardage: approx. 191 yards (4 oz.)
Blend: 80% local rambouillet wool, 20% qiviut
We call this yarn Avagiiktuq, meaning "blended." When we asked Inuvialuktun language expert Beverly Amos about a name for this yarn, she described it as "qiviumik allamiglu avagiiktuq": 'qiviut blended with another.' The other fibre in this case is local fine wool from Rambouillet sheep, a cold-hardy cousin of the Merino!
For us, this yarn is also about friendship and collaboration within our local fibreshed here in Alberta. By blending our precious NWT qiviut fibre with local wool, and by working with a family-run Alberta mill whose vintage machinery operates at a much larger scale than ours, we have been able to develop a fine qiviut yarn that is more accessible to a wider group of knitters. The result is a soft and precious fibre blend with a gorgeous natural colour, which will knit up quickly into extra-warm sweaters, hats, gloves, and whatever else you can dream of.
Unlike the semi-worsted-spun yarns that we make at our mill, Custom Woollen Mills machinery produces woollen-spun yarns: this means a fluffly, lofty, matte yarn that is highly suitable for sweaters and other warm items.