Qiviut- My Idea of Heaven

My first stop in my day in Anchorage was to the Oomingmak Collective.  

Knitters reading this, please take a moment to wipe the drool away before you mess up your keyboards.  For muggles (knitterspeak for a non-knitter), Oomingmak is the Musk Ox Producers’ Co-Operative.  They make hand knits with the underwool  of the musk ox.

I know--cute little sucker, right?

Musk ox down, or “qiviut” as it is called, is the lightest, warmest natural fiber on the planet.  It is also the rarest (the down is harvested by untangling it from fences after the musk ox rubs against it….do you think your really wanna COMB one of those suckers???) and therefore the most expensive.

And I mean EXPENSIVE.  To try to explain to you muggles, the cost of fine merino yarn to make a scarf would average somewhere around $30.  For a scarf of qiviut, it would be around $250.

I've only knit with it once. And I waited a long time to decide what to make of it.  Sometimes, I would just take the skein of qiviut out and pet it. (It’s something only a knitter will understand…..)

But I digress.

The ONLY thing I promised myself on this trip would be that I would buy myself a nachaq, or cowl,  made of qiviut.  At Oomingmak, one can only purchase finished pieces- no actual yarn is sold.  The proceeds go back into the process of gathering the qiviut and preserving the heritage of the native Alaskan peoples who have gathered and spun this yarn for hundreds of years.

With the help of the staff, I picked the pattern that would most suit my Louisiana winters (translation- the lace with the most holes!).

The nachaq also came with detailed information on the history of the pattern (based on a 1200 year-old carved ivory harpoon head), the area where the pattern came from (Mekoryuk) and even the name of the knitter and her photo (Margaret Hobbs).

I am BESOTTED by it.  

Truly.

And, when I get old- very old- it will be an heirloom.

Sometimes, it's the simplest things that make me smile.........