Qiviut sources

In Alaska, there's three farms where one can get qiviut:

Windy Valley Farm, in Palmer;
the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station of the Institute of Arctic Biology, near Fairbanks;
and, of course, the Musk Ox Farm, in Palmer.

Most other qiviut is obtained from wild animals' leavings on shrubbery, or from the pelts of animals killed in subsistence hunts (that's mostly in Canada). I'm not sure about farms in Canada; the research on them in Saskatchewan has dwindled some.

summer break

Seems like each summer, knitting stops. I'm working on article 2 of a two-part series on muskoxen for Agroborealis, this one to concentrate on qiviut and animal husbandry for muskoxen. There's only been one real how-to book produced on care & feeding of your Ovibos moschatus, and that was a good 20 years ago and is in serious need of updates.

Sweater finally finished

That wool sweater done in Scandinavian style is finally done, and hey! it looks good! Lots of little tufts sticking out, but not bad, really. Hans likes it, anyway. The DEWCKers (Denizens of Ester Who Crochet and Knit) have been meeting pretty regularly this winter, so I'll be showing off the sweater this Saturday.

There's also a spinning group in the area, and the two groups are starting to communicate more regularly and maybe we'll even get together occasionally!

I don't have a knitting project at the moment.