Softer than cashmere and warmer than wool… Sounds like the beginning of a knitting fairy tale.

I first lay hands on the fiber in a yarn shop in Copenhagen. I was looking for something special to knit for myself – just looking and willingly to fall in love. In the middle of the shop there was a wonderful cape in some soft, brown wool. That was it! Just what I was looking for!

– Oh I see you found the most expensive yarn in the shop! the shop owner replied. The price for the yarn to the cape would be €160 or $180 – I got some nice ordinary wool in a other price range!

Well, now I’m interested in the sustainability around the wool and knitting industry and of course the musk ox has to be mentioned!

Qiviut – the inuit word for the musk ox inner wool, is stronger and 8 times warmer than sheep’s wool and softer than cashmere wool. There are two ways to get the wool; pick it up in the nature! For real! Go out in to the hills and collect the wool from shrubs and rocks in muskox habitat. The other way is to cut the hair from the skin from animals that have been shot. Each year there are given permission to hunt a certain amount of animals. It’s a big thing for a inuit to get to shot a musk ox. The meat from the animal is either sold (if it isn’t shoot be an inuit) or shared in the hunters community.  The skin is now sold to collect the wool.

Three years ago I got 100 gr!!! of this amazing wool and I’m still wondering what to make of it. Perhaps a cape?

And the reason I’m writing this post today, is because I just saw that this shop has 20% sale on friday and saturday! January 30. and 31!

You can also buy the wool here:

Arnica

Naviarsiaq

Qiviut

The Photo of the animals are from Greenland.com, taken by Mads Pihl.