Qiviut is here!
Thursday September 1, 2011
From Rugged Animal to the finest yarn!
Qiviuk or Qiviut is an Inuit word commonly used to indicate the wool of the musk ox. The musk ox has a two-layered coat, and qiviut refers specifically to the soft underwool beneath the longer outer wool. The musk ox sheds this layer of wool each spring. Qiviut is plucked from the coat of the musk ox during the molt or gathered from objects the animals have brushed against; unlike sheep, the animals are not sheared. Much of the commercially available qiviut comes from Canadian Arctic.
Qiviut is stronger and eight times warmer than sheep’s wool, and softer than cashmere wool. Wild musk oxen have qiviut fibers approximately 18micrometres in diameter. Females and young animals have slightly finer wool.
Some musk ox have been domesticated and their fibre managed by a cooperative. An adult musk ox can produce four to seven pounds of qiviut a year.
Each year the musk ox molts it long outer coat leaving the finer quviut which is highly prized. The qiviut can be combed from the animal in a single large sheet. If not combed, the qiviut will begin to fall out in clumps or be rubbed off by the animal, and may be plucked off the ground or bushes, but qiviut collected this way is of lower quality and requires more cleaning.
A modified bison crush is used to gently but firmly hold the musk oxen in place, and the pelt combed out using a long-
Qiviut, the finest, warmest, softest, lightess and most precious animal fibre.
toothed comb or hair pick. After the fleece is removed, it is cleaned by hand, removing vegetation and other foreign matter, and then dehaired. Dehairing is the removal of intermediate hairs (greater than 30 micrometres in diameter). Dehairing is accomplished by carding as one would cashmere. Mechanical carding can cause breakage and weaken and roughen the qiviut. (Because the pelt is combed rather than shaved, there are very few guard hairs using this method. The raw, cleaned qiviut is then spun into yarn and the yarn washed gently in warm water.
Ahh! knit a little luxury. One small ball will make a lovely, lacey scarf or hat.
Now posted online.
