Growing up in Sweden gave me a taste for wool and wool garments. I still remember cold fall and winter days, when knitted then slightly felted mittens warmed our hands. Thanks to the felting process, the mittens were more water resistant, and the ones made with the special twining method were also windproof.
We had thick woolen socks on top of another pair of socks to keep our feet warm in the winter, and then thinner woolen socks for cool summer nights.
As wool is much more odor resistant than other materials, it doesn’t need to be washed as often, thus being gentler to the environment. I still remember how we would hang out our wool cardigans and sweaters on hangers outside on a damp night. In the morning, the garments were fit to wear again.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I missed that kind of wool-- and the Scandianvian wool culture-- when I moved to the US. I missed the non-super washed, toothier wool from local farms. I missed the very woolly qualities that came with wool that had been minimally processed. Sometimes, I feel that certain wool yarns remind me more of cotton — they are so soft and slippery. I missed a yarn where I could see and feel the wool and the fibers, and take advantage of all the great properties of wool.
I thought of importing Scandinavian wool. But then a friend asked me why I didn’t try and re-create an American version of my beloved wool memories? Why not draw on similar materials from local farms, small mills, and use a local indie dyer?
That’s how Nor’easter Yarns started, and that’s where we are heading.
Depending on what wool I can find, from which farms, and which mills are willing to help with my smaller quantities, the assortment in my shop is always different. What you see today will be gone once I have sold out. Even if I manage to get wool from the same farm again, it will be different, because its particular qualities depend on how the year was for the sheep or goats, the weather and climate, food, etc. As all my yarns are minimally processed, each batch is unique. I don’t find that problematic at all — to me it is magic.