From the Windy Valley Muskox journal

What 246 serious knitters told me about the rarest yarn I sell

An honest review from the woman who sells it, including the part about the price.

By Giovanna, owner of Windy Valley Muskox

If you've been knitting a long time, you probably know this feeling, even if you've never said it out loud.

You've climbed. Acrylic, then wool, then merino. Then one day you treated yourself to cashmere and thought: this is it. This is the good stuff.

And it is good. But somewhere along the way, the hours you put into a piece started to outgrow the yarn you were putting them into.

Sixty hours into a shawl, it comes off the needles beautiful. Then it scratches at your collarbone. Or it starts to pill after a handful of wears. Or it's simply lovely, and not special. Not the kind of special sixty hours deserve.

You know the other feeling too. Someone reaches over, touches what you're wearing and asks, "What is that?"

One of our customers told me that's how she introduces the fiber I'm about to tell you about. She just hands it over and says, "Here, feel this scarf…"

That moment is what this page is about.

A quick confession first

I'm Giovanna, and I run Windy Valley Muskox, a small fiber shop. I sell this yarn, so of course I think it's wonderful. You shouldn't take my word for it.

So I asked a handful of our customers instead. 246 of them wrote back, and 93% have been knitting for more than three years. Most of what follows is in their words, not mine.

Why your yarn stopped keeping up with you

If you're like many of the knitters who wrote to me, you have a few skeins in your stash that are "too special" to use. You're saving them for the right project. Some have been waiting for years.

And when you go looking for something better, you're shopping on a screen. Our customers named that as one of their two biggest hesitations: "I ordered online and wasn't able to feel it first."

Here's what no one tells you: none of this is your fault.

Yarn shops can only stock fibers that are produced in volume. So over time, "luxury" became a word on a label rather than a fiber in your hands. A skein with a little cashmere or silk blended into something common gets to call itself luxurious.

So you've tried the best the aisle offers. Cashmere. Baby alpaca. Silk blends. The luxury merino blends. Each one is good. None of them is the top.

I call it the Cashmere Ceiling. The fiber ladder appears to stop at cashmere. Not because there's nothing above it, but because that's where volume supply stops.

It's not just you

Some of the most accomplished knitters I know have hit this ceiling. Hitting it isn't a mistake. It's a sign you've outgrown the aisle.

Above the ceiling is a fiber most knitters have only read about. It comes from an animal that has lived through Arctic winters since the last Ice Age. It's hard to find, and it isn't inexpensive. But when I asked customers to describe knitting with it, one wrote:

"Almost like knitting the wind."

What heirloom knitting actually needs

If you're making something to wear for decades, or to hand down, you don't need a luxury label. You need a rare natural down fiber: the fine insulating layer certain animals grow close to the skin.

You already know a few.

*We carry vicuña too. But the fiber our shop was built on is rarer still.

The trouble with "luxury" yarn

What you want from your best yarn is simple: the softest, warmest, lightest thing you can put on your needles. What stands in the way is also simple. It's rare, it's priced like it's rare, and you can't feel it before you buy.

The luxury aisle's answer is to blend a little of something precious into something common. But a blend that's 10% luxury still knits and wears like the other 90%.

You've felt how that plays out.

So two ideas need to go.

Meet qiviut (KIV-ee-oot)

Qiviut is the Inuit word for the underwool of the muskox. Muskox live in the Arctic, where winter falls to forty below and colder. To survive it, they grow two coats: long guard hair on the outside and, underneath, a layer of down so fine and warm it's among the most insulating natural fibers on earth.

Every year, as the Arctic warms toward spring, muskox shed that underwool naturally. It's gathered by hand, a little at a time, in partnership with local communities. Nothing is sheared.

Qiviut evolved for one job: keeping a muskox alive through an Arctic winter. That's why it's so soft, so warm and so light. Wrapped around your neck, it does that same job beautifully.

Here's the promise 

What it's actually like

When I asked customers to describe qiviut in one sentence, softness came up in 67% of answers. Warmth came up in 52%. Nobody was prompted.

Put together, that's four things. Softer than cashmere. Warmer than wool, eight times warmer than wool. And no itch against bare skin. It also doesn't felt the way wool can, which matters when a piece is meant to last.

Unlike ever before in your knitting life, the finished piece feels as rare as the hours you put into it. As one customer put it, "It knits like a dream."

So why doesn't every yarn shop carry it?

Because there's no way to make more of it. Supply is set by what muskox shed each year, and every year's gathering is different. Qiviut has one of the smallest productions of any natural fiber in the world.

You can see the difference, too. Qiviut fibers measure roughly 11 to 14 microns across; cashmere typically runs 14 to 19. That gap is the first thing your fingertips notice.

Fiber thickness in microns (lower is finer)

Qiviut

11 to 14

Cashmere

14 to 19

81216202428

Knitters like you, in their own words

On Ravelry, where knitters are famously honest, Pure Qiviuk yarn is rated 4.8 out of 5 from more than 209 ratings. Here's what our own customers wrote:

You might be wondering whether you're good enough to knit something this precious. Your years of knitting are the qualification. If you're comfortable with fine yarns, you're ready. One customer called it "soft and delicate but easy to work with."

Three knitters, three reasons they said yes

One skein is enough for a cowl, a hat or a lace scarf. Knitters use it for a milestone project, a bridal gift, or the piece they want their granddaughter to have. Bigger projects, like a shawl, take a few more skeins.

Let's talk about the price. Honestly.

A skein of Pure Qiviut is $165. I won't pretend that's small. 40% of our customers brought up price on their own, and nearly all of them did it to explain why it was worth it.

Here's the math that changed it for them. A one-skein cowl might keep you happily knitting for 20 to 30 hours. That's roughly $5 to $7 an hour for the best knitting of your life. Then you wear it every winter for decades.

I know you can't feel it through a screen. That's why every photo on this page is shot up close in natural light, so you can see the real texture before you buy. And it's why you have 30 days to send it back, unused, for a full refund if it isn't love at first touch.

If you have a question before or after, you'll get me ready to answer any questions or hesitations you may have.

Your next project will take the same hours whatever you knit it with. The only choice is what those hours turn into.

Your first skein

100% Pure Qiviut · Natural

The fiber's own color, as the muskox grew it.

$165 per skein

First order? Add a pattern to your cart and use code WELCOMEKNITTER to get it free. 30-day money-back guarantee on unused skeins.

Shop Pure Qiviut in Natural →

Prefer color? Qiviut comes in a range of hand-dyed shades. And if you'd rather start smaller, our qiviut blends with silk, cashmere and merino begin well below the price of a pure skein.

Windy Valley began on a muskox farm in Alaska, started by a knitter who wanted a way to work with her own animals' fiber. Today I run it, and we bring new colors, blends and designer patterns every season. When you find a fiber you love here, it will be here for your next project too. Quantities just vary with the muskox.

One last honest thing. Every year's gathering is different, and when this year's Natural is gone, more arrives only after next year's shed.

So I'd ask you to decide. Either this is the year you finally knit with qiviut, or it isn't. Both are fine answers. The only one I'd gently talk you out of is "someday."

From me to you, Giovanna

P.S. Shopping for a knitter you love? Qiviut is rare enough that most knitters have handled it once, if ever, so it's very unlikely she already has it. One skein of Natural makes a gift she'll talk about for years.

This page is a message from Windy Valley Muskox, the seller of the products featured. Customer quotes come from a survey of 246 Windy Valley customers.