Monday, February 15, 2010

February '10 Canadian Fibre Box

Happy belated Valentine's everyone! This month's box is pure luxury, so consider it a Valentine's day present to yourself. One of our local fibre experts recommended I contact Princess Farms, and I'm sure happy that I did. The box of fibre that arrived this week is gorgeous, and was a dream to put into this month's shares. One last  word: We've sold out yet another month! Thank you all for supporting the project. The more we support "local" producers, the more we "grow" the Canadian fibre community.

Princess Farms

princess farmsPrincesss Farms is our main feature this month. Located in Saskatchewan, Princess Farms has cashmere goats, alpacas (Huacaya and Suri), and one Suri llama. Really, truly, pure Canadian luxury. Jo, Princess Farms' shepherdess, began her adventure in August 2005 with 12 cashmere goats and a few livestock dogs. Soon after, their first Alpaca followed. The rest is history, and the results are in this month's Canadian Fibre Box.
cashmere goatsA few notes about Cashmere that you might not know. The best quality cashmere is hand brushed from the goats when they are "ripe", so that the guard hairs stay on the goat and only the downy soft cashmere is removed. A single goat produces only about 4-6 ounces of cashmere before processing! Cashmere is so fluffy that you can do a lot with just a single ounce of it. It is great blended with other fibres, especially fine wools such as merino and rambouillet, and other luxury fibres such as alpaca and buffalo. Jo and Princess Farms, thank you for sharing these special fibre with us! To order more, please contact Jo. (Photos are sourced from Princess Farms' website)

Sqwish Yarns

One of the fun parts of this project is browsing Etsy for artisans to include in the Box. This month I found Sqwish's shop on Etsy, who had also  found me, and invited her to share some yarn. You each have some yummy Cuddle Toes in your box, and you can get more from her shop if your toes are calling for it. Sashka also has a blog with great patterns here: sqwish.wordpress.com. (Photo from Sqwish's Blog).

Share your projects

Come join us on Ravelry at the Ottawa Valley Fiber Arts group, to share your projects and ideas! If you haven't joined Ravelry yet, it's free

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