Weasel wool
Monday September 19th 2011, 9:16 pm
Filed under: Knit

Or clearly, buyer beware.

Meantime, the fourth hat for Vermont flood relief, with apologies for the flashbleaching. In real life it’s a triple-braid allover cable.

I bought some $8.99+ship mink/cashmere laceweight via Ebay awhile ago to see if it really was what it said it was–having once ordered $.99 silk/cashmere from someone else in That Big Country that a bleach test declared to be mostly-bamboo at best. You don’t get what you don’t pay for.

The American proprietor of Great Northern Yarns, looking to establish a world market in mink yarn awhile back, flew to China to verify the source of the fiber and the humane care they take of their animals to his satisfaction, and I’ve tried his. It has a distinct hand and is very soft, so I already knew I quite liked the stuff. His, too, has some cashmere blended in.

The new stuff seems to my hands to be a good enough match. I should note that if you want dk weight, though, ya gotta buy it from GNY.

So as I was finishing up the last of that fourth Vermont hat, with worsted and dk running together on size 5 US needles and cabled, tight tight tight and warm warm warm but hard hard hard on the hands, I escaped for a few minutes by admiring that mink stuff online again. I’d been wishing they had more pale-person-friendly colors; couldn’t hurt to go see.

And there it was. A picture of a display of every color the stuff seems to come in, from a new vendor, buy any lot size and name your colorway. A caution: one of their listings says “This is not mink this is not cashmere” but the rest of their English is so fractured that who knows what they meant to say.

100 skeins 5000 g mink yarn iceberg ferrets

Condition: new

Well, we certainly wouldn’t want old ferrets. Okay, it took me awhile but I found a listing with the 90% wool of ferrets 10% cashmere part. Got it. Weasel? Ferret? Mink?

But iceberg? Anybody?

(Ed. to add.  I looked again. I’ll take them at their “This is not” word and stick with what I’ve got from whom I know, product-wise. The “partner” yarns sound to me as I think about it like they’re being marketed as strands to run with the ones that actually are the blend I’m looking for. I wonder what they’re made of!

Oh. There’s a sheepish picture on the ball band. Never mind.)


9 Comments so far
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Looks like Google translate has seen some action… Iceberg ferret? The mind boggles.

Comment by tinebeest 09.19.11 @ 10:48 pm

Ah, I understand your confusion. You are thinking of the typical ferret (Mustelo putorius furo) while this is the very rare Iceberg ferret (Mustelo putorius gelato), found only on icebergs and as such having extremely dense and fine pelage. I am sure this is an exquisite yarn!

Comment by twinsetellen 09.20.11 @ 6:10 am

Oh Alison… This reminds me of a spell in my teens where I counted every. single. index card. in the pack, because I wanted to be sure there was truth in advertising…

I got 52 instead of 50. Daddy asked if I planned to mail the extras back. Hem.

Comment by Channon 09.20.11 @ 6:22 am

Iceberg ferret hm? Wonder what they eat that makes their pelt so soft?

Comment by Sherry in Idaho 09.20.11 @ 7:28 am

Now if I knew what you were talking about …

I like Channon’s comment.

Comment by Don Meyer 09.20.11 @ 9:11 am

does this mean they are frozen stiff, or just that they are ice blue?

interesting to say the least!

Comment by Bev 09.20.11 @ 10:13 am

Arctic, I’d assume. But I’ll take my ferrets Romaine, thank you.

Comment by Lanafactrix 09.20.11 @ 12:11 pm

Or should I say . . . I prefer free-range minks. You know, the ones that are romaine out on the prairie.

Comment by Lanafactrix 09.20.11 @ 12:12 pm

It is so much fun to play with things lost in translation. (Unless, of course, you really need to know what on earth they meant.) Frozen weasels don’t sound like they’d make a very good yarn. Probably better to stick with the stuff you know.

Comment by Erica 09.20.11 @ 10:23 pm



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