epicflood

Having fully recovered from my mock cable embarrassment, I find myself lost in the beauty of Brooklyn Tweed's Loft yarn. As anyone who's feasted on the BT lookbooks can attest, there's a very wholesome quality about Brooklyn Tweed yarn, and I truly believe it's what gives the sample garments pictured an extra edge in the character deparment. If you're the type of knitter who likes his or her stitches to achieve perfect alignment on every row, Loft is probably not the yarn for you. What's more, doubling the yarn, as required in Ash, will likely make you seek out a quiet and darkened room. As for me, it's actually the imperfection I've grown to love most.

As the label says, the yarn is 100% American, from Wyoming sheep to New Hampshire mill. Maybe we should take a moment to appreciate what that really means.

There's a painfully gorgeous documentary movie called Sweetgrass that chronicles the sacrifices of a sheep ranching family in Montana and truly helps put things into perspective. It's readily available via Netflix instant streaming, and every knitter who has ever held a piece of wool ought to pick up a project and settle down with this little gem. The documentary contains virtually no dialogue except for the bleating of sheep and the cursing of cowboys. This epic journey of 3,000 thousand sheep over 250 miles and the tribulations of grizzly bear and wolf attacks, lame herding dogs, and spent horses will have you seeing American-grown wool in whole new light.





There was a not-too-distant era when wool and textile mills dotted the entire Northeast as well as a time when the grassy foothills of the American west were the domain of cattle and sheep ranchers. Sadly, this America has all but disappeared. Even the 100+ year sheepherding family depicted in Sweetgrass have since retired their operation. I'm immensely proud of Brooklyn Tweed for throwing out a lifeline to this vanishing way of life. At some point very soon, we are going to have to get serious about what kind of America we want our children to inherit. Knitters know all about the power of incrementalism. One stitch is seemingly insignificant, but many stitches can create an amazing thing of beauty. Maybe by giving more thought to the wool we make our stitches with, we can make the world a better place, too.