08/27/2026
Just like the rough minerals a rockhound might find in the wilderness of Ontario, this yarn was found at the back of a mill’s warehouse. A box of uncut gems waiting to be noticed, brought home, cleaned up, and cherished.
I can’t tell you the exact contents of this yarn. I know it’s wool. I know there is some amount of bast fibre content. Bast fibre comes from the stem or inner bark of a plant. Common examples are linen, h**p, ramie and nettle. After working with it, I suspect the plant fibre content to be around 10-15%, and most likely linen or nettle. The knit fabric has a lofty and crisp hand, with a hard to describe texture. Lightweight but rustic. It sits right on the edge of my personal criteria for next-to-skin soft, but we all have different skin!
The wool itself needed several rounds of washing and scouring. It started out a dark charcoal and lightened in colour to a heathered ash grey, with mixed midtones, peppered with strands of jet black. And since plant fibres don’t take acid dyes, the resulting colours in this yarn are beautifully heathered with an enormous range and depth of shade. It is a woollen spun 2-ply with a good amount of stick-togetherness for stranded colourwork.
I named the colourways in this collection after the amazing diversity of beautiful mineral specimens found in the province. Ontario has some of the most unique and diverse geology on the planet and is home to some of the oldest rock on earth. It’s honestly a rockhounds paradise out here! Each colour is named after a gemstone or mineral that comes from Ontario.
This yarn is a sport weight or heavy fi*****ng. My swatch measures 4x4in with 20sts and 32rows on 4mm needles in stockinette. 330m/360yds per 100g skein.
