I Touched the West

Last night, my LYS hosted a "yarn tasting" featuring several yarns from Mountain Meadow Wool, a smallish wool mill in Wyoming. We got to hear about the history of the mill and its philosophy from the yarn rep and got to swatch with five different yarns: Cody, a sport weight; Jackson, a DK; Laramie, a heavy worsted/Aran; Lilura, a fingering; and Aladdin, a bulky weight. Cody, Jackson, and Laramie are all merino, while Lilura is a merino/alpaca blend and Aladdin is made up of one ply of merino and one ply of silk.

Blue is Cody, brown is Jackson, white is Laramie, crimson is Lilura, and bright red is Aladdin

It was a lot of fun to play with these yarns (though I certainly would have liked more yardage to play with!). As you can see from my swatches, I played around with all sorts of stitches -- stockinette, garter, seed stitch, lace, cables, and ribbing. My favorite of the bunch was Laramie, with Cody coming up a close second. These yarns have lots of bounce and body; you can feel the elasticity and the life in them. They also have a somewhat cottony feel to them -- they're cool and dry to the touch -- though they knit like a real wool.

At the moment, my LYS only carries Jackson, though they told us last night that they were using the yarn tasting like a consumer focus group. I'm hoping that that means that the responses from the attendees will encourage them to order other yarn lines!

I will be casting on for one or more new projects in the next several days, so tonight's goal is to wind some yarn. I have my handspun for my Water Music, and also these three skeins of Tosh Merino Light in Baroque Violet that I bought several weeks ago when my LYS got a Tosh shipment in (though I don't think I ever showed them to you):

These are going to grow up to be a Window to My Soul, which frankly I could really use right now. After a couple of weeks of hot, humid weather, it's gotten noticeably cooler and much more comfortable the past couple of days, though apparently my office's air conditioning did not get the memo. I had my space heater on all day yesterday, and today I took in my Breezy Cardigan to wear. Wool to the rescue!