My City in Yarn

As promised, I have finished Pittsburgh mini skeins to share! Each skein was spun from about 1 oz. of custom-blended fiber from HipStrings and has some connection to my hometown. I spun each fiber sample end to end and chain-plied, so the resulting yarn is a sort-of three ply, and they're all roughly fingering weight.

Here are the details on each skein, from left to right:

Cathedral of Learning (50% Rambouillet/25% baby llama/25% baby alpaca): The Cathedral of Learning is the second-tallest educational building in the world at 42 stories and is arguably the most well-known building on the University of Pittsburgh campus. It was build at the height of the Depression with the financial support of, among others, a number of local schoolchildren who contributed a dime each to "buy a brick" in the building. Today it's home to several Pitt schools and offices as well as the internationally known Nationality Rooms. Learn more here.

Won't You Be My Neighbor (50% BFL/50% Shetland): I think that most of you will recognize the reference to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, but what you might not realize is that it was filmed here at WQED, the nation's first community-sponsored TV station and one of its very first public television stations. You can still visit the Fred Rogers Studio at the station's building today.

Environmental (50% Merino/50% Shetland): Pittsburgh is home to a number of large parks and green spaces as well as the historic Phipps Conservatory. Pittsburgh is also the birthplace of noted writer and naturalist Rachel Carson.

Hill District (75% Merino/25% Bombyx silk): Pittsburgh's Hill District neighborhood is special to me, as it's where my maternal grandfather grew up. Though back then it was a Jewish neighborhood, it eventually became the center of the city's African American cultural life. It's where playwright August Wilson was born, and it's the setting for his series of 10 plays.

The Pinkertons (75% Merino/25% Tussah silk): You might have heard of the Pinkerton detectives, but I'm guessing that you've probably never heard of the Homestead Steel strike in which they were involved, even if you're a native Pittsburgher. I have, but only because in my junior year of high school, I had to write a term paper on local history and it was my topic.

And finally Coal (25% Black Welsh/25% Black Finnish/25% Black Shetland/25% Tussah silk): Pittsburgh has long been known as the Steel City, and the making of all that steel requires a lot of power. And back when steel was still being made here, that power came from coal.

In all, I've got just shy of 410 yards of yarn. I have no idea what I'll do with them -- I really just spun these for the sake of spinning them!