Plug for Great Yarns from Fresh Isle Fibers

Have you noticed that the Canadians do fiber-related things quite well? Is it the clime (OK, I know there are as many climates as in the US, except perhaps for the Southwest and Southern California), or maybe something in their sensibility that is just so natural?

For instance, I recently came across Fresh Isle Fibers, a company located on an island called Manitoulin, off the coast of Ontario, in Lake Huron. One reason I love their offerings is that so many of them are dyed with local materials, such as sumac berries and various types of bark and flowers.

I want to move there and knit with their yarns for the rest of my life. The island has many fresh water lakes and is almost certainly a less citified place to be! The sheep have to have room to graze!

Now as for their offerings, I've bought their perfect-for-kids'-things watermelon hand-dyed wool, which comes in various weights, as well as some of their one-color mixed breed yarn. They have a good selection of self-striping sock yarns (not my thing, but it is many knitters' first love), as well as some fuzzy-looking Softspun wool. While my stash has recently revealed itself to be extremely healthy (one downside of ravelry is that I can't bury my head in the sand about my acquisitional tendencies!), I am looking for the project that will just HAVE to be done with Softspun.

If you want to know more about how FIF dyes with natural materials, I have found that her blog has a great deal of info and photos of the dying process.

Happy knitting, and be sure to take a look at FIF's website!

PS Can you tell that I am feeling 115% percent better since the root canal?? 8^)