A Shepherd-Knitter Cross

On a hot July afternoon, my family turned off the highway at a roadside fruit barn as we travelled home from a camping trip on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. Every road through this fertile region is studded with summer fruit stands, but Prey’s Fruit Barn stood out: Among the painted placards advertising apricots, nectarines, and cherries was a sign that read YARN. And yarn there was—locally grown, dyed in cheerful hues from botanical sources, charmingly displayed in apple baskets. I was powerless. I picked out a couple of Cormo x Romney wool skeins from McFarland Creek Lamb Ranch, a small flock in the Methow Valley.

This is my favorite kind of yarn shopping: chance encounters with fibers you won’t find on a commercial scale. Yarns that speak of the animals that grew them and the work of the shepherd who tended that flock. Yarns with terroir and story. And yarns that represent intentional crossbreeding are especially enticing.