When sheep meets possum

Dear Diary,

Jesse: I love to knit for the boys which is a good thing since I'm not great at sewing.  In the past, when I would see an old doll with a wardrobe of only knitted clothing, I wondered why. Now, I assume it's because the (grand)parent responsible for outfitting the doll couldn't sew! I have recently been knitting jumpers for Hans; I can finish one in about 3 days of interrupted knitting.  I've been using a wonderful New Zealand knitting wool named 'Amuri'.  It is made of 75% Merino wool + 25% possum hair.

In New Zealand, we raise some of the finest Merino sheep in the world.  These sheep have without a doubt the softest and finest wool of any breed.


Then, we have possums which are incredibly horrible and destructive pests. Don't be fooled by this cute photo:



Here is their true nature: 


They are New Zealand's greatest threat to our natural environment and there's absolutely nothing cute about them.  

They do have only one good aspect: when their fur is spun with Merino wool, it produces the loveliest and softest knitting wools imaginable.  I would like to knit something for myself with this yarn but it's very expensive and it would take many skeins to cover me!

The following photos show garments I knitted using this knitting wool.

A while back I knitted this for Armand and he has worn it in a photo on an earlier posting.

Cardigan side

Jumper side

Over the Christmas and New Year holidays, I knitted these for Hans.


Cardigan side with cables


Jumper side with cables

Jumper side


Cardigan with vintage buttons and tussy mussy

Front of jumper with cables down the centre and along the sleeves

Cardigan side

The top-down raglan sleeve pattern is very popular because it is so easy to make.  The only fiddly part is the sewing-up of the arm seams.  I vary the collar sometimes so that the front-to-back has a turtleneck.  I never pull a garment over the head of a doll so the back must always open up, allowing the garment to be slipped on up the arms.  This works out well as it provides 2 garments in one - a jumper and a cardigan.

My apologies that some of the photos are a bit dark.  The colourway is heathered with black which at times makes it difficult to get the light to bounce off the fabric.  It can also obscure the cables which is why Aran patterns are done in light colours. I noticed that the clarity of the photos depends on which monitor I view them.  I hope your monitor shows clearly!

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