One of the wonderful things about Qiviut is the way it blooms or puffs up as it's handled and worn. Blooming is what happens when some of the fibers begin to loosen up from the strand of yarn creating a halo effect around it. The fibers don't shed - they just lift up and create a fur-like appearance to the yarn as you can see in the pictures to your right and below.
Just a thought...
If you know someone special who needs a chemo cap, this might be the perfect answer. Weighing a little over an ounce a qiviut cap is amazingly light and downy soft while at the same time being very warm and protective for sensitive skin. It's also a great solution for people with shaved or bald heads who need a beanie to keep them warm but want something simple and understated to do it with. The softness of Qiviut is unparalleled.
Wildlife photographer Florian Shultz took these extraordinary pictures of Arctic Musk Ox in the far northern reaches of Alaska. Hunted to the very edge of extinction a few decades ago the Musk Ox have been repopulated and reintroduced into the wilds of both Alaska and Canada where only the First People are allowed to hunt them.
Of particular interest to me is the downy undercoat of the Musk Ox called Qiviut (pronounced kih-vee-uht) that keeps the animals warm and protected during the brutal onslaught of the Arctic conditions they live in most of the year. Native people used to gather the Qiviut in the spring when the Musk Ox would rub against trees and stumps to shed their winter coats. They knew then as we know now, how warm and insulating the fibers are when incorporated into clothing.
Qiviut is 8 to 10 times warmer than wool and one of the softest animal fibers on earth. A single fiber is also nearly invisible to the human eye and takes highly specialized processing to turn it into yarns or threads that can be worked into clothing. Due to its scarcity and difficulty of processing Qiviut remains hard to find and very expensive when you do. Due to a special arrangement with a mill in Canada for the past many years I've been able to buy discreet amounts of Qiviut yarn that I incorporate into my Pussy Caps; thus creating caps that simply have no rivals for warmth, protection and luxurious softness.
Qiviut Pussy Caps are available by custom order only and start at 200.00 dollars for my classic beanie cap style. While that might seem like a lot of money for a beanie cap I can tell you from my experience with my own Qiviut cap that it's worth every penny. Please email me at beaniecapguy@gmail.com for more information and ordering.
