[
The muskox has a two-layered coat, and ''qiviut'' refers specifically to the soft underwool beneath the longer outer wool. The muskox sheds this layer of wool each spring. Qiviut is plucked from the coat of the muskox during the ]moult
In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer ...
or gathered from objects the animals have brushed against; unlike sheep, the animals are not sheared. Much of the commercially available qiviut comes from Canada, and is obtained from the pelts of muskoxen after hunts. In Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...
, qiviut is obtained from farmed animals or gathered from the wild during the molt.
Properties
Qiviut is stronger and warmer than sheep's wool, and softer than cashmere wool
Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goat. It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. Cashmere is closely associate ...
. Wild muskoxen have qiviut fibres approximately in diameter. Females and young animals have slightly finer wool. Unlike sheep's wool, it does not shrink in water at any temperature, but this means that it also is not useful for felt
Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...
ing.
It is most commonly used for hats and scarves, and is among the softest as well as warmest wools. It is very expensive; a high quality knitted scarf can cost more than $300 U.S., but will last over 20 years with good care.
Production and processing
An adult muskox can produce of qiviut a year. Qiviut is produced by the muskox's secondary hair follicles, which are not associated with sebaceous glands, and therefore is a much drier fibre than wool, having only about 7 percent oils. The hair follicle density is very high (approximately ) and qiviut is shed in a tightly synchronized spring moulting period. The qiviut will loosen from the animal's skin and pull away slightly, creating a "spectacled" look around the eyes and becoming visible all over the body at the surface of the pelt. At this stage of the moult, the undercoat is a short but relatively uniform distance from the skin. This lends itself to combing the qiviut from the animal in a single large sheet. If not combed, the qiviut will begin to fall out in clumps or be rubbed off by the animal, and may be plucked off the ground or bushes, but qiviut collected this way is of lower quality and requires more cleaning.
At the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station (LARS), a modified bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North A ...
crush is used to gently but firmly hold the muskoxen in place, and the pelt combed out using a long-toothed comb or hair pick. After the fleece is removed, it is cleaned by hand, removing vegetation and other foreign matter, and then dehaired. Dehairing is the removal of intermediate hairs (greater than in diameter). Dehairing is accomplished by carding
Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered with ...
as one would cashmere. Mechanical carding can cause breakage and weaken and roughen the qiviut. Because the pelt is combed rather than shaved, very few guard hairs come out with the qiviut using this method. Pelts from hunted animals are shaved, so the dehairing process in this case is more laborious. After dehairing, the qiviut may be cleaned again, if necessary.
The raw, cleaned qiviut is spun and then the yarn is washed. Natural qiviut is soft greyish brown in color, but it takes dye well and can be found for sale in myriad colors. Bleaching weakens the fibre, however, so many spinners and knitters recommend using only overdyed natural qiviut, which has darker, more subdued colours.
Muskoxen were hunted to extinction in Alaska by the end of the 1800s and reintroduced in 1935. Yarn production was first done soon after the reintroduction by an Alaskan home economics teacher who gathered the fibre and spun
''Spun'' is a 2002 American black comedy crime drama film directed by Jonas Åkerlund from an original screenplay by William De Los Santos and Creighton Vero, based on three days of De Los Santos's life in the Eugene, Oregon, drug subculture. The ...
it herself.
Muskoxen were not domesticated until 1954. Domestication began with the Musk Ox Project, headed by John J. Teal, Jr with the first domestic muskox farm in Fairbanks, Alaska
Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the p ...
. The project continues at the muskox farm in Palmer, Alaska
Palmer (Ahtna: ''Nił'etse'it'aade'' or ''Nuutah''; Dena'ina: ''Denal'i Kena'') is a city in and the borough seat of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States, located northeast of Anchorage on the Glenn Highway in the Matanuska ...
. The Oomingmak Musk Ox Producer's Cooperative
''Victorialand'' is the fourth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Cocteau Twins, released by 4AD in 1986. Working without bassist Simon Raymonde, vocalist Elizabeth Fraser and guitarist/producer Robin Guthrie opted for a subtler sou ...
was formed in the late 1960s by indigenous women on Nunivak Island, with the help of Dr. Teal and Mrs. L. Schell. It is a knitting cooperative that works with qiviut and is still in operation today. The cooperative has its headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring ...
, and is owned by approximately 200 native Alaskans from many remote villages in Alaska. The name of the cooperative comes from the Inuit language word for muskox, ''umingmak'',[ "the animal with skin like a beard."
As of 2016 there were about four thousand muskox in Alaska and raw qiviut fibre was sold at $35 per ounce, approximately twice that of cashmere.] A scarf knitted from qiviut cost $275 at the Oomingmak collective.
References
External links
Large Animal Research Station
The Papers of Werner Von Bergen on Musk-Ox Wool
at Dartmouth College Library
{{Fibers
Wool
Inuit culture
Canadian fashion
Animal hair products