Friday, September 10, 2010

Imperial Stock Ranch

Anybody who talked to me shortly after my field trip to the TNNA marketplace last June in Columbus, Ohio, got an earful about the yarn I was most excited about.

Imperial Stock Ranch is a 150 year-old family-owned ranch in the Oregon desert. They have all-natural practices and are relatively new to the hand knitting universe (Here’s a link to the ranch site, rather than the yarn branch linked above). Over the years, they have bred a unique type of sheep that thrives in their harsh climate. That’s the wool in the skeins below.

ISRgreen.jpg

We purchased the ISR pencil roving for the store, along with pattern support for it. But I fell in love with the above yarn, their Columbia 2-ply in Spring Sage. It’s going to be my first Barbara Walker “Knitting from the Top” sweater. I honestly believe this yarn is going to shine in plain ‘ol stockingette.

ISRbrown.jpg

I also indulged in the above skein to make a plain garter shawl. I can’t find the tag right now, but I’ll edit the colorway name in when I find it.

ISRgreen2.jpg

The yarn has a slightly “natural” feel to it, but is still plenty soft and I’m so excited to clear my needles and get to work with this yarn. I’ve been excited about it since June and there’s no reason to stop now, since it’s finally in my hot little hands.

ISRgreen4.jpg

Oh, and since this is a small family-owned company, there’s no having to buy a full bag of this and a full bag of that. I needed seven skeins (at 4 oz/220 yards/skein of 100% wool) of the green and one for the brown, and that’s all we had to order. Love it!

ISRgreen3.jpg

As soon as I finish a project or two that is currently on my needles, I’ll be knitting with this yarn. You can count on it.

3 comments:

Sarah said...

I love how that yarn looks like it just came off the sheep (after a little washing and spinning, of course).

Trillian42 said...

Theotheramanda and I went to a "yarn tasting" of their stuff at one of our LYS last year, and it's LOVELY. Nice, rustic real WOOL. Beautiful stuff!

Jenn said...

It looks wonderful! I can't wait to see what you are going to do with it.