Friday, November 10, 2006

The Source of Qiviet

Arctic Lace is the story of the Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers'
Co-operative, headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska and with members around the entire state, and the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, a 50 minute drive from Anchorage. During my research for Arctic Lace, I wanted to learn about both parts of this unique partnership.

I've spent quite a bit of time talking about the knitters of Oomingmak and
the knitting of the co-op on this blog tour, but I haven't spent much time talking about the Musk Ox Farm. I'd like to do that today.

I visited Alaska in April of 2004. I couldn't visit during the tourist season, because no-one would have had time to talk to me or help me with my research. So I went at the end of winter, when I arrived piles of snow were everywhere, and by the time I left they had mostly been replaced by mud and puddles. One of the first things I did on my trip -- after visiting the Oomingmak Co-op shop -- was to take a drive up to the Musk Ox Farm. (I visited again at the end of my trip to get more photos, which is why these pictures do not show any snow!)

Because it was not tourist season, I had to make a special appointment
for a private tour. Sandy, the farm manager, and Rick, one of the tour
guides, took me around the fields where the animals live and inside the
museum that was closed for the season. They even let me put my hand
inside the qiviut on the back of one of the tamer animals. Even though it was April, the weather was quite chilly. But putting my hand inside the coat of the musk ox was like snuggling under an electric blanket when the heat is turned down. These animals are so well insulated, that if they are caught sleeping in a heavy ice storm, they could be frozen to the ground and die because no heat escapes through their heavy coat to melt the ice.

The only parts of the body that is not covered in qiviut are the nose, lips, eyes, and hooves. The long guard hairs and fluffy qiviut often hide the animals’ tails and ears, making them look like huge boulders from a distance. Their short legs are almost invisible when the guard hair, reaching almost 2 feet in length, extends almost to the ground. Under the guard hair, adult animals may have as much as 6 inches of qiviut. The downy qiviut sheds in spring, but the guard hairs do not shed and continue to grow for the animal's entire life.

Qiviut fiber is so fine that the individual hairs are almost transparent and it is difficult to see the single hairs without using a magnifying glass (or maybe that's just because my eyes are getting to old!). The fibers are usually between 11 and 20 microns, depending on the age and health of the animals and whether they are raised in captivity or are wild. This is about the same range as cashmere, and finer than any breed of sheep's wool. In addition, qiviut has much flatter scales than wool, so it will not felt.

An adult musk oxen weighs anywhere from 450 to 900 pounds (200 to 400 kg) and sheds up to 5 to 6 pounds (2.3 to 2.7 kg) of qiviut each year.
Although they seem to be gigantic animals, musk oxen look larger than
their bodies are, just as unshorn sheep or long-haired cats do. They are about five feet tall at the shoulder. The animals that are raised by hand are somewhat docile and will come up to familiar people to beg for treats. At the musk ox farm, they normally bring all of the animals into the barn to weigh them once a week, so when spring time comes and they are shedding, they will not be spooked when they are brought indoors to have their qiviut combed out.

Musk oxen were driven to extinction in Alaska and the animals that are
there today are all descendants of a small group that was translated from Greenland in the 1930s. The animals were kept at the University in
Fairbanks for a short time for research, and then released on Nunivak
Island. As the population of the herd grew and the island could no longer support the population, animals were transplanted first to Nelson Island and later to other places around the state of Alaska.

Today there are a lot of wild musk oxen near the gold-rush town of Nome, where a new eco-tourism plan for promoting musk ox viewing is under development. For those who might be visiting Fairbanks, you can also see captive musk oxen during the tourist season at the Large Animal Research Station at the University.

I didn't get to see any wild musk oxen on my trip, but I hope to be able to go back again (and again) and to see these ancient creatures in the wild.

Donna Druchunas
Sheep to Shawl

Posted by Thistle Cove Farm :: 11:30 AM :: 9 comments

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