Cormo 1.0 Briar Rose Pumpkin Patch
$ 28.00 USD
I first met Chris Roosien at Rhinebeck. There, under an ancient maple tree whose leaves were ablaze in color, she had assembled her Briar Rose yarns in a booth that was packed, cheek to jowl, with people. Perhaps this is why I always associate Chris, and Briar Rose, with those exquisite shades of fall.
"I know you've got a mighty busy load leading up to Rhinebeck," I wrote her in August, "but I still have a stash of Cormo 1.0 that I wanted to ask you about dyeing?"
Chris said yes, so I shipped her the skeins and she immediately set her dyepots boiling. My only request was that she give us colors that honor autumn. Boy did she ever. We are extremely lucky to have this yarn.
I called this colorway "Pumpkin Patch," yet it is so much more. It is that very combination of green leading to orange that you've ever admired in the fall woods. The variegation is strong and intentional, making Pumpkin Patch ideal for patterns whose underlying simplicity will allow the variegation to shine through.
A Note About Color: There can be some variation in color saturation from skein to skein. We'll pick the very best color matches we can, but I also recommend you alternate skeins every other row. 'Tis the very nature of dye work done by hand in small batches.
Quick Facts about Cormo 1.0
Gauge: This plump, worsted-weight yarn is happiest in the range of 5 to 5.25 stitches per inch, in the 7 rows per inch range. Start with US 7 (4.5mm) needles and see where they get you.
Put-up: 155 yards (141m)
Skein weight: 94g*
- In the food world, there's something called an "amuse bouche." It's an unexpected little dish, something never found on any menu. It's meant to surprise, delight, but also give the eater a sense of the chef's philosophy about food and cooking.
This yarn is my amuse bouche to you.
It began as I was embarking upon my Great White Bale adventure. I contacted my wool mentor Elsa Hallowell for advice. For years, Elsa shepherded a magical flock of American Cormo sheep. Not just white, which is the breed standard, but varying gorgeous shades of grey. She spun the fibers and sold them under her Elsawool yarn label. Her yarn was, and still is, extraordinary. Pure, even, soulful, both serene and brimming with life. Were I to be stranded on a desert island, hers is the yarn I'd want.
It turns out Elsa was at a turning point in her own life. There is a thing called OPP that sheep farmers dread more than almost anything. Infected sheep can be asymptomatic for a long time. So that when Elsa finally tested her flock for OPP, almost the entire flock tested positive. Which meant that most of the sheep were infected when she bought them. Once the symptoms appeared, one by one, she had to put her flock down. She told me it was one of the most painful things she's ever had to do.
Luckily, she had a friend and fellow farmer in Montana who also raised American Cormo sheep. He offered to sell her his entire yearly clip. It was a lot of wool, she told me, maybe more than she really needed that particular year. But if she didn't commit to the whole shebang, she'd lose it. "I didn't realize you were interested in making yarn," she said, leaving the end of her sentence unfinished.
The lightbulb went off. Elsa agreed, and soon it was settled. We'd share that year's Cormo clip. Which is how I found myself quite suddenly not only the proud owner of the Great White Bale, but two more bales of wool. Glorious Cormo. What you see here came from the first of those two bales.
Source: Wool from purebred American Cormo sheep raised in Montana. Scoured at Bollman's in San Angelo, Texas. Combed, spun, and twisted at Kraemer Yarns in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Skeined, scoured, and transformed into the skeins you see here at Saco River Dyehouse in Biddeford, Maine.
