possum is awesome

we have been saving this post-title for a while, although we did allow our good buddy stacey to ‘borrow‘ it a few weeks back. our new zealand yarn-line, zealana, has three blends, one of which is a merino-delaka blend. now, many of you may wonder, what in the HECK is a delaka? we’re here to tell you, with just a bit of trepidation, that a delaka is actually related to a possum. yes, a possum. those funky, strange creatures that you see wandering through portland at night, rivaling only the raccoon for stealthiness…yeah, those things. you know, as in, ‘possum is awesome?’

the possum adds quite a depth of character to the merino in zealana’s blend – it imparts both a heathery look and a deepening of color. in a word, it’s lovely. if you are my brother or sister-in-law, you can stop reading right now, because i decided to throw caution to the wind and create a lil baby garment out of our delaka blend yarn.

i have been spending waaaay too much time on ravelry lately (which seems to be an epidemic among knitters), and stumbled across this gorgeous little cardi for a baby, by fpea. it’s called the mossy jacket, and the pattern is free, it’s written in one piece from the top down, AND it’s knitted on chunky-weight yarn, which makes it the perfect instant-gratification type of knit. i picked out two funky colors, and set to work.

the delaka was pretty great to work with – it certainly doesn’t have the hand of a db cashmerino, but is very soft, and seems to be hearty enough not to pill. the best thing about this (and, all of the zealana yarns) is that you can toss it in the washing machine AND the dryer. i washed two swatches, one in cold water and one in hot water. the hot water swatch did full just a bit, but the cold water swatch was completely fine, and even softened up and bloomed just the right amount. both were also tossed into the dryer, and a low-heat dry cycle works very well for this yarn. which leads me to the conclusion that the zealana line is the perfect yarn for kids, or for those low-maintenance loved ones who simply cannot be trusted to hand-wash a hand-knit. plus, the chunky weight knits up so quickly, even i was amazed at how soon i finished this little coat.

for those of you who totally heart those buttons, we have those and more like ’em in the shop – we just received a button shipment, and emily and i ooooh’d and aaaahhhh’d over every single on of them.