As someone who has been knitting for about five years I don't remember the days when all you could get at the store was scratchy wool or stiff cotton yarns. I am lucky enough to have gotten into this amazing art during an upswing when there are all kinds of new things coming out. Even within the past couple of years there have been some new ones such as corn yarns, soy based yarns, yarns derived from kelp, and hemp yarns. This is in addition to all of the great animal fibers and blends of sheeps wool, alpaca, llama, quivet, buffalo, etc. Then there are the novelty yarns which are new even since I have been knitting and have gotten much more refined. These are mostly synthetics but have come a long way from the basic straggly static prone eyelash yarn that I first encountered. So my question is this- Why is there still a company producing yarn out of real fur? As in real fur attached to an animal's hide that requires the animal to be killed and skinned and torn up and sewn into a long string? Who buys this stuff? Even if you put aside the fur debate the price is insane! A 4 yard ball of fox fur yarn is $51! Now consider that a kit for a small basic scarf made out of beaver yarn runs over $150! What is the point? Someone out there must be buying this or the company that makes it wouldn't still be in business. I guess there are those people who think that having gold tipped knitting needles or handmade sterling silver darning needles is a novel luxury but this is just ridiculous. How many carcasses do you think it would take to make a sweater? Just curious. I would really like to meet one of the people who knits with this and make an attempt to understand the motivation. Until then I will remain hopelessly confounded.
