A few weeks ago I took a birthday trip to Dublin. I had high hopes of coming home with lots of authentic Irish wool, but most of the yarn stores I visited sold only pre-made wool sweaters. What little yarn they sold was usually acrylic imported from the UK or Italy.
Luckily, I stumbled across This Is Knit, a lovely store in the Powerscourt shopping center, where I managed to find some Irish tweed yarn spun and dyed in County Donegal.
My plan is to make some mittens with it. It's a little too scratchy for a scarf or even a hat.
I asked the clerk at This Is Knit why it was so hard to find Irish wool yarn in Dublin, and she told me that most of the sheep in Ireland are raised for meat and milk, not wool, and in fact, most of those "authentic" Irish sweaters they sell to tourists are actually made with wool from Australia and New Zealand. It's just strange to think that a country known for its wool sweaters wouldn't produce its own wool any more. What is the world coming to?
Luckily, I stumbled across This Is Knit, a lovely store in the Powerscourt shopping center, where I managed to find some Irish tweed yarn spun and dyed in County Donegal.
My plan is to make some mittens with it. It's a little too scratchy for a scarf or even a hat.
I asked the clerk at This Is Knit why it was so hard to find Irish wool yarn in Dublin, and she told me that most of the sheep in Ireland are raised for meat and milk, not wool, and in fact, most of those "authentic" Irish sweaters they sell to tourists are actually made with wool from Australia and New Zealand. It's just strange to think that a country known for its wool sweaters wouldn't produce its own wool any more. What is the world coming to?
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