Getting to Alaska was easier than we expected! Our flight made a stop in Seattle, where we tried Beecher’s mac and cheese for the first time, then made our way up north. Stepping off the plane into the snow was slightly terrifying, but the fresh snow made the entire trip beautiful. We saw a moose pretty early on, near downtown Anchorage, which set off the excitement for the whole trip.

Naturally I located a few yarn shops pretty quickly. In Anchorage, we visited Far North Yarn Co. It was a great selection of Lopi yarn, which I’d always seen online but never tried. I picked up two skeins of the Lopi Lettlopi in heaven blue heather and ash heather. I also got their branded pattern book, which had the Trinket Mittens pattern. The Alaska mountains inspired me to buy the blue and white. This yarn is itchy! From what I’ve heard it will soften up with wear, but I was surprised by how rustic it feels. I’m glad I tried making something small with this yarn first, in the past I’ve debated buying a sweaters worth, but it’s not as soft at the photos look! I would probably hold it with a soft mohair if I used it in the future. The mittens in their pattern book came together quickly, and I love the Icelandic style finish at the tops. I think I even have enough yarn to make a second pair of mittens in the reverse colors.

One of the best parts of the trip was our drive out to Palmer, Alaska. We passed through Eagle River, where we started the day with cross country skiing. Their course was empty and the tracks had just been done that morning, it was beautiful especially with the fresh snow on the trees. The sun came up around 9-10am every morning, and there was this beautiful blue glow for a few hours before. Afterwards we found another local yarn store, the Tangled Skein, along with great Sushi and coffee shops downtown. The yarn shop had a section of locally hand spun yarn. I picked up a skein of varigated red yarn, called Fresh&Roasted by Tired Timbers. I’m still debating exactly what project I should make with it, it’s worsted and about 42 grams weight.

Once we made it to Palmer, we arrived at the Musk Ox Farm. The farm has a shop attached, full of qiviut yarn and finished projects. It’s incredible how soft it is. The attached museum explained that the yarn is about 11-14 microns in diameter, and for comparison, human hair is about 100 microns! The musk ox scratch along the wire fencing, where their underwool falls off. The staff explained that they pick up the fallen wool, process it there at the farm, then sell the qiviut yarn. One of the best parts of the tour was watching the musk ox run through the fields. Now the tough part will be deciding what to make with the quivut. Finding something that will be lace weight and one skein’s worth is tricky – I’m thinking fingerless mittens or even a headband.

We found a lot of great food as well. The Fire Island Bakery was our favorite, it had a potato leek soup that warmed us up every morning. Everything was decorated for Valentine’s day and they even had a Valentine’s market while we were there. Another great spot was Wild Scoops, we loved the blueberry ice cream and baked Alaska cones.

We can’t wait to visit Alaska again, it was the perfect mix of skiing, yarn shopping, random moose sightings, and beautiful scenery with the best people.