One of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving. It is a time to reconnect with family, to consider blessings, and … eat!! I’ve wrapped up some Thanksgiving meal favorites into this month’s fiber and yarn…..golden brown roast turkey, creamy mashed potatoes with a drizzle of gravy, rich green beans, jeweled red cranberry sauce, and of course, some dessert….rich pumpkin pie, plus some chocolate mousse (or black coffee!). 
The fiber is Targhee, which is a sheep breed developed here in America….and this wool was grown and processed in the USA. Targhee is great for lots of projects. It has the softness of merino, but a bit more length and crimp. It spins beautifully both in worsted and woolen styles. Spin as is for long color runs, or strip it down to make the colors shorter and mix it up. (Mom, my food is touching!!!)
Our yarn is also an American product. I’ve been so glad to watch over the past 10 years as the wool industry is slowly coming back to the United States. This version of Tiger Twist is made from Merino that was grown in the US, and superwash processed here, too! (Did you know all wool had to be shipped overseas for superwashing until just a few years ago?)
I used a short repeat on this yarn, hand painting each skein (whew!). Just for kicks and giggles, I did a little bit of swatching of the yarn to show you why I don’t usually make swatches of variegated yarn to show you!!
At the bottom, I started with 72 stitches and a loose tension, and the yarn makes a stripey spiral. Then I tightened the tension, and the yarn suddenly made larger pools…..or puddles. In the middle of the pooling section, I reduced the stitches to 64, but put the tension back to the original. The puddling continued….but changed direction! I again tightened the tension, and the yarn went back to making striping spirals….but in the other direction from the original. This was all done on my knitting machine, so you can imagine the further variation that can be added by small human changes in tension from row to row or session to session. 
So, that is why I don’t post pictures of swatches for variegated yarn. What will happen on your project is dependent on stitch count, needle size, and your tension. These are all things you can control if you don’t care for the way the colors are pooling.
That’s it for November Club. I’m looking ahead to December now. I have one sock club opening at this time (I’m dyeing early so I can enjoy Christmas with my family), but you can look for more openings for yarn (and possibly fiber) in the New Year.
