Quiviuk Fan Stitch Crochet Neck Warmer

What is quiviuk? Well, it’s the fur of an animal called muskox, an it’s very rare and expensive. But I didn’t know it either until last week.

When we moved to this new apartment, we had to sort out many things that were in the apartment but weren’t ours. Long story short, I found myself “inheriting” a plastic bag containing four little skeins of yellowish-ochre yarn that I didn’t like much. I tossed them in my yarn box and they stayed there for two months.

Last week, I was looking for some other yarn when I saw them and decided to look at the composition out of curiosity.
They happened to be 15% quiviuk, 80% merino yarn and 5% silk.

Merino, I know. Silk, of course, but quiiiiviiiu… what?

Well, this, my friends, is a muskox.

«Ovibos moschatus qtl3» de Quartl vía Wikimedia Commons

It seems it has two coats of fur, a strongest one and a softer finer one inside, which is the quiviuk. They change this coat every spring, so they are not sheared. This yarn is very expensive. A ball of pure quiviuk can cost more than 100 US $. Suddenly these little skeins became much more interesting to me. They looked like they had been sitting here for some years… so it was about time someone gave them a  purpose in life 🙂

Alone at home, and thrilled by my new discovery, I felt the urge to make something with them ASAP. So I remembered having seen this suuuuper cool neck warmer pattern not too long ago. It seemed easy, quick and perfect for that yarn.
I also found this blog named Crochet and Tatting Wonderland where the girl did this very same pattern and she offers some adjustments so the foundation row ends up with the numbers of stitches you are supposed to have:

I was super excited and eager to start, so I memorized the pattern, made a little sketch in a piece of paper and closed the computer.

So  I started crocheting… 114 chains…a row of double crochets…etc.

This is how it looked after row 2:

This is after row 3, that’s to say the first row of fans:

After that, it’s all a repeat of the last row… Or so I thought.

This time I meant to follow the pattern. I promise… 😦

But I didn’t.

The thing is that I looked at the pattern, and followed the first rows stitch by stitch… and then when it says “Repeat until…” I guess my brain switched off and thought that was all, and that I didn’t need to keep reading the rest of the pattern… As a consequence, I totally missed the line after that when it talks about INCREASING in the last rows, making triples instead of doubles…
Of course I did realize my work was not quite like the image I recalled… but I thought it was maybe because of the gauge of the yarn, or the number of stitches…

It’s supposed to be kind of bell-shaped and mine is clearly tubular because I didn’t make the increasings in the last rows.

So, to compensate that, I decided to close it only halfway and let the last part separated. So it’ll have some of the wideness it was supposed to have.

I also considered adding some decorative buttons, but finally I didn’t. They gave the neck warmer an extra weight that I didn’t need there.

Anyway, I’m so used to not following the pattern for one reason or another that I’ve learnt to embrace my creations even if they have nothing to do with the original idea behind them… That, and the fact that I totally hate having to undo my work.

And, of course, here’s the usual and unavoidable selfie gallery! With the addition of mirror shots so you can see how it looks from all angles! 🙂

Here it is with the opening to one side…

And with the opening to the front, more like a collar…

And to the opening to the front, more like a collar…