Thistle

Near the banks of the River Tweed, the massive house peeks over the hill with its sandstone cornices and gray chimney pipes, the wild weed of the Scottish Borders peeling away into manicured lawns. To walk up to Abbotsford House is to step back in time. The tour guide, a woman in purple fleece and beady glasses, points her cane to the thick double walls that circle the Kitchen Garden. I picture its stewards ambling towards the furnace house, pumping hot air into the narrow passageways to form a cove of frost-fighting warmth for exotic plants. I peek through a wrought-iron gate into Sir Walter Scott’s fanciful yard: pears and peaches, peonies, clutches of sage, old roses, and rich, tropical hibiscus. Where the house is dark in its mahogany and bookcases, full of swords and suits of armor, the garden is a dream of light and earth and wildness. Bumblebees hover, plump and sleepy. The thistle and wildflowers huddle in clutches that threaten to spill over the stone path. I brush my fingertips against the bloom.

Words by Caitlin Ghegan

For more information about our yarn bases and spinning fibers, including care instructions, please visit our Yarn Bases page.

Please note that, due to the nature of hand-dyed yarn, no two skeins of yarn will be exactly alike. I recommend alternating skeins every few rows for projects using multiple skeins of the same colorway. If you order multiple skeins of the same colorway, I will do my best to select skeins that are the closest match.

I dye each skein with professional acid dyes and leave the yarn in the dye bath until the dye has exhausted before rinsing and soaking in wool wash. Minor color bleeding may occur on the first wash, especially with extremely dark colors.

Although I do my best to accurately represent each colorway in product photos, please note that the colors may vary depending on monitor and/or device settings.