Melissa Halvorson uses myriad recycled and natural fibers to create her Year of The Goat knitted goods that you can find in Portland at Olio United. (Picture a fat knit helmet-like hat in a bright blue with a trim of crocheted recycled silk chiffon around the face or apple green mohair mittens.)
The best, most storied fiber is that which she clips from her family’s angora goats (from which mohair comes) and one cashmere goat at her parents’ property in the hills beneath Mount St. Helens. Halvorson returns from New York twice a year to visit with the goats and help with the clipping. She personally washes, dries, dyes, cards and spins the fiber by hand. You have to get in to Olio United to feel how soft these mohair and cashmere knit accessories can be. When you think goat, you may think Billy Goats Gruff, Pan, or that little guy who chewed the hem of the velvet dress you wore at age 5 to the Childs Estate in Santa Barbara. BUT Year of the Goat is going to change all that. Lucky for you, Olio United is offering you a $100 gift certificate for every $100 in gift certificates you buy through Christmas.
WHAT TO DO NOW?