I’m excited to share the next yarn I’ve been learning about for my “From Pasture to Needle: The Story of a Yarn” series. This time I’m focusing on the DK/Sport weight Peace Fleece yarn.

Spoiler alert – I love this yarn!

Swatching this yarn for research was so much fun that I cast on a new top-down cabled cardigan design in it almost as soon as I could measure the swatch after blocking and drying. I’m working with it in the color Sakhalin Salmon which is a beautiful orange-red with nubs of yellow, orange, and bright pink in it. I love it!!! And I can already imagine wearing it with a bright pink long-sleeve tee underneath this winter.

Peace Fleece has a pretty great story too. Peace Fleece started in 1985 with the idea of combining wool from a small flock in Maine with wool from Russia into yarn and the central belief that if historic enemies could do business together, the conflict between them might be reduced. The idea was that the Russian and American fiber would become one yarn and be tangible proof that the two could work together. Then in 2010, Peace Fleece transitioned to working with Native American nations and focusing on better understanding the history of what happened to these tribes. In 2011, Peace Fleece reached out to the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico to ask how the company might help in the production and marketing of their wool. You can read more about their story here.

Sometime around 2019, Harrisville Designs purchased the Peace Fleece Company and now produces the yarn in their Harrisville, New Hampshire mill. I love that the company continues to produce beautiful yarn and to work together with the Navajo Nation. In my recent purchase of the DK/sport weight yarn, they included a piece of the mill history — an antique spinning mule bobbin. The note with the bobbin says it is anywhere from 50 to 100 years old.

It felt like serendipity to receive this bobbin in the mail about the same time Sherri and I visited the Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site for the Geminate podcast. We definitely saw similar parts on our tour. You can read more about our field trip here.

Here’s a look at my swatch after washing and blocking. The company recently published a blog post about their experiences swatching with this yarn. They talk about how this yarn has been minimally processed, what that means for your projects, and they shared some really great information about how a minimally processed yarn changes after being wet-blocked. You can find their blog post here.

I really, really wanted to love this yarn so I bought a sweater’s quantity of it online since I don’t have a nearby LYS. It’s a little nerve-wracking to buy that much yarn site-unseen since it is not a small investment. I’m happy to report that I really do love this yarn! Whenever I try out a new yarn I ask myself what kind of projects I would love made out of it. For this Peace Fleece Dk/Sport weight, my answer is all of the projects – sweaters, cardigans, jackets, more sweaters, mittens, hats, and the list goes on and on.

Stats of the Yarn:

• Name and from where: Peace Fleece DK/Sport Weight purchased from Harrisville Designs. A large portion of the fiber content comes from the Navajo Nation in the American Southwest. Harrisville Designs recently purchased the Peace Fleece Company and now produces the yarn in their Harrisville, New Hampshire mill.
• Fiber Content: 75% Navajo Rambouille & Domestic Fine Wool, 25% Mohair
• Weight/Yardage per Skein: 4 ounces, approximately 350 yards, dk/sport weight
• Plys: 2-ply
• Feel of the Yarn: In the ball, the yarn feels sturdy and a bit rustic. My colorway is a deep saturated orange-red with small nubs of other colors. It feels light but also durable. I imagine it will be warm and cozy to wear in the winter while it is also not too hot to sit in my lap while knitting this summer.
• Knitting up: I swatched with both US Size 5 and US Size 4 needles. With both sizes, I get a stitch gauge of 5 stitches to the inch. The knitted fabric feels more uniform to me on the smaller size needles. I’m a tight knitter so most knitters will likely need a larger size needle like the US Size 6 suggested on the ball band.
• Cables and Texture: I swatched both cables and simple stockinette stitch with this yarn. I love it in both. I was surprised by how much the cables flattened after washing and blocking. They are still beautiful, but much more subtle than they were before washing.
• Care and Washing: The Peace Fleece ball band includes very detailed instructions for handwashing and drying. The instructions start with “Handwash in lukewarm water using a gentle dishwashing liquid…”. This is almost exactly my process and I’ve written a blog post about my process here.
• After Washing/Blocking: This yarn blooms and fills in stitches so well after washing and blocking. The fabric is solid and sturdy while still feeling light. I love this yarn! Here’s the link again to the company’s blog post showing the differences before and after washing and blocking – their blog post about this is really great!