When we started Uppspuni, we decided to spin the fibre from the goats in Iceland for the farmers that have goats, and want their fibre to be spun. That way, they could sell the yarn from their own goats if they wanted to, or I could also buy their fibre and sell the yarn at my shop.

This was instantly quite popular and many farmers brought their fibre to my mill to spin it or sell it to me. I was wet behind the ears, and took all the fibre I got and started spinning. Some of it spun up beautifully, some was okay and some did not work at all. It just made lumps and broke all the time. Now, the goat fibre can be very tricky,- probably mirrors the character of the goat a little, and it was veeerrry time consuming. But the result was so amazing. Just absolutely gorgeous and so incredibly soft. I remember saying to my husband, when I saw the first batch come out of the fibre-separator on our first days at the mill; “Oh, wow. We need to get a goat!”

Pretty soon I realised that I did not know enough about goats and why their fibre was sometimes so very different between farms and what they could do to make it better or maybe get the best quality. So after some consideration and talking with the family, I decided to get some goats of my own. – As you do to learn things. 🙂

I got some amazing little flock of young goats and one male (buck) to get more of them the year after. I had goats for four years. And boy, how much I learned in that period of time with those lovely animals. They have characters of their own, go (almost) everywhere they please and look very innocent when you catch them on the wrong spot, they are really independent, have great memory, produce the best of milk and then cheeses, their meat is also good, when I knew how to cook it, and the fibre!!! Oh, my.
Yes, I liked being a goat farmer.

But sometimes plans can change and even though I absolutely loved my little flock of goats, for few reasons, and with a very sad heart, I decided to sell them to another farm in the fall of 2024.

But I had, all the years I had them, collected their fibre for myself. I span some and sold it, but kept also some of it to the side, thinking I should also have something for myself, but not knowing what I wanted it to become.

So when I had decided to sell them, I collected all their fibre and span it into yarn for myself, because I wanted to make something special with it, something for me to wear on special occasions and that I would put some work into, just to honour their lives with me and to remember them as the fun and interesting individuals they were and all the time I spent with them, feeding them, combing them, leading them, putting up fences, milking them, cuddling the kids, patting the older ones and having a chat now and then.

So I started to knit a dress.

No design.

No pattern.

Just play it by the ear.

Be independent like the goats are.

See what would happen as I went on with it.

I looked for some ideas and then got the needles ready with the yarn and went ahead with it.

I started at the bottom with needlesize 3,0 mm (which is between 2 and 3 US needlesizes) and 450 sts (if I remember correctly,- it was a lot of sts at least). I did not knit a ribbing, but had equal amount of knit and purl stitches without having it to curl up. I had two colours to work with, white and brownish grey, but those are the two natural colours that the goat provides. I did not want to dye it in any fancy colours, just keep them natural, but I wanted to use them both. As I knitted, I designed what I wanted to do next. So the purled stitches were supposed to be my decreasing stitches. And because I had a LOT of stitches on my needle, I pretty soon started decreasing. Too soon, I would say when the dress was finished, but I didn’t want to unravel it. I made some stripes at the bottom of the skirt and when I saw that knitting stockinette in one colour for so long could be boring, I added some flowers with the method of yarn over and knit 2 together. Not wanting to have it too regular, because goats do not follow patterns, I decided to have those hole flowers just here and there. Also to publicly refer to the goat’s ability to crawl through small holes in fences when there is something interesting on the other side. That can also be irregular.

When I got over the hips to the waist I changed colours to brownish grey, added more flowers and decreased carefully. Too carefully and when I saw it was way too wide, I unravelled it, started over at the hips and made it tighter over the waist. Changed again to white and now it was the upper part that needed some thinking.

I wanted to make some nice pattern on both sides, I mean, the back and front side of course, and the neckline needed to be a bit open, because I suspected this to be a warm dress and I am the warm type of person. So when the armpit was hit, I started to knit back and forth, continuing with the pattern and making the neckline wide and the shoulders slim, deciding I would knit short sleeves afterwards over the shoulders. At one point I had to unravel the back, because it did not fit, but the second attempt made it as I wanted it.

The sleeves were a bit of a headache. I decided to pick up the stitches all the round and knit first in a round, and then back and forth, make them longer over the shoulders and out to the arms sometimes using German short rows, sometimes going almost all the way, putting in hole-pattern as I wen on with it. I should have just picked up few and knit back and forth and pick up sts as I knitted on, it would have worked better. But I will just do that the next time (if there will be a next time). Not doing it that way, and not writing down, exactly what I did on the first sleeve made me have to unravel the second sleeve halfway through – once – and start over. But they became equal enough. I mean, it is only me who will know what sleeve is different from the other, right?

I knitted and knitted and unravelled and knitted some more, the pile in my lap growing bigger, I mean, I am rather big. Usually I use L or XL in clothes. As I was holding the dress getting bigger in my hands, I started thinking “Wow, this is going to be a very expensive dress! I will end in a kilo (2 pounds) with all this yarn” Because the goat yarn (Cashmere) is indeed very expensive. But guess what…  the dress is only 302 grams (10.6 oz) And wearing it is like you have nothing on. The magic with the cashmere from the goat is that it fluffs up to a lot, but weighs almost nothing.
And it is sooooo soft. Oh, my. I don’t think I have ever had anything so special. And I find it very beautiful also.

I have had the chance to wear it on numerous occasions already and it catches the attention every time. Many people that know me and come over to me to say hello, put a hand on my shoulder and stop instantly and say; “Oooh… that is soft! What is that?” and when I say it is the goat yarn, their eyes go wide and they instantly lower their voice lowers to a whisper and they say; “It is THE goat!!!” and then they pat me a little more.

Knitting the dress, with the thinking about how it should look, unravelling and designing in my mind what to do next I also kept remembering my lovely goats. Seeing their faces before me as when I was combing them to get their delicate, gorgeous fibre to work with.
How Hneta sometimes turned her head to smell my face as if to say, “you can have it, I have more later.” and then sniffed my nose and gave me little kiss.
How Heiða would stand behind me as if she was waiting for her turn.
And Mandla a little bit away, always a tiny bit more shy than the others. Thinking if she could get away with having some treat and then just go away to graze a little and then come back for more as if she did not have any when she came the first time. Putting her head down, when I took hold of her collar and tied her to a wall and then started to comb her as well. She would be a little nervous first, but then she would just relax and enjoy the moment, because it was a quality time for me and them.
I would also remember when my mother-in-law told me that the goats had visited her garden one day and then just gone back when they knew the time was close when I would be around to let them in. And I was so surprised, because when I did, they were just standing by the door, waiting for me to open as if they had never left the fence that they were supposed to be inside of.

I miss them a lot.
But the dress will always remind me of them.