Fever River Lite Yarn and Galena's Fever River

If it's a Monday morning, don't expect us to get any work done until we have thoroughly discussed Sunday night's episode of Game of Thrones.  We are obsessed!

We've had our exclusive Mountain Colors' Alpaca Blend yarn for a few years now, but when we saw the similar sport weight yarn we had to add it to our collection. We named it Fever River Lite and created four new colorways, also inspired by Game of Thrones.

Small Wild Bean

Thrones fans will recognize the Fever River feeding the inlet Saltspear in the North, but the name has a local connection to us Galenians, too.  The Galena River runs through the center of our town of Galena (and is visible through the FiberWild! back windows!) before joining the Mississippi River.  Before it was named the Galena River, early French fur traders named it the "Riviere aux Feves" which meant the "River of Beans," simply because a number of wild beans grew along the river's banks.  English speaking fur traders corrupted the "Riviere Feves" into "Fever River."  Fever River is a terrible name that conjures up images of fever and sickness, so in 1911 the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (yup, that's a real agency) officially named the river the Galena River.

Terrible name or not, the name holds a historic charm and many locals continue to call it the Fever River.  A quick look through the phone book today still shows a number of businesses and organizations named Fever River.  In the early 1990s the U.S. Board on Geographical Names proposed changing the name back to the Fever River, but the proposal was rejected and the name Galena River officially remained.  Wisconsin, however, proposed and passed a state bill to rename the Galena river north of the Wisconsin state line back to Fever River.

Anyways, back to the Fever River Lite yarn, which will not make you feverish or sick.  Although you may call into work sick just so that you can spend an uninterrupted day at home knitting with this gorgeous blend of soft merino and alpaca!

The exclusive yarn is available in four Thrones-inspired colors:  Dragon Blood, Little Lion, Green Dragon and Ice Wall.  And, yes, we also have Thrones-inspired patterns to go along with the new yarn:

• The Dragon Tooth Shawlette features a rhythmic all-over tooth-like texture that's simple to knit and gorgeous in the Dragon Blood colorway.  
• The Lion's Mane Cowl is full of cables, with more twists than the Game of Thrones plot!  Fit for any mighty house in Westeros, the brown, yellow and gray of the Little Lion colorway will remind you of Tyrion Lannister's tresses.
• More to Come!  Stay tuned to see what interesting patterns Amy has come up with for our two remaining colors, Dragon Green and Ice Wall!

Happy Knitting . . . . Scout