Qiveut is an extremely rare fiber and is designed and manufactured only by individual fiber artists such as myself. The items you see in my catalogue are the largest inventory in variation of design and color. Not many people work with qiveut. It is very expensive to purchase the raw fiber. In order to gather the qiveut and study the Musk Ox, the animals are raised on farms (although they are not easily domesticated.) The Musk Ox naturally shed their Qiveut once a year in the spring. The best way to gather the fiber is for the animals to be run through a stall and combed out by hand. Each Musk Ox will yield approximately 5 to 7 pounds of raw qiveut. When considering the Musk Ox size, it is easy to understand that this large animal can be quite expensive to care for in a farming situation.

After the fiber is gathered on the farms my business, The Qiveut Collection, must purchase a minimum of 500 pounds of raw fiber in order to begin the process of cleaning, de-hairing and spinning. The Qiveut is processed in cashmere factories. The factory must close down its cashmere operation in order to process the qiveut. This process of gathering, cleaning, de-hairing and spinning can take up to several years

The Musk Ox live only in northern regions, such as Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Norway with a few animals in Russia. There are five small Musk Ox farms around the world, two in Alaska, one each in Canada, Montana and Norway. Three of these farms are affiliated with University research projects in order to learn more about the Musk Ox.

Qiveut is highly desired by people all over the world because of its light-weight and extremely high warmth as well as its cloud-softness. Being so light in weight, qiveut has a very elegant drape. If someone were to put a touch of qiveut fiber in your hand with your eyes closed you would not feel the fiber touch your hand. It is truly cloud-soft. Qiveut is eight times warmer than wool and is proven to he the softest fiber in the world.

Qiveut does not shrink or shed and it is hypoallergenic in its natural form. Qiveut does not have memory like wool, therefore in some of my custom designed pieces I add a touch of wool or silk/wool for elasticity and strength. It is easy to care for, just hand wash in your favorite gentle shampoo and lay flat to dry. It has a great affinity for dye and can be boiled without shrinking or felting. All my designs are created with Qiveut's fiber properties and heirloom quality in mind.

The word "Qiveut" in the Inuit language (The northern Eskimo) means the underwool of the Musk Ox. Many different small companies who have used it as part of their business name have trademarked the word "Qiveut". 'Therefore you will see qiveut spelled many different ways, such as: qiviut, kiviuk, qiviuk, qiviute, and of course, my trademarked name, Qiveut. It is pronounced in all spellings the same: kiv-ee-ut. The Musk Ox is called Oomingmak in the Inuit language and means the bearded one.