As knitters, we are accustomed to visiting a favorite yarn shop, or ordering yarn from a catalog or online. We pay with credit cards, checks or cash. We are many times removed from the pastures and barns where sheep, llamas and alpacas are raised, where these fibers, purchased neatly wound into skeins, originate.

Occasionally, we may find twisted in a strand of wool a fragment of straw or a bit of a burr. But that is the only clue to the fact that the yarn from which we knit socks or sweaters was from the bodies of four-legged animals. We didn’t shear the fleece or shovel dung out of the barn. Most of us didn’t spin the fiber or dye it – though some of us do have those skills.

Few of us have ever seen a sheep sheared, let alone raise one from lambhood. Moreover, we are not in the least dependent on these animals for a livelihood.

In many parts of the world where shopping malls do not exist live families who could become self-reliant and provide for their families if only they had sheep, alpacas or llamas. With fibers from these animals they could make ponchos, blankets and carpets for sale or their own use. Llamas and alpacas could be used to carry burdens over terrain where there are no roads. Offspring from the animals could be sold or traded for other commodities, such as land or other goods and services.

But many families are too poor to buy these animals.

Heifer International, a nonprofit organization based in Arkansas, wants to change that. With the help of donations from ordinary people, it provides sheep, alpacas, llamas and other farm animals to people seeking self-sufficiency.

The gift of a sheep costs $120, or give a share for $10. The gift of a llama costs $150 or give a share for $20. Or mix it up and give the “knitting basket” – two llamas and two sheep – for $500, or give a share for $50.

The cost is reasonable when you consider that most of us think nothing of spending more than $50 for enough yarn to knit a sweater, or very much more than that if the yarn is cashmere.

Heifer International was established in 1944 and since then it has assisted more than 7 million families or the equivalent of more than 39 million men, women and children. Heifer International works only in the area of livestock and agriculture to develop programs to ease hunger and poverty. Other animals it provides to needy families include cows, goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens and water buffalo. It also provides tree seedlings and honeybees.

Each family that receives animals also receives from Heifer International training in animal care and how to prepare facilities for their animals.

Heifer International also offers the opportunity to become an “ark angel.” The gift of an “ark,” for $5,000, will put two each of cows, oxen, beehives, sheep, water buffalo, goats, camels, llamas, donkeys, pigs, trios of ducks, two each of trios of guinea pigs and rabbits, and two flocks of geese and two flocks of chicks into the hands of families throughout the world where they are most needed. Each family who receives livestock from the gift ark will pass on one or more of the animal offspring to other needy families in their community. In that way the good is multiplied many times over.

To learn more about Heifer International, call (800) 422-0755 or visit www.heifer.org.

“Knits from a Painter’s Palette” by Maie Landra is a beautiful book outlining the founding of Koigu Wool Yarns, located near Toronto.

Landra’s mother was a weaver who worked with traditional Estonian design and color ways. The family had fled from Estonia in the 1940s in the aftermath and the political upheavals after World War II.

Building on her training as an artist and her textile cultural heritage, Landra began raising sheep and producing yarn hand-painted in inventive color combinations in the 1970s.

Landra’s book offers knitters directions for a menu of hand-knitted garments, many constructed from squares and triangles assembled into elegant and stylish clothing.

Knitters who enjoy a challenge will find this book a useful source of inspiring projects.

Call local bookstores to learn how to obtain copies of the book, or ask for it at a local library.

Snippets

Marilyn of Belfast is seeking a pattern for a shawl that she remembers knitting. It called for one skein of yarn. She says it was knitted in a popcorn stitch using size 10 or 11 needles and had a lacy look. If you know of this pattern or a similar one, e-mail maggi@localnet.com.

“Enrichment Through Paper Dolls,” a presentation by collector Mary Webster Seeley, will take place at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 14, at the Wilson Museum in Castine. Call 326-9247 for information.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.