No visit to Alaska would be complete without a souvenir to remember it by. Dozens of shops stretching from downtown Anchorage throughout the area offer a wide variety of handcrafted and specialty items. No shop is more unique than Oomingmak.
And it's not just the name that makes is unusual.
Oomingmak, an Eskimo word for musk ox, is a cooperative that sells hand-knitted clothing made from qiviut, the fine underwool of musk ox. Musk ox grow the fine wool to keep warm in the extreme cold of arctic winters. The animals shed the underwool each spring.
Alaska Native knitters turn the material into super-soft garments.
"Qiviut is extremely soft," said Sigrun Robertson, executive director of the cooperative. "It's comparable to the very best cashmere.
"It costs about $150 a pound for qiviut, so I say it's closer to gold than to cashmere. It's just beautiful stuff and when it's knitted, it's really very useful."
Oomingmak, 604 H St., offers items from more than 200 Alaska Native knitters who live in isolated villages hundreds of miles from Anchorage and far away from the state's road system. Each village has a signature knitting pattern, derived from traditional Eskimo art.
Those patterns are visible on scarves, stoles, caps, tunics and Eskimo smoke rings -- a combination scarf and head covering. The cooperative has recently started a new line offering a mix of 80 percent qiviut and 20 percent silk. Headbands are available in the new line. Prices on the original items run from $125 to $600.
Robertson said the co-op was started in 1969 as a way to help the Alaska Natives supplement their income. Some of the original knitters are still working today and many have taught daughters and granddaughters the skill.
"Most of the knitters are from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and that's an area that is economically depressed," Robertson said. "The people there live mostly a subsistence lifestyle. The income possibilities out there are very small and the expenses are very high.
"This is a way they can earn a supplemental income. How much they earn depends on how much work they want to do."
Because knitters work at their own pace, Robertson said the arrangement creates some unusual situations.
"We try to balance the customer's needs and the knitter's needs," she said. "That keeps it interesting. We're dealing with two different worlds here.
"On one hand you have the guy in New York who wants his item yesterday, and on the other hand you have a lady in Tununak who says, 'It's coming.' "
Other items
Alaska is home to exceptional artists in a variety of media.
Many gift shops downtown carry carved ivory, whale bone or moose antlers. All the artists have unique styles and often stories behind their work.
Step inside the doors of Alaska Ivory Exchange, 700 W. Fourth Ave., and it's like stepping back in time. The store is stocked with artwork carved from woolly mammoths, fossilized whale bone, walrus, moose and other animals.
The Ivory Exchange's Matt Hayes said people are surprised they can afford many of the items.
"We have all different price ranges," Hayes said. "We've got things where grandmas can come in and buy something for each of their granddaughters. On the other end, we have very intricately carved items that can be pricey."
Hayes said his shop is home to some of the finest scrimshaw around. He said it's a dying art form with only a few Native Alaskans still producing the art.
Alaska also is home to many furriers. And Anchorage's furriers offer a variety of clothing items.
Malena Hausinger, manager of Alaska Fur Gallery, said most of the furs sold in her store come from ranches. The store sells mink, fox, beaver, lynx, wolf, muskrat and other animal furs. Most of the furs are made in Alaska. In addition to coats, the store sells scarves, headbands, mukluks, purses and other items.
She said fur prices are lower in Alaska than in the Lower 48.
"When tourists come in they think fur because they're in Alaska." Hausinger said. "Often the women are joking to their husbands saying, 'I'm going to get that fur coat I always wanted.' Then they actually do it."
The downtown Saturday Market offers other gift-buying opportunities. In addition to food items, the market is often home to crafts, jewelry, artwork, framed photographs and an array of souvenirs.
"Our prices are a lot lower than down in Lower 48." That's because we sell furs year-round. Only in Alaska is it a year-round business."
