Meeting the Alpacas & A Special Stash Enhancement

This afternoon I went with two women with whom I knit on Saturday mornings to the Six Paca Farm in Bozrah (http://www.sixpaca.com/) to meet alpacas up close and personal. Even though it was a very rainy day, there were quite a number of them in the field and over a half dozen in a smaller enclave which we could enter. The little guys were about two weeks old and there were several older ones as well. I couldn't leave without getting something; so I bought 6 skeins of a gorgeous natural grey DK weight alpaca. The fleece from which it was spun was Nuthatch's, one of the 45+ herd at the farm. I am going to make the Stonington shawl and two pair of socks from this yarn, which is very soft and wonderful.

I Think I've Got It, Finally!

I was having a number of difficulties when I first started the Faroese shawl. The first was a major error by the designer on row 5. However, I fixed that by going on the forum site and found corrected instructions. Then, I was a bit confused about the use of the two separate charts and how they went together. Re-reading the instructions was the most important thing I did, finally ("duh" moment of course). Even though I am still very much at the beginning, things are making sense at last. When I finish section 1 I'll take a photo and post it here.

Lace Knitting

Well, I have placed the sweater in my KIP pile and am turning to my new fascination: lace knitting! I am casting the Goddess Knits MS9 shawl which will be a Faroese design. The yarn I am using is Yarn Chef's merino lace weight (Buttercream) in a colourway called Turning Leaf (it looks like a maple leaf, soft yellow and red, probably an over-dye). She does not repeat colourways; however, over time there are always a few that do look similar. As always, I buy more than enough for any project because I can always use the extra for other projects. I think I will also make her a pair of fingerless mitts to go with the shawl. (Yarn Chef has a shop on ETSY, please see my list of yarn artisans on the right for the link.) This is going to be a gift for my best friend, who happens to live in NE Ohio (Yarn Chef is in Columbus). I am also going to do the same shawl for me. Right now I am torn between several lace weight yarns that I have in my stash for this one.

I'll Probably Never Buy From Her

This is crazy!!! People wait for days and days for the glorious Sundara to post her new yarns -- and there were only three today which sold out almost immediately! I couldn't even get a second look at them. A person cannot even special order from her highness. Let me tell you, there are many talented yarn dyers out there who do gorgeous work and don't have the ego.

Troubles with a Sweater

Well, I still really love the pattern; however, I am virtually re-writing the thing! (I'll edit this tomorrow to give the URL of the original sweater.) Anyway, the sweater is a lovely dolman-sleeved pullover which can probably either be worn with the V-neck in the front or back (it is pictured on the model on the back). In addition, there is a band of eyelets done every 9 rows on the vertical plane. Anyway, looking at the original pattern, I figured it would actually be fairly easy to do this as a virtual one-piece, rather than separate front and back with applied ribbing. It is knit side-to-side in the original pattern! However, I was about 3 inches into it when I had to walk to the frog pond and rip-it all out. The stupid wrist band was too small -- on a size XL! I had to add 6 stitches in order so that it would fit. Then, I had to proportionally increase the stitches for the beginning of the sleeve proper. I'm still swearing at countless other little things that have been popping up. GRRRR!!! However, I did buy some gorgeous Ellyn Cooper cotton boucle yarn (sport weight) in the Thai Amber colourway that I will make another. This one is in Classic Elite Flash.