Nikki's Wallaby Sweater Finished

We took a trip to Corunna today (after we were sure no alpacas were going to give birth). I took Nik's finished sweater to her ↑ (above with wet hair. I'm sure she really didn't want to pose but being the perfect daughter that she is, never let on). Nik is our oldest daughter, middle kid, and the mom of these two darling grandgirls. I'm mighty proud of the way she and her husband, Bob, are raising these munchkins. They are delightful to have around, and much to my delight, are great animal lovers, although the youngest, Elizabeth, isn't really into mucking stalls like Meredith is.

☼

Nik's sweater is the third Wallaby that I have knitted since March and I think that I'm going to take a break. Feel like I owe Bob one, but egads, he's 6 foot 9 inches tall.

What to do with the lumpy/bumpy art yarn?

This is a scarf that I just listed in my Etsy shop. A fast and easy knit, but you must realize that I hand dyed the alpaca/merino/mohair roving, spun a slubby 160 yard single, and plied it with Wooly Nylon. Can you tell there are little ruffles on each end? Here are the simple directions. Cast on 64 stitches (I use the knit cast on), Row 1, knit 2 together, Row 2 knit 2 together. Knit each row until you have about 4 yards of yarn left (I chose the garter stitch because I think it shows off the lumpies best). Increase in each stitch and the last row increase in each stitch again. Bind off loosely. Oh, I used US# 13 needles.

I'm just showing here some other yarns that I think would make similar scarves. With some of the lesser yardage, I would cast on 40 or maybe 48 stitches, and follow the same decrease and increase.

Cyber Friend, Socks, and About Me

My new cyber friend, Chris, mentioned me and a few of our alpacas in his blog if you want to take a look:
http://vtknitboy.blogspot.com/2008/05/etc.html
Chris and I are negotiating my fiber for a pair of hand knit socks. Notice I said "pair" Folks that know me also know that I absolutely can't do two things alike, be it socks, mittens, leg warmers, whatever. The socks that he has pictured on Ravelry look beautiful, and, Cary and Mary, he prefers toe up. Maybe I'll have to run to Vermont to try them on.
I stuck some roving in the mail this morning to go to him. Thanks for the mention, Chris.

Swatch is not a dirty word

This is a picture of some of the dyed roving, "Philon" that I mentioned yesterday. The color is off because there is no green in the sample. Before I wind the yarn onto my winder to become a skein, I sometimes have a chance to knit a little swatch to see how it works up. This yarn felt downright sensuous in my hands. The merino and mohair adds just the right amount of bounce and luster. Even though I would rather spin than knit, I think that it's important to sample what I'm trying to promote and sell.
When I first started working with the alpaca, I was a dieheart natural color person. I thought it shameful that anyone would contaminate the precious alpaca by dyeing it or adding silk or mohair, or heaven forbid, sheep. After a few years of actually working (knitting) with what I'm producing, I'm loving my blends and yarns. My choices for blends and colors have become intuitive and much more fun that trying to plan everything.

Dyed Alpaca Roving

This is Indy - Don Independiente - a very handsome, light fawn, herd sire who lives in Jackson with Kathy and Lew Kukla. He is the father of our goofy Celeste (due to deliver her cria any day now).

The hand dyed roving that I'm showing here is from him - and merino from genopalette and mohair from SpinningMoonFarm. Genopalette has nothing listed right now in their store and I'll bet that it's because Desiree's baby (human, hers) is due the beginning of June. I need to email her to see how she is doing.

I used three different colors of Jacquard dyes and simmered the roving in my crock pot for 30 minutes.

NIKE - "victory"

HELIOS - "Greek sun god"



I named this roving Philon "to love" It's very soft greys, blues, and pinks, rather unlike my normal color choices. I'm spinning 2 ounces of this right now and will probably ply it with a white single.
Actually I had a picture of the spun single here, but it seems to have disappeared. I'm still having trouble with pictures.....

Mystery Mail from 4thGenFiberArt

This arrived in the mail from Debbie Evans who has the Etsy shop, 4thGenFiberArt. I had no clue why....I knew it wasn't a swap, I couldn't remember ordering or asking for samples. A really big mystery. My memory's not too great, never has been. I know to write stuff down. As it happened I had saved a conversation from Debbie who was trying to mend an alpaca glove for her daughter (I think these details are right). I sent a little bit of alpaca roving, different colors of brown, I think, for her to spin up and match the glove.
And, lo and behold, look at the lovely package she sent. Some beautifully spun yarn (it's going to be a little purse/pouch with an alpaca needlefelted on), a delightful card, some dyed mohair locks, a sweet sample of soy silk roving. and a delicious bar of soap that made the whole package smell yummy.
Because of the joy I received getting this, I now have to think of something nice to do for someone to pass the love along.

Alpaca Fleece to Zeilinger's Mill in Frankenmuth, MI

Yesterday we delivered 42 pounds of fleece to Zeilingers in Frankenmuth, MI, to be made into four batches of roving. If you haven't been to their mill, you are missing a super treat. When I go back to pick up my lovelies, I will try to remember my camera so that I can give you a tour. Gary has always been there to greet me at the door, help reweigh the fleeces, offer advice, and answer any questions that I have. I had 4 batches to be blended which I'm going to describe to you.
Blend # 1 - 11.3 pounds - 50% Merino, 49% Alpaca from Ana, pictured above, and 1 % Mohair.

I purchased the white Merino from Genopalette, McMurrys, this winter with this blend in mind. This picture is of their Merino lambs that they were kind enough to send to me. Notice the lambs tails haven't even been docked yet so they must be quite young.

The beautiful white mohair is from Edie, here in Michigan and her store SpinningMoonFarm. This is a picture of her little Ted born this spring.

Blend # 2 - 8.84 pounds - 35% Our BabyDoll Sheep fleece and 65% alpaca from Lady Belita and Celeste.

Blend # 3 - 9.28 pounds - 25% colored Merino from Genopalette and 75% brown alpaca from Sonata (pictured above) and Orion (you've met him here many times because of his school and 4-H adventures).

Blend # 4 - 13.3 pounds - 100% alpaca from the seconds (neck and hip fiber) of Ana & Pollux (WHITE), Luke, Orion, Polaris (BROWNS), and naughty Gunny (BLACK & GRAY). These colors will be added around each other in the roving. It's called a 3 way swirl.

Just in case anyone is interested in the finances involved here. The cost was $308.72 but Zeilingers offers a 10% discount if paid there by check, so it was actually $277.85.

♥ ♥ ♥

Now the anxiety of waiting 2 months for it to be finished. An incredible amount of time and energy goes into this final act of delivering fiber to the mills. I wake up at night thinking about what I want to do and spend hours on my deck going through each fleece, discarding vegetation, second cuts, and coarse fiber. Today is a little anticlimatic. It's sort of like getting the kid off to college the first time - the years of prep and worry and then just dropping him/her off. This analogy is an exageration, of course, but you get the idea.