Tag Archives: alpaca

It’s a race! Cold weather vs. finished pullover.

Knitting, On My Needles, , , , , ,

I love the local library! I found a gem of a book titled,”Latvian Dreams, Knitting from Weaving Patterns” by Joyce Williams. It was full of charts with geometric designs. The sweater patterns in the book were fashioned after the gansey, very little shaping, with the focus on the two color patterns. The sweater is knit in a traditional style of knitting in the round and using steeks at armholes and collar.

I decided to try the “High Park Pullover”. In the book it is shown in blue and white – but I think (and am hoping) that I have enough fine weight alpaca to knit this (with long sleeves). Years ago I bought tons of alpaca yarn from Richness Alpaca. I’ve been looking for a project to use it all up and I have found it!

I am racing the snow – my goal is to be wearing this sweater the first time I shovel!

High Park Pullover
15 more rows and I am at the collar!

The first inch of rows were the hardest. Now that I have figured out the repeats I don’t have to look at every stitch on the chart while knitting. I’ve had to frog a few rows but luckily not too often.

Bottom of sweater
Bottom of alpaca hand knit sweater

The book has a fun approach to the sweater patterns. Charts show the geometric patterns in the shape of the sweaters. Gauges for different weight yarns are listed and depending on which yarn you use you adjust the pattern by number of repeats. For my sweater I added 20 stitches to the charted pattern in order to get the correct size – One 10st repeat for the front and one for the back.

Alpaca sweater, center stitches

I can’t wait to get to the sleeve – see how clever the design is where the sleeves meets the body of the sweater! I’ll have to walk around waving my arms in the air to show it off.

Photo of underarm for High Park pullover

I can get one round done in about 20 minutes. The sweater is charted at 270 rows. . .  (not including the sleeves, I haven’t looked at those yet) I don’t want to do the math! I’m planning on working both sleeves at the same time because I’ll have to tweak the pattern and also because I’m not sure how far my different colors of yarn will stretch. Knitting both sleeves at the same time will help me use up the yarn and make sure the sleeves look the same. The sleeves are worked from the top down, picking up sts at the armholes and working down to the cuffs, and that’s a lot of fabric on my lap. Doing both sleeves at the same time prevents sleeve slap (that happens while turning the sweater to knit the second sleeve and the one that is done swings around and slaps you).

I’ll post pics of me in it – shovelling.

Another pair of hand knit socks in the drawer!

Knitting, Original Patterns, , , , ,

I woke up this morning, put on my favorite pair of hand knit socks and blew out BOTH heels! Dang, I hate it when that happens. I always darn them and keep wearing them but my darning pile is starting to grow almost as big as my knitting UFO pile!

I finally finished these socks yesterday! I started them last summer. . .geesh. . .nothing like leaving work on needles forever.

Hand KNit Socks
Grey Arrow Socks Front view

I knit them in Alpaca Sox by Classic Elite Yarns. The fiber is soft and scrumptious and all the hardwork I did with my travelling stitches barely shows! Between the alpaca in the yarn and the marbled grey/black of the yarn my work gets a bit lost. Live and learn. At least they fit, are toasty warm, and the recipient loves them!

Hand knit socks
Grey Arrow Socks Back Fiew

The “arrows” are travelling stitches – worked over 6 stitches – they look like little railroad tracks except there are three rails. The front, back and top and bottom of foot have the stitches pointing down. Sure wish they showed up better.

hand Knit Socks
Grey Arrow socks side view

I was going to write out the pattern for these but you have to move the stitches around so much I’m not sure if it’s worth it.

Now I need to get to my darning pile!

Twined knit neck warmers

Knitting, Original Patterns, , , ,

I’m still in love with twined knitting!

These cowls/neckwarmers/headbands work up so quick and take very little yarn.

Twined knitting
Hand knit cowls
Twined knit cowls
Hand knit scarves

The black is solid, the gold is slightly variegated.

The blue is a mohair blended with shiny nylon.

The beige and white is knit in alpaca and silk… verrrry soft and squishy!

Wear them as neck warmers or as head bands over your ears. Dual purpose!!

I can’t decide which side I like better as the outside, or one might say, the “public side”.

Freeform knit and crochet fans

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blueyarnsamples72

I’ve started to destash my fancy yarns and am selling it on Ebay

Check it out!!

There is a total of 390 yards of 39 different colors of yarns in 10 yard increments.

Yarns included are silk/mohair/cotton/wool/ribbon.

Save money and get some fun yarn to play with.

Right now all I’ve put together are blues – but stay tuned or more colors!

Good deal for knitters!

Knitting, My original hand knitting patterns, Original Patterns, , , , , , , , ,

hello all my knitter friends,

Have i got a deal for you! I recently designed a sweater for a new web site that sells patterns and yarns, Uptown Stitches.

The owner sent me a message recently with a special deal. . . . no shipping charges on orders between now and July 31st. To get the free shipping coupon, enter code W2D4-06.

The pattern on the front page is mine!! Knit in Belfast. A cotton/linen blend that is great fun to knit and wonderful for summer knits.

I can’t wait to get my hands on some of her lace weight yarn. It sounds heavenly.

So check out one of my recent projects, the Uptown Sweater, and don’t forget–free shipping coupon for orders between now and July 31. (W2D4-06)

New yarn! Lace weight, aran weight, and Linen!

Knitting, On My Needles, , , ,

I have new yarn, nah, nah, na-nah, nah! Sorry, don’t mean to gloat but this stuff is really beautiful and a gift!

A friend of mine, Lil, who owns At Loose Ends in Perham, Minnesota was in town for a three day workshop at the Textile Center and she stayed at my house. As a gift, she gave me a bag of yarn and this is what was in it.

goldeuroflax.jpg

This golden color linen. Don’t know what to do with it yet, but can’t wait to start swatching! I’m thinking a nice spring scarf/shawl? I think I’ll knit it in a nice open lace pattern.

malabrigolace.jpg

And this lovely lace weight Malabrigo. Ooh I love these colors. I love knitting lace!! Just don’t know what to do with this either. It’s driving me crazy having this yarn wound and not knitting with it yet!

And last but not least!

mistialpaca.jpg

Misti alpaca in this nice warm colorway. Lil told me it is enough yarn to knit the Clapotis shawl-scarf from Knitty that is so popular. Hmm. Don’t know yet what this will be either. My fingers are itching with anticipation. I’m wanting some leg warmers. . . I wear them all winter since the temperature in my studio is cool. . . maybe I’ll spoil myself and have alpaca leg warmers!

I have projects that are on deadline to finish and I have a sweater that is about 1/2 done that I swore I would finish before starting another project. . . but this yarn is calling my naaaaammmmmmee.

BTW, I added three more colors of hats to my etsy store

I’m off to work so that tomorrow I can knit!