FO: half the grey alpaca.

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So this is the first half of the grey alpaca I’m spinning for my friend N., after setting the twist and hanging it to dry. While neither of these mini-skeins is next-to-skin soft, I’m really happy with the halo and the sheen of this yarn. What you’re looking at is about 160 yards. I delivered the first half of the alpaca to N. yesterday afternoon, and decided to work on the second half after dinner last night. One of the remaining bumps of fiber felt softer, so I spun that first. Here’s the bobbin:

I think you can see the difference in the quality. N. told me that she paid five bucks for almost eight ounces of this stuff, which makes sense to me. I think some of this fiber is the “good stuff” from the animal, but I think a lot of it might be the hair from the less prize parts of an alpaca’s coat — like the underbelly, maybe? That would explain the amount of veggie matter in the first two bumps. Here’s the final (larger) bump after separating the fibers a bit with my hands:

I love the depth of color in this picture — such a complex grey. This was coarser, more like the first two skeins. I think singles were the right choice for this yarn — and hey, I’m no longer afraid of alpaca! Maybe I’ll dig out what I’ve got from my very first fiber purchase and try again.

I’m pretty sure that this expression has something to do with the fact that Boh finally understands that there is not an alpaca in the kitchen. Just some yarn hanging to dry.

A few glimpses of the weekend:

Deb’s scalloped tomatoes, made with the last of the season’s farm tomatoes.

After dinner hot chocolate made with dutch cocoa, organic sugar, and milk.

And this morning, I pulled on my down booties when I climbed out of bed in the darkness to make my coffee. I’m ready for daylight savings — I’d rather get up with the sun than rise before her.

 

an alpaca experiment.

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Remember that deep brown alpaca I spun for a trade with a friend? (If you’re reading in real time, or close to it, it’s that luscious stuff in the header photo on my blog.) Well, that was only half the bag of fiber N. gave me to work with! I picked the deep brown alpaca first because it was softer and “felt” like it would be a more familiar spin. The grey stuff felt a bit more like the alpaca I tried to spin right when I got my wheel. Last night, I was feeling like  I wanted to get something done (and I needed a break from prepping for this week’s sections), so I dug out the grey alpaca. I have four mostly even bumps, almost 2 oz. each, so I decided to put the first quarter on the wheel and just see what it wanted to be. This stuff is pretty compressed, so I spread out the fibers the best I could, and then tried to work with the super long staple length and short guard hairs. I haven’t spun much alpaca, so I’m not sure my take on this particular fiber is accurate, but to me it seems like some of this is “seconds” — not the softest fiber the animal has to offer. Also, this was on the dirtier side of the spectrum of fiber I’ve encountered — veggie matter, burrs, even some dried bug parts, I think.

I settled on a low twist, thick/thin single, and once I pulled it off the bobbin and wound it onto the niddy noddy, I liked it. Because some of this is pretty coarse, I worry that plying it will make it too rope-like. Leaving it as a single seems to encourage the halo, which I think is a good thing. So I put the second 2 oz. chunk on the wheel and did the same thing. These small skeins are hanging to dry right now, and I’m anxious to get a sense for how the feel of this yarn has changed with washing. I think I’m going to spin the other two chunks the same way, as I’m getting into a rhythm, and I love the sheen on these singles. More pictures soon!

And then there’s this guy, patiently waiting for a belly rub. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

“one day i’ll be a better writer…”*

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We saw Sharon Van Etten and the Bowerbirds at a neat bar near the water this week. Sharon Van Etten (pictured in the crappy photo from my phone, above) is worth checking out, if you’ve never encountered her music. What you see is what you get up there — a girl and a guitar — but man, can she write a song. And her voice — soft, clear, haunting. Check out a video of her at SXSW here.

I also recommend the Bowerbirds. Who doesn’t love a band with an accordion, a snare drum, and a homemade xylophone? Check out their tiny desk concert at NPR here.

So, some fun stuff (read: late nights) this week, but also lots of work. Which made for a very tired rooster. Thursday night I made a big pot of cauliflower soup, and while it was simmering, I slathered peach butter made by my friend K. on slices of beer bread. Yum.

And today, when I got home from campus, I curled up on the couch, watched Bones, and made progress on windschief hat numero dos, out of malabrigo in verdeazul, for B. Malabrigo is the perfect yarn to knit with on a cold and rainy day. Planning an evening of soup, knitting, and maybe a movie. I’ll get back to the pile of books tomorrow. Happy weekend, folks, and thanks for all of the sweet blogiversary wishes.

*This is a line is from “Much More Than That” by Sharon Van Etten.

three.

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Hard to believe it has been three years since I jumped (fell?) into blogland, and without getting too mushy on y’all, allow me to just say that doing this, here, with you, has been more rewarding than I was even capable of imagining three Octobers ago.

One of the things I talked about in that very first post was how much I had learned from the online knitting community, and so it seems only fitting that as I celebrate my blogiversary, I am working on a testknit for someone whose blog was part of inspiring me to start blogging. (And she’s still teaching me new things!)

Here’s what I’ve got so far on my ripe bananas lap blanket testknit for Cosy. I was struggling with getting the lace to line up, and she helped me to see that I was knitting right, but reading wrong. (I was reading the chart as if it covered all the stitches, rather than exactly the number of stitches in each quadrant, despite all sorts of evidence on said chart suggesting how to understand it properly.)

Anyway, this morning I put the reading aside, and powered through a full lace repeat, happy to be “getting it” after lots of puzzling, unknitting, and re-knitting.

Thank you all for reading the blog, sharing your thoughts, and teaching me in so many ways. Here’s to another year!

picking (eating) apples.

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My account of our epic Sunday continues.

What began as a quick stop at an apple orchard for an apple cider doughnut or two turned into an hour or so of frolicking amidst the apple trees, some apple picking, lots of apple eating, and of course, two courses of the aforementioned doughnuts. (Two to start, two before leaving. I have no pictures of this part. They were just too good (and warm!) not to eat immediately.

A corridor of mutsus.

Macouns, clearly.

Us, eating apples.

Sigh. Hello, autumn.

Um, I want that one.

the cheese trail.

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Yesterday was an epic Sunday. I went to an early morning yoga class, where my teacher mentioned that in addition to an artists’ open studio event happening in and around town all weekend, that the local cheesemakers’ association was also inviting folks to visit their farms and taste the different kinds of locally-made cheeses. That was enough to rearrange the day. We hopped into the car and headed to farm country.

The trees everywhere were golden and honey-hued, and oh, the light! Yesterday was a clear day, and everything just looked warm. You know?

We met some cows. I think this one down in front is named Gina. At least that’s what her ear tag says. We learned about how local farmers make gouda and jack-style cheeses, learned about different ways of aging rounds or blocks of cheese, and tasted a generous amount at the two farms we visited. We settled on what I think is a raw milk cheddar, and a hunk of (local) beer-soaked, wood-aged gouda.

Last night for dinner, we might have just eaten cheese, bread, pickles, and some leftover coleslaw. But that’s because the cheese trail was only the beginning. (I’m going to break Sunday’s adventures into two posts. Stay tuned!)

lakeside.

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We spent Saturday afternoon by the lake, on a blanket, reading. Looks cozy, but actually it got pretty windy, and after an hour or so we retreated indoors for nachos. I rewarded myself with a margarita. See, all this is relevant because in these pictures, even though you can’t see it, there is yarn in my bag. Malabrigo, to be exact. And it is destined to become another windschief hat. This one’s for the boy.

I cast on with my coffee this morning, before my 8 am yoga class. The colorway is verdeazul, and already I love the combination of the malabrigo worsted and twisted rib — so squishy! I’m planning to curl up with Boh and the boy this evening and knit some more ribbing. After all, it is fall break…

just what i needed.

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That song by The Cars always makes me smile. Back in 2004, I found myself road-tripping across the country with a new colleague, en route to our new jobs as part of a youth voting initiative. Things that stand out from the drive? My first experiences with ‘driving’ stick (think me doing the driving, and my friend P. doing the shifting), and a lot of time spent trying to figure out what The Cars are actually saying after the line, “I guess you’re just what I needed.”

“I needed someone to –eed.” (The answer is that it alternates: feed and bleed.)

Anyway, I bring all of this up because Mary, a ravelry friend of mine, seemed to know just what I needed this week:

On Thursday, I returned home from campus to discover that she’d gifted me the pattern for Terra, a gorgeous shawl by Jared Flood designed to highlight his new yarn line, SHELTER.

After making it through what I absolutely needed to get done this week, I came home yesterday and spent some time indulging in a little daydreaming about what yarn to use for this absolutely stunning shawl, and I settled on some seafoamy green, tweedy Peace Fleece. And I can’t wait to cast on.

Mary, this was just what I needed this week. Thank you.

I also finally got around to winding yarn for the next sections of my ripe bananas lap blanket testknit (say that five times fast). Note that one of these balls is hand-wound — I think it took me awhile to get the rhythm of the niddy-noddy down, and some of my early skeins are twisted. I did some intense handspun wrangling to get all of this untangled and into a tidy ball. This kind of mindless task was also what I needed yesterday. So it’s cool.

Lastly, another action shot of my textured shawl recipe shawl. I do wish it was a little bigger, but it really is perfect for when I just need a little extra warmth on my walk to campus in the morning.

Alright, time to earn some more knitting and outside time by finishing off another book in the pile. Happy weekend!

hurdles.

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I followed your excellent advice, and thus, victory is mine. I located some leftover yarn, ripped back four or five rows, picked up the stitches, and re-knit the very top of the cuff. Because the needles I used the first time are otherwise occupied, I decided to use slightly larger dpns and just do a regular bind-off so that the cuff would match its partner.

Also, I finally managed to successfully cast on the baby blanket I am test-knitting for Cosy. I still haven’t decided which bit of handspun to use next, but I located some leftovers in a pale grey when I was digging for the yarn to do my sock repairs, and it seemed like the perfect shade for the blanket’s middle section. I had a bear of a time casting on — which I blame not at all on the pattern, but on the general fiddly-ness of casting on a small number of stitches on dpns to join in the round, and then managing a slew of markers in the early rows. I think I’m in the clear now, and I’m excited to keep increasing!

Time to pour the coffee and earn some knitting time by working through another book on the list. (Also, I’m bundled up in my Mara shawl and my legwarmers this morning. I love wrapping myself in handknits.)