My Fibery Weekend

This weekend I seamed up the hood on my cloak, tried it on, took measurements and made notes on how much farther I have to go. I am very happy. As you can see I'm about half way or so. Remember this is not blocked yet.

I also put out the dye samples for a design that's been rolling around in my head for about a year. Unfortunately the sun didn't shine enough yesterday so nothing to show there. I do have a video of me using my huge skein winder for the first time though and it's for this same project.

Note the Yarn It on the floor holding the ball. There will be much more to come in the future of this project. Below is the yarn in a ball before and the long hank after.

Then I also repaired a gtay shawl that I knit 5 years ago. It is from Knit Picks lace alpaca yarn called Alpaca Cloud. It is the inspiration for a project I will detail here from start to finisb. I will design and knit it but not spin or dye it. We will call it Alpaca 2.

ALPACA 2 PART I
I have a gray alpaca lace shawl that I knit 5 years ago. I use it almost daily except in the dead of summer. I wear it when I leave and use it as a blanket at home. After having to repair it twice this week I decided it was time to start planning a new one. I knew it woukd be alpaca yarn again, it had held up so well and was a dream to knit. This morning I was looking for the book "Knitting without Tears" by EZ and Knit Picks has it on sale. Well, do they have alpaca in a color I want? They had alpaca on clearance! Rose and orange. Well I have a rose shawl, but not an orange one. Yes orange. I love fall orange, which the description said it was and can even wear it well. I ordered enough to make a 6 foot by 6 foot shawl again. Immediately the ideas started rolling. This shawl will be tradional Estonian construction and have nupps somewhere. The border will be owls in branches, so I'll need to choose beads and the center will probably be something with leaves. Edging, no clue, yet. When the yarn arrives I'll post a pic and any chart or sketch ideas that have hatched.

Here is a link to the gray shawl. Gray alpaca

Until then...
Happy fibering!

Hello Out There...

Hello Fibreland!

I have been working to get the squares ready for killing so that i could post that, however i hit a substantial snag this week. I've been working so much with the acrylic yarn that i had an allergic reaction!
Yesterday I packed up all the acrylic and put it away. I will very slowly return to it over the next month or so. In the meantime I will be working a lot on Aurora. I have decided to enter it it into the Adams county fair, which is the end of July. Below is a progress picture. I just worked my last increase row, noted by the gray rose, yesterday.

I am about to start my 3rd ball of yarn. Tonight I will stitch the hood closed and do some measuring and see how far I have to go. The finished pattern will be seamless. When I started this was going to be a large shawl, not a full length hooded cloak. Because of that I cast on for a shawl and only had three balls of yarn. Last week I dyed three more balls of yarn and am quite pleased with the results. The dye jobs are 18 months apart.

I may have a lot of extra yarn now, we'll see.

Happy stitching everyone!