Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Shades of Pewter Alpaca yarn

Have the grey Alpaca/merino yarn spun up, I spun a fine tight twist as I am thinking of making myself a pair of fingerless gloves, I have knit many pairs for gifts and sales but never a pair for myself, I am thinking of something with cables and thought a tighter twist in the yarn would make the cables stand out, so we will see. I have it washed and drying. I carded up the rest of the grey Alpaca and tomorrow will put it through the carder another time and pull it off in roving. Then will card the rest of the gingerspice, then on to the brown alpaca fibre...have not decided what to mix with it although I found a bag of rainbo dyed silk in the gold shades that might look good, will do a small skein first and see how it looks. I had been spinning on my lendrum wheel but have some knee problems so unpacked my electric Roberta and got it set up...went to spin...I need a new driveband...which I do have a spare...but where is it packed?? Just sent a help!! help!! to Laura at Legacy Studio and she already has it in the mail, thank-you Laura! Will be so glad to get everything unpacked one of these days!
   Still slowly working on the blue sweater, have the buttonhole band knit on and one sleeve almost sewn in, too many interruptions in my days lately but did finish another sock, have to do a count and see how many I have, can always knit socks no matter what....specially when you have one or two cats on your lap...some days I feel like a cat slave...or a cat pillow. They are so needy in their old age.
   Weather is getting warmer these days and all the little birds are flying around...signs of spring are in the air, bring on the green...am so waiting for green!!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Still Carding Alpaca Fibre

First have to get the cute cat picture in, could not find her one morning after RH and Maxx were off to the hardware store to get whatever.....with all the building downstairs there is always something....when I went into the bedroom here she was.....in Maxx's bed...doesn't she look comfy. Sheba always looks so cute when she sleeps.

Have had to neglect the blue sweater while I am carding alpaca fibre. Only have to pick up the stitches and knit the button band and then sew the sleeves in and there it sits. Have got the alpaca roving ready to go for my customer so maybe can get at the sweater tomorrow. I carded the alpaca fibre I call Gingerspice with a little fine wool, always like to mix in around 10% wool in my alpaca and it turned out so nice, I spun up a skein just to see how it spun. I find with alpaca or llama to get a nice tight twist I have to put a lot of twist in the singles and the the ply as it has so much life in it. It was a dream to spin, have to get some more carded for me to spin.        

The picture shows the fibre and yarn lighter than what it really is, I carded the grey alpaca with some pewter colored fine merino roving and it turned out so nice, have called it shades of pewter.  Just starting spinning a bit of it so have no pictures yet. Then I went searching in my containers as I thought there had to be some more fibre already carded and I found it plus some more washed and ready to card, was so excited to find some of my lost yarn and fibre, was a good day!! It has been nine months since I have seen all my stash, it was just like Christmas. It is so good to be working with the fibre and spinning again. Actually it is after midnight and I should be going to bed...but....I keep thinking...I could spin just a bit. RH and Maxx are off to bed...cats just ate their midnight snack to hold them over......I am going to go spin for just a bit.........the wheel and fibre are calling to me.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The Blue Sweater is coming out of Time out...so I will too!!

This is Sheba...she does not care if I just make her into the bed....she just lays there making a lump...until I dig her out...she thinks that as she is getting attention all is good in her world.
   Well the blue Sweater is out of time out and almost finished!! Only have a few rows on the cap of the sleeve and then can start sewing it up. It has been so hard to not start something new...even though I am knitting I can not stop thinking about what I would like to knit next......and it isn't something that needs finishing...that is the sad part. I had this great idea....which is still popping up occasionally...as I am knitting the blue sweater......that this sweater would
look great knit up out of the llama/merino/soy silk.....that is still roving in bags that needs to be spun...I really need help!!
   For the last few weeks I have been wanting to get the carder going and get some alpaca fibre carded and into roving for a customer, first I had to find the alpaca fibre in the seacan storage container in the yard, so after rummaging around for a bit, it was found and then it was get the carder set up downstairs where RH has been finishing the basement....I keep saying I need some space to get my stuff set up...he says he still has to do some filling....then he is painting...then he is putting the ceiling tile up...stuff is all over the place...finally I went down and said this is going to be my corner and I have the carder set up and going while he is putting ceiling tile up practically over my head, but I have a pound of roving already packaged into roving and some more carded. he is now finished the corner by the closets...yahoo!! Now I can move over to that area. We did get all the shelving up in the storage room and filled them with boxes, shelving in the closets up...and filled them with my containers of fibre/yarn etc....and there are still boxes sitting around. But I was so happy to have the carder going, now am going to get the spinning wheels out. will we ever get things organized.
   We had Mr Fixit man from the place we bought the house live with us for a couple days doing repairs caused when the house was moved...cracks in the walls etc...so that is finished and we can get some pictures hung and I really need to decide on the window coverings one of these days, it is going to get pretty warm in here when summer arrives. Did not want to put anything up until all the building downstairs is finished as there is dust all over the place.
    Was so windy again today, we have had hardly any snow all winter so it is so dry outside and it does not help that we have nothing but dirt around the house, I so need to see some green!! I will even take a good dump of wet snow as long as we get some moisture, am hoping the plants I moved down here have survived the bad winds and no moisture. have been thinking about getting the hoses out and watering them down. Well am off to bed...it is already tomorrow...March 17th...Happy St. Patricks Day everyone!!