There she is Finished...we will say good bye to her!!

O.K. here she is all finished and blocked!! Before I washed and blocked her "Majesty" Miss Andean Chullo Hat she just seemed too long and bulky but when washed and blocked she settled down a bit and hung down nicely at the back, before that she could not decide what she wanted to do and ended up just sticking half way inbetween, but still am thinking I might take a pattern out, but love them all the way they are....we will see on the next one, but for sure will not make the I-cord so long on the top of the hat before the tassel is put on. The thing I will change is the ear flaps, they are too long so will just shorten them up by one pattern. have already started another hat and have been trying to tighten up the stitches  around the outside of edge of the ear flap as it was hard to attach the i-cord properly. This time I will organize the pattern instructions a bit and hopefully not have to do so  much ripping back with this one. I had so much trouble with 

matching the yarn to the colors on the chart.....the color for the deep purple looked navy on the chart, think I have it sorted out. so she has had enough time on the blog so will get at something else!! But this stranded knitting is addicting so will keep a project on the go taking residence on the end of the table ready to suck me in. I also got the yarn in the natural shades of brown, tan and creams to knit the hat and I better get organized on that one I tell you, if I thought all these colors were a problem....the natural shades could be a nightmare.

  

Now to sorting fibre to go to the mill to be made into roving, this is Black Mommy Alpacas fleece and it did not matter what light I took a picture under it turned out this grey color and it is black! black! I was trying to get a picture of the crimp in it but was hard, she has the softest crimpy fibre, now the decision is what male to bred her to this spring so her baby has this same great fibre. All her fibre is washed and cleaned of debris and in a bag ready to go. now onto the white llama fibre. Warm weather has moved in so I can get out to the workshop and do some sorting and get it washed up too. I am sure I washed up some llama fibre last fall ready to ship....or was I just dreaming I did?? Will have to go have a look. should have had this all done and ready to go but with all our super cold weather there was no way to work out in the shop. Hoping this is the beginning of spring...I am dreaming aren't I???

Almost finished my Alpaca Hat!!

We had a few nice days and are now back to overcast and snow, spring can not come soon enough, although spring means working outside and I do not have all my fleece sorted to go to the mill to be processed. Did get a large bag of Alpaca away to the local mill in between snowstorms but have to get the rest ready to go, this mill likes to have it washed once so better get the washer full this morning of some black alpaca from Black Mommy, she has beautiful fibre with a nice crimp to it. Now baby Bella, am wondering is my life is long enough to get her fibre ready to be processed it is so full of stuff (nice way of saying crap). It will be shearing season again before I know it so better get last years tended to.

   Now the "Hat" almost finished, am just knitting the I-cord finish around the bottom which is sucking up a large portion of my time right now, I think a person has to figure out how to do a more stable edge for the bottom as this yarn is a bit fragile, will have to think on that for the next hat. now this hat is really long....I mean really long....I think it is meant to flop over and hang down at the back, the ear flaps also seem too long. Someone on Ravelery has made this hat and she said she would take some charts out when she knit it again as she found it way too big and I agree with her but for my first one I thought I would follow the pattern as it was and then make changes when I knit the next. now my views on how the pattern was written, they give you pattern choices to put in each section, love the chart patterns but....and this might be just me...the pattern is so fragmented...there is a bit on one page... then you have to go searching to find what comes next and then find you have missed some directions and have to rip back, plus I would cut little snippets from the yarn and tape them next to the color squares as you are always getting mixed up. I have a hard time knitting when I am in a state of confusion on what comes next and have to search for it...so will be writing the pattern out the way I want to knit it for the next hat. I know I keep saying the next hat but I will be knitting another one because I love knitting stranded knit and really if I had kept track of the time I spent actually knitting it was not that long, could not really knit at night as it was hard to see the color changes but I think if I organized it properly with the color snippets that would not be a problem. This is the first time I have knitted I-cord right onto an item and they have you knit the I-cord for three inches for the tassel on the earflap then you increase a few stitches and leave half the stitches on a holder and continue around knitting the I-cord along the bottom and then when you get to the end you graft the stitches to the stitches on the holder. (Hope you understand this) what I was a bit miffed at was they did not say anything in the instructions about how to proceed when you got to the second earflap (or maybe I have not found it yet) but I just knit off to a I-cord to match the one on the other earflap after I had increased and left half the stitches to be picked up to continue around. So that is where I am now and hopefully will finish it today. Am actually looking forward to starting on another one.if this one is just too large for me to wear.....I will stuff it and use it as a decorative cushion!! While I was knitting the "hat" I also knit five pair of slipper socks and another hat I had started a bit ago. Well am off to finish the I-cord and get the directions organized for another one.

O.K. Finally got the heads on the Alpacas!!

I have been sorting fleece to take to the mill so have not knit much on the hat, it just kept sitting there on the table tempting me. Have the fleece sorted and bagged ready to go so could knit a bit tonight. Finally knit the heads on the Alpacas after they sat headless for days, they really are strange looking Alpacas...but they have heads. Then I am knitting on another pattern, they give you choices of different pattern charts to use so chose this one but now am thinking it is almost too dark......although if the bottom was not rolled up it is dark too...soooo....the decision is....should I rip it out and put in a different chart or use the same chart and use different colors...or this would be the better choice....just continue on.....I think there is enough yarn included in the kit to be able to make three hats by changing the colors around so...I think I am going to continue on and not rip out. In a way I wish they had not had all these different patterns for a person to chose from, if they just gave you a pattern to knit for the first hat....of course this is assuming that a person will knit more than one hat......and then had patterns you could use if you did not like what they had chosen.  Hopefully you are following all my giberish...it is after midnight and my brain is starting to shut down. When I finish the last two rows on this pattern (assuming after I have slept on it I have not decided to rip it out) I only have one small pattern to go and then I start decreasing while I am doing the crown pattern. I am enjoying knitting this hat and think I will be starting another one as soon as this one is completed. I did get the yarn in natural colors to knit some hats from this pattern too, and if I thought some of the colors were close together on this hat......can only imagine how confusing it is going to be in the natural shades. Next time in the colors and natural colors I will really make sure I organize my colors better before I start...and I will also read the pattern instructions this time...almost finished the hat and when I read all the instructions I noticed that I was supposed to knit two rows of color "A" between patterns. Well better figure out who is color "A" before I start the next hat......am off to bed...will be making decisions in my sleep I am sure.

I am still working at the hat!!

I am still knitting at the hat, actually looking at the picture now I have knit quite a bit, once I get the big alpacas knit I only have two small patterns to knit and then I start on the crown which is in pattern while I am decreasing, there has been a fair bit of ripping back which takes as long to rip as it does to knit, not because of stitches being wrong it is mainly because I get carried away and forget to change the back ground color which would not be bad and I could leave it but the back ground for the larger Alpacas each color is four rows and if I have two many or too few it really shows up. one thing I should have done and will do with the next hat (did you hear the phase...next hat...someone please lock me up) is cut pieces off the yarns and match them to the colors before I start as they do not match the colors on the charts and a few in the ball are really close in color and it isn't until you have knit a row or two you realize it was not the color you should have used. so there has been a bit of ripping back. Don't you love those little pink Alpacas!! They are so cute. can only knit so long on it or my eyes go crossed. So in between I have been knitting socks. I find the cleaning and cooking etc. just takes too much time away from my knitting!! Am off to bed. Thanks everyone for the great comments.

What Have I been doing??

Can not believe it has been that long since I have posted....what have I been doing...besides suffering from this sinus thing left over from the cold I had at Christmas. We are finally getting some warmer temperatures but with it wind and blowing snow, we have had a couple days of welcome sun. RH had just dug a path for the female llamas and alpacas to get from the barn out to pasture and after today will have to do it again, although it is warm enough he can maybe get the bobcat going and not have to do it by hand, girls were sure happy to out sunning themselves. O.K. this is what I have been up to

I did get some of the roving spun, I had separated it into two lengthwise but after spinning for a while am thinking I should have split it a couple more times as I am getting long stretches of white but will keep spinning this bobbin the same, had weighted out the roving so I hopefully will have close to the same on yardage on both bobbins and am thinking of splitting the other length for the second bobbin a couple more times before I spin it and see whether it gives me a bit more color. We will see. Should have had it all spun but got carried away knitting other things......

Made up a couple of kids hats and a few kids mitts, am not a mitt knitter but decided to just get at it and become a mitt knitter, there are so many other more interesting things to knit, maybe if I put some pattern or colorwork in the mitt knitting it would become more interesting....hmmmm   we will see, made up one of the sheep hats but yarn was a little thicker than I usually use so might have to rip it back a bit on the top and shorten it a bit, had not made one for ages as the last session of doing a couple large orders of these hats I could not even look at the pattern for a while. I found a pattern for crocheted hats so crocheted a few to see how they turned out, had planned on making a childs hat but it turned out larger than they said so fits an adult so will have to do a bit of adjusting. Also crocheted a few flowers, trying to decide whether to put flowers on the hats.  Then I got at what I have been wanting to knit........

Have not knit this much colorwork for years but loved this hat, some of the colors are so close I end up knitting along not seeing that the color has changed, took me ages to knit the ear flaps, don't know how many times I ripped out and started again. I ordered the kit from Knit Picks and the yarn in the kit was Palette which is a fingering weight and is very loosely spun which at first I did not like but now am realizing why it is loosely spun as when you are knitting

with the yarn and moving it around to change colors you put more twist into it. Now if I was a picker when I knit and not a thrower it would go a lot faster....that is another thing I am going to learn to do, colorwork would knit a lot faster. Right now have to rip a bit back as I should not knit at night when I need to change colors, knit a couple of rows before I noticed there was a color change, some of the colors are so close at night it is hard to see when they change....now I had considered just leaving it as the color is really my choice.....right??.....but after sleeping on it have decided I will rip the rows back and reknit it and smack myself a couple of times to remind self to check the color before starting a row. I find the hardest part is starting a new pattern, once I make sure the first row of pattern is correct you can follow it and it goes fast. It is addicting, I have it on the end of the kitchen table so I do not have any cat help and I keep getting sucked over to it when I should be doing something else....pots are boiling over on the stove...dogs are left on the step wanting to come in etc. etc.......and I really have to get the fibre together to take to the mill or I will not get it in to the alpaca run they do and I will have to wait until fall. Well off to get at the rest of the day...........will try not to spend the whole day knitting on the hat.

Finished my socks!!

 Here are the finished socks, I love them, they are my favorite colors!! Almost hate to wear them...maybe I will frame them and hang them on the wall........no I will wear them and have toasty feet, weatherman says cold weather arriving again. Meanwhile have started another project, one of my little sheep hats but I think I have sockitis as I have knit so many of these hats and here I am making mistakes and then ripping out, but it has been a while, I think the problem is I should enlarge the pattern a bit so I can read it while knitting and" of course" my problem could not be this cat that insists on sitting on me while I am knitting.....and the angrier I get at her the suckier she looks at me all the time purring, she has made me a little crazy tonight.

Now my next project is going to be spinning this roving my daughter M.J. gave me for Christmas and it also from The Yummy Yarn Studio. Love it, can not wait to see what it looks like spun up. Spent the day yesterday putting all the Christmas stuff away and sorting shelves in the storage room, now have things piled in the middle of the floor to sort and deal with before I can get at the spinning. Have to discipline myself. No spinning until things are cleaned up. Well am off to bed, this day is done!! And the cat is not coming with me!!

First Post of the New Year!! 2011!!

Wishing everyone a great New Year! Managed to get all the knitting finished for customers before 2011!! Was a challenge as I came down with a nasty cold just before Christmas Day. Still having some sinus problems but am on the mend. This year we decided to get an artificial Christmas tree which was another challenge, I have never seen such ugly things posing as trees in my life, had about given up when we came upon this decorated tree in the store they were using as a prop and it was just the one I wanted, I was getting ready to start taking the decorations off and claiming the tree as mine when a clerk came along and said they had others exactly the same for sale and still had a couple in stock. Boy I sure checked it out good to make sure it was the same before we brought it home and the best part is they sold it to us for a fraction of the reg. price.............so we have a forever Christmas tree. It has the lights on it so did not have to do the light stringing, only thing we have always had colored lights and these lights were clear but next year we will replace the bulbs. Even the cats had a look at it and said......poo...not real...so can not make a mess with pulling the needles off...so they left it alone. That was really good news!! so tomorrow I will take it down and get everything put away for another year. Turn all the battery powered automated things on for the last time, then out with their batteries and tuck them away.

  Daughter Marijane made this beautiful pin felted character for her father for Christmas, I love it!! Look at the facial expression!

Look what we found when we looked out the window Christmas morning, is this our partridge in the pear tree sitting on the roof of the truck????? It just sat there calmly looking around.
   What did I do New years Eve...besides watching a couple of movies....started knitting on a pair of socks for myself, of all the socks I have knit over the last few years I have never knit a pair for myself, so am starting the year out right...I am going to have socks!! I bought this skein of yarn at the guild sale, dyed by  The Yummy Yarn Studio, loved the color!! Just finished the first sock tonight....I have a hand knit sock!! Now to get another one knit!

 
Now am off to bed,,,it is 2:00 A,M.  but was determined to finish the sock!!