A Crochet Alpaca, she is so cute!!

Well the post I sent yesterday actually was posted to will try again, have not had time to smack the laptop around yet. I found this little cutie online, I can not remember the name of the book...I downloaded the book but only printed off the instructions for the Alpaca. It was a boy Alpaca named Sherwin but when I finished him I decided it looked like a her...but have to think of a name for her. She was my riding in the car project but finally decided to finish her last night. She wanted a crochet flower but all I could find was this little red flower and she wanted a red ribbon but had to be happy with a white one as that was all I could find, still do not have my cabinets moved downstairs so I can get all my stuff sorted out. All the time I was crocheting her I kept thinking ...no way this is going to look like an Alpaca...kept calling it a hedgehog. But when all stuffed and sewn together.....it does look like a chubby little alpaca. Took her picture sitting in a plant last night and here she is.

O.K. I just went and checked and the name of the book is Crochet Softies and is written by Stacy Troch, I downloaded it as a e-book from Martingale. of course I thought she was going to be a little softie but she ended up about twelve inches...now...was this because I did not stop and read before I picked up the yarn and hook...do not know..will have to go back and check...might try the pattern in finer yarn.
    Well do not think the landscaping guy will be arriving anytime soon as it rained all night and there are puddles in the driveway...and  our house sits in a sea of clay......busy washing doggie paws. And after fighting with this computer and thinking bad thoughts about what I was going to do about it all of a sudden last night most of the problems disappeared...hmmm...maybe it was because of the hammer I sat on the counter beside the computer...usually my rule is not to have a hammer in the same room as a computer. Well am off to put the grow light up for the seeds I planted...not going to see the sun for a few days the weatherman says.............

Blue Sweater is Finished

I have been having so much trouble with my computer do not know whether this will post. Thought I would use the big computer but something has been going on with it too, the program I download pictures on has decided it does not live there anymore so here I am back to the laptop which is letting me download pictures but the program must have upgraded itself so have to try to figure out how everything works again...why...why!! To make me crazy I think!!
   Anyway not a lot being accomplish in the fibre business, we are going to start shearing when the weather warms up, we are getting much needed moisture but now it is enough...too dark and dreary today and supposed to last all week. Planted a few seeds in the house but it is nerve wracking trying to keep them safe from Sheba, have them shut in the bedroom but they need more light, am going to put the grow light up in the room off the garage, wish it had heat in it as it is not that warm these days. We have three large raised beds built in the space we are going to have the garden, now have to get some loam trucked in. Guy is supposed to be here the end of the week to do some landscaping so will have him bring us some loam. Plants we moved down from the other farm and the ones we moved from the house here before they moved it off are all growing, when we moved the plants from here I did not notice tulips but here they are, growing big and healthy. The ground was so hard in the flowerbeds here HB took the bobcat and got under the plants and moved the whole bed over to a safe area so now am finding out what plants were there, now to get the landscaping done and the front deck built so I can move all the plants to their new area.
   I did get the Blue Sweater finished and washed but then have found a few mistakes which I did not notice until it was sewn up but it is going to stay the way it is, it was a kit and the only way I could get the pattern was to order the kit but why oh why did I use the yarn they sent with it...it is a soft loose spun acrylic so does not hold its shape very well. It did not have a chart for the patterns and it had every pattern in the sweater printed separately and one was repeated ten times and another four times and another.....was so hard to keep track of....plus the sleeves are too long...so will have to cut them off and reknit the cuffs.Here she is...

I keep thinking I should reknit it in another yarn, a natural fibre with some body to it and knit it when I am not moving and will revamp the pattern so it is not so confusing!

I carded up some of the pewter grey alpaca with some nylon and spun a skein, the nylon is called fake cashmere and it is so soft. Will knit myself a pair of socks out of it. The  customer that bought all the alpaca rovings from me has just e-mailed me and said he is almost finished spinning everything and how soon could I have some white alpaca ready for him so better phone friends I get the white fibre from and see if they have sheared yet. Well here goes hoping this gets posted, pictures will not go where I want them and the size of the font has decreased in size as I wrote, am off to work on the computer again!!!!

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!!

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.

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!!

Snow Day!!

Well we have a snow day today! Why are we surprised? It is the end of Feb and we have had such a mild winter...I should be whispering this...we could still get a lot more snow days. What shows the feeling about snow days than this picture.
     Am still working on the blue sweater...have finished the fronts and am now working on one of the sleeves...thought about working both sleeves at once but then thought it could be tempting fate...although...if there was a mistake in my knitting......they would be matching...right? Anyway am only knitting one at a time and was doing sooo well...making sure I marked what row I finished before I put my knitting down...then I had not been able to work on it for a couple of days...today I thought I would knit a few rows while I had a cup of tea...found I had not marked what row I ended with,  thought I knew which row I was on and four rows knit found out it was not right so by the time I ripped back the rows I just knit and knit them again...only got an inch knit!! Now I have put it in time out...actually I guess I am in time out...what am I going to do in time out...see if I can find something chocolate...hmmm....might have to bake something...made some gluten free chocolate chip squares the other day... they were so good...but of course they are all eaten.... and can not get them off my mind.......

When the blue sweater or I am in timeout I knit socks, have all the orders knit and delivered so am trying to knit up as many as I can to stash away, although when orders come in it always happens I do not have the size or color they want. But I will be ahead for the farmers markets coming up in the spring. Just got my yarn order back from the mill this week, I had sent my alpaca fibre in about a year ago and it finally was finished, you know I had forgotten the color of the alpaca fibre I had sent...thought I had sent a mixture of colors but it must have been black fibre as the yarn came back a beautiful black. Have almost finished a pair of socks out of it and I love it. Just got the socks I have finished soaking in their bath and will get them  out to dry in a minute.

Also wanted to dye some of the grey alpaca/merino yarn to knit some pattern into the grey socks and give them some zazz. RH is off to a Llama club meeting today so I should get the socks blocked out to dry and get the dye pot on the stove while I have no interruptions...and of course...after I find some chocolate........

This sweater will never be finished!!

They look like angels when they are asleep but now it is our bedtime they are having tussles all over the house leaving hair all over, sometimes it is play but then turns into fights.
   The hydro saga was not over, they came early yesterday morning and said they were coming back sometime in the afternoon and replace all the hydro wires so we were without power for most of the afternoon but now we do not have to worry we should be good for years.
   Now onto the blue sweater ......I have been working steady on the right front dreaming of getting to the sleeves and had a good third of it knit....then discovered I should have reversed the cables on this side......so it is ripped out and I have started again, am going to try to get one pattern repeat finished before I go to bed. It did go through my mind...however briefly...that maybe I could just have pattern on the left front...and knit the right front plain...but no...better do it right. I am not going to tuck this away again...I am going to finish it.
   We had a bit of winter weather today, a bit of snow and colder but is supposed to be back to warm weather by Sunday. I am so waiting for spring, just had a seed catalogue arrive in the mail today. Well off to knit and then off to bed.