A Day Steeped in Fiber

Some times, the Lord shows his love in ways we can least expect. At some points in life the Lord provides a beautiful opportunity that never entered into our thoughts. Such an event has occurred in my life in the form of a completely unexpected connection to a person whose family raises alpacas. This girl stopped me in class one day with a query as to where I got my yarn. Before I could even begin to go into detail she told me that her mother raises alpacas and they are willing to sell me the fiber for extremely cheap. I could barely contain my ecstasy as she continued to explain that her family had far too much fleece and nothing to do with it. What providence that I just learned to spin this summer! How could I not jump at the opportunity to own oodles of my favorite fiber for so little cost. I eagerly agreed to some terms of a deal, and we arranged a visit for me to pick out the fiber I desired. So that is what I did yesterday dear co-blogger, and here are some lovely shots of my adventure and its fruits. 

 

These are the views that met my eyes from the back patio. My friend's step-father built that barn. 

The interior of the barn was just as beautiful as the outside. Every edge routed to perfection, and full of light as well as the smell of animal. Not the manure smell that can clog the nostrils just hay, fur, and wood. The white cutie is the baby alpaca that is the newest member of the herd. She got curious first, and she looks so boldly at the camera. She is simply called Baby. The other is the alpaca that has my favorite fleece that I purchased. I know the picture is shadowy, but you can see the softness of her coat. Her name is Bambi. 

The farm has three females counting Baby, and all the others are males. The second picture is of the three females (Amber is the front and mother of Baby in back. Bambi is the other female.) The dark man in the top picture is the lover boy of the farm. He is Baby's father, and the only male to successfully convince a female to mate. His name is Echo, and I think that his coat is the most beautiful color of the entire bunch. I don't know if it translates well, but it is this amazing maroon brown like the color of cherry juice on a black forest cake. I did not actually buy Echo's fleece. However, the family proposed an even bigger discount if I agreed to knit scarves from the fiber. My friend's mother picked Echo's fleece for the project. The fiber I bought for myself was from Bambi (the tawny female behind Amber) and a male named Sundance. I did not get a good close up of Sundance. However, there are pictures of his fleece below. His is actually award winning, and I liked the touch of it more than Echo's. Still, after playing with Echo's fleece when I brought it home I have decided that I must get some for myself next time I visit. (The order of the fleece below from top down is Bambi, Sundance, and Echo). 

I know this post is long, but I cannot help but wax poetic about this stuff. It needs some cleaning. It needs to be carded. It still smells of animal. But, there are few pleasures as tactfully beautiful as dipping your arms elbow deep in clouds. I will need another post to talk about each fleece specifically so for now I leave you to gaze at my treasures.

Vermonters

Until very recently, I have been adverse to knitting fair isle, mostly because knitting with more than one ball of yarn at a time is extremely difficult when you're confined to a tiny desk in a lecture hall. This year, however, I have learned to deal with it. I went to WEBS after Halloween and bought 6 balls of Northampton wool in various colorways. The woman at the cash register asked me what I was knitting. "Hats. For Christmas. Everyone's getting hats this year."
Now, you may recall how frustrated I became last year after having knit about 30 hats in the span of a semester. Clearly, I've gotten over it, because I spent the next week knitting hats. Many colored, snowflake-y hats. I knit 6. In 5 days. My modmates reveled in them, and began pick the color combinations for me. Every day, it was "Wow, Heather, ANOTHER one!" They got really invested, and I just kept knitting.
So, when it became time to photograph the first six of these hats (I have enough yarn to make about 15), I knew I'd have to make it a group effort. My modmates and honorary modmates all gathered on the couch, and had a lovely FO shoot.
Sarah (the one with the plant--I don't really understand why that is) directed, and made sure each hat looked nice on each person. She then demanded poses, like from Haley above, "Look cold! But cute!" We all decided that the photos looked like they were from some ski trip to Vermont that we never took. I couldn't have done it without them...

...And now I have too many hats. Again.

The Cardigan Refused to Be Finished Part 3

(Parts 1 and 2 can be found in earlier posts) I knew I was doomed because the moment I saw the color only one word came to my mind, "ick!" Taupe is the less than attractive step-sister of beige and it is completely against my nature. I like to knit with bright, bold, and saturated colors. I enjoy yarn whose color makes you drool with desire to wear it. When I had previously knit things for my sis, they were in beautiful greens or deep merlot. She is a gorgeous woman with a taste for good clothing, and the one time I offer a sweater she manages to pick the color that I would never have even considered touching unless it was for a dish rag. I will admit the color does have one advantage; taupe matches everything. Even though black can achieve the same advantage taupe is lighter and less stark simply because it has not personality of its own. Bemoaning my own stupidity and quietly cursing my fickle sibling I began to search for yarn. I decided knitpicks was my best option due to my limited funds. My sister had requested that the cardigan be light enough to wear around in spring, but heavy enough that she could potentially wear it in the cooler months. Keeping this in mind, I settled on knitpicks Cotlin in the colorway Cashew. It was the right weight, machine washable, and the linen would give it a nice drape while the cotton would keep it from being too warm. I went ahead and ordered the stuff and prayed that it would less yucky in person. No such luck, but the die was cast. 

Peace in frogging

So I just spent the last half hour frogging three inches of knitting. Although this may not sound like a great feat, you might reconsider that position when I tell you that it was about 140 yards worth and 6004 stitches. Yes, I just had to frog an entire ribbing of a sweater. The stitches got so hopelessly twisted that there was no saving it. It is strange that I do not find myself upset when I have to frog things, or even when I have to start things over in general. I remember when I used to take private art lessons, my teacher would sometimes advise me to go back into the piece and recreate a certain technique that I had already created on another part of the work. Daunting as recreation is, I always said, "If I did it once, I can do it again." With this in mind I have faced many starts and stops with a strange sense of patience, especially in knitting. I find that the aspect of frogging is far more vexing than actually making the decision to do it. In the case of this work, I came to a couple realizations that I would not have discovered had this initial error not occurred.

1. Even though this sweater is a massive project, I was able to keep up with directions and maintain the correct stitch count. I have a big problem with phantom stitches when I do large projects. However, I am still very happy that after the increasing my stitch count continued to be correct even with the daunting number (394 at that point)

2. With the work off the needle, I was able to see its actual size. I am making this sweater for a man and I was a little worried about sizing issues due to the fact that he is a big guy and my gauge is, yet again, a little wonky. As I was knitting I was constantly worrying that it would be too small. When I took it off I was able to compare its true size with a sweatshirt I had on hand. The sweater will prove to fit him the way it is supposed to, which is looser than fitted. I am extremely excited now because I know for sure that I am on the right size track.

I will cast on again. I will knit the ribbing correctly this time. I will recreate the beautiful stitches and the right number of them. If I did it once, I can do it again.

The Lost Generation

I'm back! ...For now. I can't be blamed, I'm fulfilling my pre-practicum as an intern at the performing arts school down the street, taking a Shakespeare Seminar that I'm far too young to take, and I'm TAing a freshman tutorial. Lots of reading, but so rewarding--especially because of my duties as a TA.

So my professor Michele (now my committee chair and mentor and wonderful) sent me an email that listed my TA duties. I skimmed it quickly, saw that it was the usual stuff (hold office hours for students, hold writing workshops, planning lessons, etc.), and went on to the next email. In our meeting before classes started, we were bantering on the topic of these duties. "Hey, at least I'm not knitting in class!" I retorted. "Well, then you obviously didn't read the email very carefully," she said. Hmm? She opened the email on her laptop, and scrolled down to the bottom. It said "Knit me a scarf for winter." She was ASKING ME TO KNIT IN CLASS...even while I was teaching!

I've been drooling over photos of Noro Striped Scarves (a la the pattern that Jared Flood claims was not his idea), and while I've never really been much for Noro (don't shoot!) I saw the opportunity and dove in head first.

Now, I'm just going to show you photos, because I've spoken long enough, and the pictures speak for themselves.

I took these around campus, and actually waited two weeks for the right light to do so.

On the fire escape outside my house.

On the Graffiti Wall and adjoining stairs in the Arts Village.
On the trellis at the entrance of the Community Garden out my window.
God I love this. I haven't put it on, because I'm afraid Michele will never get it off me.

A Brief Respite From the Cardigan: Psycho Socks!

Yes it is true, the socks are finished! I have never taken so long to finish a pair of socks. Seriously, even my pomatomai did not take me so long. However, these socks are completely worth the trouble. They scream my name with a larger than life bull horn. What is funny about this pattern is that my lovely co-blogger is doing the same design. We did not plan this. Indeed, I was absolutely tickled to discover that we picked the same pattern with no previous consultation or hints. Even more awesome is how different the two pairs are from each other. My co-blogger chose to do them in a stunning solid (was it red? I really can't remember except for the fact that I oggled) while I picked a very loud hand-dyed. My socks are perfectly me. What you see first is the crazy colors spreading themselves in a dizzying array of neon green, purple, and electric blue. Then you notice that there is a pattern. Finally, if you take the time to really look, you can see that the pattern is extremely intricate and lovely on its own. I am layered. First you see the boldness, then you notice the texture, and if you stick around long enough then you might discover the depth. Your dice Heather, make sure you post about your socks! (PS Pattern is Vilai by Cookie A. and it can be found in her book Sock Innovation)

The Cardigan Refused to Be Finished Part 2

I have decided to break up this saga in parts so as not to create a humongously long post that no one wants to read. (Note: If you want to start at the beginning please see the previous post). Anyway, upon telling my sister of my plan, she was absolutely giddy. She insisted on a cardigan (no surprise) and she was unsure of color. As the months wore on I picked out some patterns I thought she would like and rifled through knitpicks in the hopes of finding some color possibilities. Due to extreme business on her part, we did not get to consult until only a month before her actual graduation. We agreed that as long as the cardigan was finished by the end of the summer she would not be upset. She picked out a pattern, and the winner was the Basic Black Cardigan by Glenna C. (available as a free ravelry download). For a long while, she could not decide on a color. And then came the fateful day, the day that decided the whole tone for this entire project. 

(Paraphrased conversation between my sister and myself)

Meg: Hey there

Me: Hey Megs how're you?

Meg: FIne, but I can't talk long. I just wanted to let you know that I decided on a color for my cardigan.

Me: Excellent! What do you want?

Meg: Can you make it in taupe?

Me: ......taupe?

Meg: Yeah

Me: What on earth is taupe?

Meg: It's a- look it up online, google it. I'm sorry but I've got to go

Me: Okay I love you

Meg: Love you too

I did look it up, and the minute I saw it I knew I was doomed.