Amazing Shawl

I while back while at Anoka Fiber Works I met a gal who had purchased some white roving my shop space there.  She had spun the roving on a supported spindle and it was lovely.  I think the fiber was from my alpaca Carley.  The goal was to knit a shawl from the yarn.

Before blocking

And before I knew it, this spinner/knitter had finished a lovely shawl and sent me pictures of it.

Being blocked

Beautiful.

After blocking

Lovely.

Close up

Lace detail.

Being worn

And looks great on!  An especially amazing project to complete by spinning on a spindle and knitting!  So proud to have contributed just a little!

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Camping again!

As long time readers will recall, I have attended Knitting Machine Camp for the last several years.  It is 3 days of knitting on and learning about knitting machines.  I’m fortunate enough to live close by Rocking Horse Farm, where it is held, so I don’t actually camp, but some knitters do. 

The first day, I made this bag.

Draw string bag

It is made of cotton yarn and has casings for the drawstrings that are made as part of the construction.  A contrasting little ruffle is the guide of where to attach the knitting to create the casing. It was fun and will come in handy for toting knitting projects.  And I learned some new techniques.

The second day I made a sweater.

Sweater

I learned about changing colors and how to move stitches over to decrease around the yoke using something called a garter bar.  But really….

It is tiny!

… it is meant to be a Christmas Tree ornament.  It is the tiniest thing, but still took so long to make.  I’m still trying to decide if I could figure a way to make these from left over alpaca yarn in a reasonable amount of time to sell them at a reasonable price.  But, dang, I think it is cute! 

On day three, I made shawls.   This is the first.

Shades of purple

It is still not finished.  I have enough yarn to add fringe, which I plan to do.  Then the ends will be woven in and it will be lightly steamed.

Another shawl

This is the second shawl I made.  This one will not have fringe. You can see the pattern in this one much better.  It is not steamed yet in the photo, but it steamed wonderfully and is being shown at the Farmer’s Markets now.  The shawls are made from my 100% alpaca sport weight yarn that I dyed. 

I also made a prototype of the boot cuffs using acrylic yarn.  They are getting closer to what I have in my mind. 

The best part of Camp is that everyone gives and gets ideas from each other and the creativity is just thick in the air.