How do I feel about Alpaca?

I'm not too sure really. I know that I love knitting with it - or blends of it anyway. It always seems so soft and squishy. The jury is out on the spinning of alpaca. I bought a braid of 100% alpaca off etsy seller Roaringbravado. The colour is called Autumn equinox. I love the colours. Deep plums, midnight blues, forest greens. But the texture is weird or something. Its like the alpaca has alot of guard hairs still in it. Perhaps it is my spinning, as I'm still learning. I do want to try the Navajo plying business again, and this was my intention with this yarn, but I don't know if it will work. Alpaca has a nice long staple and it is a pleasure to spin, but just check out the hairiness. I don't know if I love it or hate it. I've no idea what its destined to become. Perhaps I should have used the drum carder and blended it with something, but the colours are just too darned pretty to be messing with.


In other news, I thought I'd share a picture of the snow that we have. I have the great pleasure of dealing with a lot of old people at work. I've been hearing from a few of them that this winter we are having an 'old fashioned winter' - meaning lots of long cold spells and a lot of snow. What do you think? Does this look like a lot of snow?


This is the view from my front patio looking up the street. Notice that you can't actually see the street because the snow banks are too high. You can see the top of one car on the street. Keep in mind that my house is also up on a little hill. Wow, that is a lot of snow.

I also wanted to share a cute baby shot - because I can.



Look at those cute little faces! Kev's face isn't too bad either.

Say Hello to my Little Friend

So I bought this little pendant at 'Terry's Tents' just before Christmas. I really like it. And its super cute. I was telling Amy that this pendant can be worn on airplanes. She thinks its kind of hilarious that knitters have designed a necklace that allows us to sneak blades onto airplanes.

I'm actually using this post to try out my new camera. Yes, a new camera. Kev gave me a camera for my birthday before last. Thankfully he bought extended warranty on it. It ended up being sent in for repairs right after Christmas last and and before Christmas this year. So, this time around they replaced it. Its just a little Canon powershot 8.0 megapixels, but I love it.

And I've been spinning. Yay. This is a soy blend, and I'm not sure of the percentages. But it sure is pretty. Its 160 yards too. Quite substantial. I'm not sure what it will become. I'm sure it'll ruminate in my stash for quite some time.

I had what looked like a fair amount of single left on one bobbin after I had plied the two together, so I tried my hand at Navajo plying. Um...not so good. I think I had the technique down pretty good. I was doing the chaining thing okay, but the single kept breaking as I was pulling the chain through. When I try this technique again, it'll be on a single that I've spun specifically for Navajo plying. And, I'll make sure to spin the single tighter. That'll work won't it?

Spencer

On New Year's Day Spencer got sick. Stones in his bladder it turns out. 3 of them that made peeing very difficult. He had to have surgery and was not a happy puppy for about 1 week after.

Over on Ravelry, the Harry Potter - Knit and Crochet House Cup group have a class on the care of magical creatures. People who signed up for the class had to knit something for a magical creature in their life. Spencer is very magical to me. Hence I knit him this cute lil argyle sweater. Pattern is my own - not that it was difficult. I think I'm starting to get into intarsia...well, maybe just a little.


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In other knitting news, Amy has requested a knit sweater for her birthday. This from the girl who 'hates knit sweaters'. I am secretly thrilled at this request, so of course I'm obliging her. However, there is no way in hell that I will finish the sweater in time for her birthday. Considering I've had to order the yarn from Elann.com which is based in BC, Amy's birthday is less than 1 month away, and Amy is in Quebec. So, even if I get the yarn in a week, and if I can knit this sweater in 2 weeks (yeah, right), I would still have to mail it to Quebec. My goal is to have this sweater finished by the end of March. By then of course it will have warmed up to the point that a sweater knit in a chunky weight yarn will be too warm to wear anyway. Such is my life as a knitter.

Boutique Cloche

I've knit this cute little hat from a book that I got for Christmas called Boutique Knits. Its super cute and I wore it out today in minus 30 something celcius weather and it kept my ears and head warm, so its a winner.

It took me a while to figure out how to wear it, but it looks best (on me anyway) with the ruffled edge hauled down over the ear.

Impaled or Pole Dancing?

You decide. I can't. Its even been suggested that they are firemen, sliding down poles. They are supposed to be impaled, but I dunno. Its a very clever pattern called 'tepes' from Anticraft.

May old aquantance...

And all that jazz. I've completed one project so far in the new year. It is a cowl - naturally. Its my own design this time. I may get around to writing up the instructions. This was actually done for the 'Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup' on Ravelry. Its called the Whomping Willow Cowl. I'm happy enough with it, but if I were to offer the pattern, I'd clean it up a little. The cable is a little sloppy as is the button band. Other than that I think its super cute and rather ingenious of me to embroider around the eyelet holes. I'm certain that I'm the first person to ever think of that - Not. But seriously, I haven't seen a lot of it, and I must admit it is rather cute.