finished my alpaca! i finished my alpaca yesterday!

isn't he handsome? bev galeskas is a total genius in my book. the shaping on this guy is amazing, and was totally easy. i would have had him finished a long time ago, had i not needed to wait for more yarn to come in the mail.

Details: yarn is KnitPicks Wool of The Andes in Snickerdoodle, and Pallete in Nutmeg. it took a little over one skein of the WOTA, and about half a ball of Pallete. Now, i know it may be a fiber faux pa to make an alpaca out of wool, but i'm on a budget, and if i'm buying alpaca, it better be for something i can wear and enjoy...like, seven days a week. Plus, it gives him character, right?

size US 10.5 needles, straight for the body, and dpns for the little ears and tail. i'm affectionately calling him PacaPacaPaca, because i'm creativce with names like that.

he was my first attempt at felting in a laundromat. and let me tell you, DON'T DO IT! i'm so used to being able to control everything on the washing machine, set it back for more time, etc. he hadn't felted (in my experience, WOTA takes a bit of time to felt, definitely more than lamb's pride) and when i went to check on him again, the spin cycle was already half way done! wha? and i couldn't sent it back for more time, and i didn't want to shell out close to another $4 for another hot wash. plus, you couldnt control agitation on the machines there. so all i got for $3.75 and 45 minutes of my time was a soggy, hardly felted alpaca.

soooo.... since i had to have him in to the fair by today (the felting adventure happened thursday) and there was no chance of me getting to my mom's to use her machine, i felted by hand. this made me really nervous because i've never had a hand felting success. but, we're fortunate to have REALLY HOT tap water (i know that the difference between hot and REALLY HOT when you're felting is supposed to be insignificant, but still, it gave me a little more hope) so i downloaded a knitting podcast and got to work. luckily, he felted beautifully, and he's now at the fair, ready to be shown with these guys:

sorry for the hideous lighting, we were hurrying out the door and it was the best i could snap. i also put in luke's vest and my recycled silk purse. this was the first year i didn't qualify as a novice, so we'll see how i do.

other than that, i've been enjoying my time off. i'm knitting a scarf for a chairty project (i'll post about that later, since i think it deserves it's own post), listening to Cast On, and reading The Shop On Blossom Street which is the book that came before A Good Yarn, which i mentioned a few posts back. again, sorta cheesy "women's fiction" and totally formulated (uh, unlikely group gets together to knit, it seems rocky at first, they grow to touch each other's lives...) bascially the same as the other book, just with different names and slightly different details. but hey, it's summer and i read anything i can get my hands on.

so, that's it for now. happy stitching!


  ¶ 11:49 AM