Yarn Along

Since we haven't fully adjusted to the daylight savings time change I decided we could head to the beach this morning for donuts, hot chocolate and the sunrise.  The sunrise was at 6:29 and to us that is still kind of like 7:29.  It was worth the few minute ride to the beach to get to watch this this morning.

Okay maybe the boys were still a little sleepy.

I take that back Mr. B was sleepy, Tiny Terror never rests. Oh that kid wears me out. Can't he just take a nice picture. 

In exciting yarn news I now have 3,200 yards of beautiful 2 ply sport weight yarn from his sheared fleece from last May!!!! It is 90% Blue (alpaca) and 10% silk and oh so wonderful.

I am going to make myself a nice big shawl, a hat and fingerless gloves.

I am going to be so fancy this winter.

I've had some Shibui Cima yarn for about three years now. I didn't have enough of it to make a sweater or anything else that I was in the mood to make. So I bought more so I'd have enough to make myself a turtle neck sweater. I am loving how it is coming out. I am holding two strands together and knitting on a US 3 needle. It seems to be taking a very very very long time. I am so close to finishing the neck and then I have to do a band at the waist and it will be ready to wear! 

 I've been very busy with the alpacas lately. We've been showing, breeding, behavior testing and halter training. That has led to more time outside and not inside at my computer.... hence the lack of posts lately. It also doesn't help that my memory was full on my computer and even though I put most of my pictures on back up drives I still had such a hard time DELETING them off my computer permanently. It makes me so nervous to do that!

Today we behavior tested Spitty and Francesca. They both spit at Smoke Ring!!! In other words most likely they are pregnant and wanted nothing to do with that boy!

My parents just got some of the status back on the herd's fleeces. Francesca's (above on the left) baby from last Fall has micron of 14!!! That is just amazing. So hopefully she has another one of those babies cooking right now!

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along

For reading I listened to The Art Of Mindful Living.  I really enjoyed it. I listen to quite a few podcasts that have recommend it. It is a quick listen and I know I'll listen to it over and over again. I enjoyed everything about this audio book. I don't know what took me so long to finally download it, but I'm glad I did.

Yarn Along

I am pleased to say I finally finished my Spire!!! I still need to take some finished pictures of it. But I'm very happy to have it off my needles. I handspun the yarn for the project. But for the knitted on edging I used Manos Fino yarn in the colorway Ivory Letter Opener. I am thrilled with how it turned out and can't wait to give it a proper photo shoot!!!

I've been busy writing a new pattern.  I have most of the pattern written up and not much to show for it. I've made lots of swatches and I have lots of notes. I'm glad to finally be knitting it! I am making two versions of it. One in Shibui Pebble yarn and the other the Loopy Ewe's yarn (the purple version).

Words can't explain how obsessed I am with the Pebble yarn. The yarn is amazing!!!!!!! I also love the Loopy Ewe's yarn, but the Pebble is hands down drool over worthy yarn.

I finished up another Standing Stones Worsted Cowl. This time I used 1 skein of Miss Bab's Yowza in the color way "Zombie Prom". I had to modify the pattern slightly by leaving off one repeat of the final chart, but I am very happy how it turned out. I always LOVE working with Yowza. It was also a great thing to knit after working on my Spire since it takes minimal effort to knit unlike the Spire.

Well that is it for my knitting that I can think about! I think I might have a few other WIPs floating around.

Links-

Spire

Standing Stones

Joining with Ginny's Yarn Along

TIDAL WAVE a lace wrap

I released a new pattern!

 

TIDAL WAVE

a lace wrap

 

 

 

 

 

My lovely friend Ryan came over to model my new pattern for me.

Since the wrap is made of 100% alpaca yarn I thought the alpacas should be included in the photo shoot.

I designed the scarf using a pattern made up of knits, purls, yarn overs and a few purl togethers.

I wanted a lace pattern that wasn't a very open lace. I wanted it to be able to hang over my shoulders and cover me up at times.  I didn't want it to be too transparent, but I'm sure if you wanted to make this on larger needles it would give you a much more open lace feel.

Ono was very interested in the photo shoot, but didn't think getting too close to the model

was a very good idea.

 

 

The babies might not have wanted to get too close, but the big girls were very interested and made sure to check out both Ryan and the wrap.

 

Ryan with her herd of alpacas hee hee

Finally one of the kids came around and wanted to find out more about the model.

Do you see how comfy the wrap looks just draped over her shoulders? That is how I like to wear it.

 

Arrow wasn't shy about getting his picture taken.

 

 

 We went over to see Maggie. She is always up to have her picture taken.

 

 

Ryan is also a photographer and a picture she took of Maggie was used for the cover of

our local paper. It was such a fun picture I thought I had to get a picture of the two of

them together.

 

 

So whether you want to wear the Tidal Wave as a wrap, scarf, bundled around your neck or even over your lap it is warm and comfy and I really enjoyed knitting it.

 

The yarn I used was Shibui baby alpaca dk.

The color I used was Mineral.  I had made a shawl with this same color a while back and it is my most worn hand knit. It goes with everything. Which I love.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's yarn choices for this knit!

 

Pattern here- Tidal Wave

Yarn here- Chelsea Yarns

joining Ginny's Yarn Along

It's My Birthday and.....

I'll buy as much yarn as I want to!

 

Yes I raided Chelsea Yarns today!!!

• 7 skeins of Shibui Cima 70% superbaby alpaca / 30% fine merino wool
• 5 skeins of Shibui Baby Alpaca 100% baby alpaca
• 2 skeins of Juniper Moon Farm Findley 50% merino / 50% silk
• 1 skein Alice 70% baby alpaca / 20% silk / 10% cashmere



Freddy had asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told him money so I can go buy yarn. He said he felt bad that he didn't have anything for me to open on by Birthday so I proudly displayed all my purchase and he was kind of overwhelmed :)

The skein above is Juno Fiber Arts Alice. It has been in Chelsea Yarn and every time I go into the store I have to hold it. It was the last skein of this type of yarn in the store and I couldn't resist buying it. It is 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere. It is heavenly!!!! I don't even know if I am ever going to knit with it. I just want to hold it because it is so soft.

 

My sister Leanne got me a skein of Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk Paints yarn and a fun soap called Tequila Sunrise (my favorite drink) from the Great Pacific Farm Shoppe.  I had opened the gift from my sister and put it back in the bag before Brady saw what I got. He asked me what I got for my present. I told him "Yarn and soap." His response was in shock, "You wanted soap for your Birthday?!" I laughed so hard. But once he smelled the soap he was sold and thought it was a good present.

Rudee and I went for a nice long run at the Reservoir. I love running and it something I rarely get to do. So it was a nice treat to be kid free and be able to run as long as I wanted to. 

 

We really wanted to go see the new Hunger Games movie tonight, but we decided instead of getting a baby-sitter we'd take the boys with us and I wanted to do something fun with them. So we went to Build-a-Bear and they made themselves stuffed animal puppies. They loved it so much! Then we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and I had the best meal of my life. I was very grateful I went for a run earlier!

 

It has been a great day and I'm looking forward to a few glasses of wine and a movie tonight.

 

I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who has purchased my Penny Infinity Scarf pattern. I have been floored with how many sales there have been. It was so much fun to design and I have been overwhelmed with the response. I released the pattern on Tuesday night and on Wednesday my pattern was #9 out of 409,997 patterns on Ravelry!!!! I was so amazed and shocked and excited all at the same time. 

 

I also have to give a huge thank you to everyone that shared, commented, and wrote about my pattern.  I was so overwhelmed with all the support over the past few days! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

 

I had so much fun designing Penny I'm going to design a few more things.  I'm so excited!

 

Okay time to sign off, but first here are a few fun Bloopers from my sister's Christmas photo shoot I took the other day.

 

 

After I gave up on getting a good picture I decided to take a picture of my newly knitted socks.

 

Which reminds me I haven't shared my favorite song lately.

Never Not Knitting Theme Song

"....she's taking pictures of socks...how sad."