My plan is that no one will notice the difference, once it’s up and running again… but plans have a tendency to head off on their own.

Hang on with me, and we’ll see what really happens!

Our newest grandson arrived in a hurry, without any complications, and went home with mom the next day.  Fortunately, she had just packed for the hospital the day before, even though she expected to have to wait a week or more.  Of course, babies are notorious for not paying attention to anyone else’s plans – including our plan to have his blanket all done in time to come home.

So we punted.  I got the last bit done on the main part of the blanket the night he was born, finished off the loose ends and washed it, then dropped it off at the hospital on my way to work the next morning in plenty of time for his homecoming.  It still doesn’t have its border, but I’ll get it back soon to finish it properly.

I think it’s only fair to state that the last-minute status of this blanket is not all on my shoulders; my daughter and I spent quite some time finding just the shade of green she had in mind, then ordering the yarn in both cotton and superwash wool and wash-testing the swatches before the final decision and ordering the yarn.  In the meantime, I searched for just the right pattern.  It needed to be something that would keep me from dozing off while knitting, and I wanted it to be reversible.  I decided that a traditional tumbling blocks pattern done with different stitch textures would fill the bill, but to my surprise, couldn’t find what I was looking for!  So I designed one.  Once I get the blanket completely finished, I’ll write up the pattern and post it here, with a link from Ravelry.

Baby T and his Optical Blocks Baby Blanket

In the meantime, I’m working on his Christmas stocking.  Since it uses 12 colors of yarn, it’s not exactly a take-everywhere project, so I started a pair of socks for him, too.  And then I realized that while I was making a sock to fit his tiny foot, the stocking will be nearly large enough for him to sleep in!  Well, probably not any more, at the rate he’s growing now… I’d better finish the little socks before he outgrows them, too!

Both for the same little guy!

* * * * *

Here are a couple of views of what we saw on entering the warehouse area:

Bins full of wool

Way more than "three bags full"!

Wool expert Alex McClure explained how shipments arrive from all over this part of the country and are tracked for each individual grower, then graded for quality and sorted…

Our guide, Alex McClure

Where the grading is done

One of the grading criteria - staple length

Baler

… then baled and sent on to processors.  He was very patient, and answered all of our questions.

He had even set out a number of fleeces of varying fineness and quality for us to look at, handle, and ask even more questions about!

The whole happy group

Then, best of all, we were able to pick out and buy any fleeces we wanted!  Laura (Sugar Bunny Boulevard yarn shop proprietor) and Marsha scored the reserve champion fleece, splitting it 50/50.

A pair of happy fleece owners

One of the advantages of being the tour arranger was that I got dibs on the grand champion fleece!

My lovely, lovely wool

I think it would satisfyingly complete the cycle if I spun and knitted something from this fleece, then entered it in next year’s fair, don’t you?

* * * * *

It all started with the visit to a local alpaca breeder two years ago (Sunflower Alpaca Farm, shortly before they moved to Fort Scott, KS).  I was completely charmed by the animals, and took quite a few pictures.

L to R: Frosty, Mocha, Molly (in front), Levi (in back), Dulcie

Of course, I had to buy some wool in all the different colors!

Gorgeous colors...

Having specific motivation at last, I started spinning it in August (two years later)…

Five of the six colors: from the top, Levi, Frosty, Molly, Mocha, Taffy

Add white to those shown above, and you’ll have all the colors I had to work with.  Once I started knitting swatches, the light grey turned out to be a much greater contrast to the white than I had expected, so I blended two other colors to use in between.

With all the ripping (I probably knit enough for a third glove!) it took longer than I had hoped to finish the gloves I’d planned from the beginning.  After an all-nighter, I did get them finished just in time to check them in at the state fair.

Finished Alpaca Fair Isle gloves

I may find out tomorrow how they placed in the new ‘item-knit-of-handspun-yarn’ class, and will let you know.  But whatever happens there, I’m delighted with my first pair of gloves, and will definitely knit more!

UPDATE:  I just heard from a friend – my gloves won the class!  There was at least one other entry, and I hope the class will have even more entries next year!

*End of post*   I see that there is advertising below, at least on some views.  Please feel free to ignore it!!

* * * * *

Back in June, I decided to make the pair of Fair Isle gloves I’d been thinking about ever since I bought several colors of alpaca wool.  That seemed like a pretty do-able time frame.  Of course, life gets in the way, and this year I can easily blame the record-setting heat wave.  We have been spending quite a bit of extra time the past 6 weeks or so trying to keep our rabbits from getting too hot.  We don’t have a hope of keeping them actually cool in temperatures up to 112 degrees, but if we can relieve the heat stress and keep them alive, we’ll be satisfied.  So far, so good – but it means watering four times a day (eighty-some-odd cages), and usually putting frozen water bottles out for the ones who need it in the afternoon.

Anyway, I didn’t get much spinning done for a while.  Fortunately for me, gloves don’t take a whole lot of yarn, and Fair Isle knitting goes fast because it’s so much fun!  I have just finished spinning and chain-plying the five small skeins of colored alpaca, and am ready to start on the white.

L - R: Taffy, Mocha, Molly, Frosty, Levi

These skeins range from 24 to 35 yards.  When I took the picture, the dark russet from the alpaca named Mocha had just been skeined, but not washed.  Perhaps you can tell that it hasn’t ‘bloomed’ as the others have.   They were all spun from the raw wool, which was quite clean and almost completely free of vegetable matter (VM – hay, grass, whatever).  The three colors on the left are the darker shades, the two on the right (plus white) will be the lighter background shades.

The raw white alpaca fleece looked very dingy, so I washed it first.  This was the first time I had tried adding washing soda (Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda) – and I was very, very impressed with the results.  A small amount of the wool washed with Dawn wasn’t satisfactorily clean.  Dawn is great for grease, but alpaca fleece doesn’t have the lanolin that sheep’s wool does.  After that wash, it just looked wet and dusty.    But after adding the washing soda, it practically sparkled!

It will require more preparation than the hand teasing I was able to use for the colored wool, though.  So this will be the first real test of my refurbished drum carder.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I will also knit some a swatch or two for gauge, then make sure I choose a main design that will fit on the back of the gloves, make several other design decisions, cast on and hope to get them finished in a month!

Filed under: My Projects, Spinning Tagged: alpaca, Fair Isle, gloves, handspun, Kansas State Fair ]]> http://prairiespinner.com/2011/08/07/fair-project-alpaca-fair-isle-gloves/feed/ 0 prairiespinner Alpaca Colors http://prairiespinner.com/2011/07/31/fun-with-qr-codes/ http://prairiespinner.com/2011/07/31/fun-with-qr-codes/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:17:29 +0000 prairiespinner http://prairiespinner.com/?p=1327 ]]> You’ve probably seen them around lately – those square (most often) black-and-white thingies on advertisements and products?  Well, here’s one -

It’s called a QR code.  QR stands for “quick response”, which isn’t actually too helpful in explaining anything.  It’s really just a code meant to be read by a smart phone that will send you directly to a website (among other things).

They can hold a whole lot more information than a simple barcode, and are said to be accurately readable even if 30% of the code is obscured.

So what does that mean for you?  If you have a smart phone, presumably with a camera, and you have a data plan, all you need to do is install a free QR code-reading app, and you’re ready to go.  Just find a handy QR code, open your app, and center the code in the viewfinder square on your phone display.  You’ll probably see some little blinking dots reading the code, and then it will jump to a display with the website’s URL.  Tap it, and there you are!  The one above goes to my Delicious bookmarks.   You may or may not be interested in them, but I figured it was a safe place to send you.  Of course, it’s ideal if the target website is mobile-friendly!

QR codes can also send a text message or email message, share a phone number, open a map, display some text, and any number of other little tasks.   How about this one?

QR code for sample text

And since they’re readable even if incomplete, they can be ‘branded’ with a small graphic image…

Love this juxtaposition of old and new technology!

This one goes to my LibraryThing catalog.  Obviously, I made my own QR codes here.  It’s ridiculously easy.  Just go to a QR code generator like QRstuff or BeQRious and choose the kind of code you want to create.  Click the button and your custom code will be ready to download!  You can save it as-is, or open it in photo editing software.  The next big decision is what you’re going to put it on… some people have even knitted readable QR codes!

Seriously, though, what could this possibly have to do with knitting or fiber?  Well, I’m just waiting to see QR codes on yarn ball bands – instead of wondering if a yarn I have in my hand is available in other colors, how about scanning its QR code and going straight to the manufacturer’s web page for that yarn?  I could SEE any other colors, and decide about special ordering something my LYS didn’t carry – even if they didn’t happen to have a color card for that yarn!

Or maybe next time you give a knitted gift, you could attach a tag with a QR code for the care instructions… or maybe a personal message for the recipient.

Like knitting, the possibilities are endless – so go explore!

Cross-patch, draw the latch
Sit by the fire and spin.
Take a cup and drink it up,
And call the neighbors in.

Two or three weeks ago, I found that I was feeling rather like that cross-patch.  You know how it is; unhappy events seem to come in clusters.   So I took a bit of the cure and did a little spinning to soothe my ragged psyche.

Having a couple of hours alone in the quiet house, I oiled my spinning wheel and dug out one bag of the raw alpaca fleece I wanted to start with.  (Can it really have been nearly two years ago that I bought it?!?)  This color is called ‘rose-grey’, and is one of several colors that I’m planning to use for a pair of gloves.

The fleece is very clean and free of vegetable matter didn’t need a wash  – I just pulled some out of the bag, teased the locks a bit, and spun it tip-end first into a semi-worsted fine singles.  It was truly a joy and comfort to watch the yarn form out of the handfuls of fluff,  almost as if it was happening without my intervention… such is the ancient, everyday magic of spinning.

Rose grey alpaca on the bobbin

After one trip across the bobbin, I made myself a cup of tea and contemplated the alpaca.  I had known the minute I saw all those colors that I’d have to get some of each, and some elegant stranded or Fair Isle gloves seemed to be just the project to make the most of this lovely fiber.  Time now for some test-plying to see if the yarn I’d been spinning would fit the project… so I pulled a yard or so off the bobbin, folded it over twice, and let it twist into a three-ply.

I was delighted!  It’s fine and strong, and has just a little halo – and the color is a beautiful mid-range, warm grey.  I had to see what a little wash would do to the three-ply, so I pulled off more of the singles and let another length twist around itself.  After washing, that few inches of yarn really doesn’t look any different from the first bit, which is just fine – I think I’m on my way!  And look, I even got myself organized enough to do a sample card so the next time I sit down to spin, I’ll have a target to try to match.

Samples all neatly taped to an index card for reference

Oh, and the ‘cup’ prescribed in the nursery rhyme?  Earl Grey tea, of course!  And if I didn’t call the neighbors in, at least I was restored to my usual equilibrium, and fit for human company again by the time my family returned home.

But the big news for me was:

Barnes' Bryson, Best Of Breed!

He also went on to win 2nd Reserve In Show (or in other words, 3rd place in the Best In Show competition).  I was very proud of him!

* * * End of post * * *

My first Finished Object was actually twice-knit yarn.  I love the subtle sparkles of the silver filament in this yarn, and thought I had chosen the perfect pattern to show it off.  But after it was all finished, I found that I was avoiding wearing it; it wasn’t a yarn + pattern marriage made in heaven, after all.  I still like Starry Starry Night, but a finer yarn with more drape would be a much better match.

Starry Starry Night - now gone with the wind!

So I ripped it out, and chose a more traditional triangle shawl pattern, Shaelyn.  It’s actually quite an easy pattern, and made for good travel knitting.  (I highly recommend a project on circular needles for airplane knitting – you can’t drop one of those down the side of the seat.  Go ahead.  Ask me how I know.)  The pattern is for a small, almost scarf-sized shawl, so I added another lace pattern repeat – and ran out of yarn!

Starry Shaelyn with roses

Some patterns look just fine edged in another color, or with stripes added in, but this wasn’t one of them.  I rummaged through my leftover sock/fingering weight yarns, and came up with three that looked pretty close.  I’ll spare you the agonizing details, but can tell you that a very similar yarn construction in a fairly close color is far better than a yarn of a different yarn construction (loosely spun and plied in this case) in a nearly exact color match.  That little tip may save you quite a bit of time some day.  It took me 5 tries with 3 different yarns to come to this conclusion.  I alternated the two yarns in the last lace repeat, and am still amazed with the success of the result.  Even I can hardly tell which yarn was used for which rows!  And yes, I have worn it several times already.

Shaelyn edge detail

Next up is a thank-you project – Annis, another shawlette/scarf.  I’ve had my eye on this pattern for a while, and found the perfect excuse to knit it.  The yarn hunt ended with Ella Rae Lace Merino in a semi-solid charcoal color.  It’s listed as a blue/natural colorway on the site, but the skein I chose was definitely darkish grey!  The pattern knitted up quickly, and was my introduction to nupps (pronounced noops), an Estonian technique for adding a bit of texture to lace.

Annis shawl

The lighting for this photography was a little challenging, but you can see something of how fluid the shawl is!  And the lace pattern is easier to see in the shadow picture, although I would have liked it a little sharper.  Well, I may have another go at taking a few more pictures, but it’s all ready to package up and send off to the unsuspecting recipient.

Annis shadow

Next time, a bit of non-shawl lace…

Lace edging

Margit J. of Minnesota ran across my post about Beverly, and since she was doing some cleaning and sorting, offered me the bag of items she had so carefully kept.  Margit had attended Knitters’ Camp in the early 80′s, where she met Beverly (not to mention Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen).  The samples and letters from Beverly had been sent to a Minnesota yarn shop owner, had been passed along to a mutual friend, then on to Margit.

And now, these treasures of knitting history have joined my own little collection of samples!  The wonderful thing about this group is that we not only see the products of Beverly’s knitting and spinning skill, but have her own description of what she did, how she did it, and what she was thinking.  Simply fascinating.

I’ll be writing more about this soon, but as a teaser, I thought I’d share some previews.  Thank you again, Margit!

Fiber, yarn and knitted samples

Incredibly soft merino

Unique projects and hand-written notes