Alpaca Breeding, Fiber and Llama Treks
Can't you just see crias pronking through the fields decked out like this? I love Kristen Nicholas' beautiful knitting and farm site, and this pattern is definitely going to be in the works... one for our lap dog Munchie and one for the next especially photogenic alpaca cria that comes along! I recently purchased a Kristen Nicholas pattern for her Quarters Cap, and if this one is anywhere near as nice and fun, I'm in for a treat.
It's that time of year again that I love (officially starting tomorrow!), the transitional season of fall. I love the fall wildflowers, the hint of color on the trees, the bucks in velvet (the young one above should be quite majestic in the next year or two), and the cool nights. 
This is a purse that I knitted and felted from alpaca and wool a few years ago. I was making a lot of these then, and they were literally flying off the shelves. It finally hit me that the colors in this one were just a bit much for most people (including me!) I decided to challenge myself to re-dyeing it, and was pretty pleased when this is what came out of the dyepot!!!! (I soaked it in water, then overdyed it with a greyish and orange mixture). It will be fun to see whether or not it sells this fall!
Despite having many projects in the works, I was completely entranced by the scarf project that I saw here the other day on The Yarn Harlot's blog. After looking at most of her links and then dozens of versions on Ravelry, I had to cast on immediately and I've had the knitting in my hands nearly every waking minute since. The pattern calls for Noro Silk Garden and I combined it with some of our dark grey alpaca yarn. I had honestly never knit a scarf in the K1, P1 rib stitch, and I adore the way it looks like stockinette but with no front and back sides.
Noro is an incredible yarn which comes in different high-quality fiber blends (Silk Garden has silk, kid mohair, and lamb's wool), but the neatest part is how the yarns change colors in very long, gradual repeats. You can find more photos and the complete instructions here. I can't wait to knit some socks with the pattern that I found here using Noro sock yarn, but I need to do some more scarves first! (Pssttt... they're for Christmas!)
(This is one of my favorite color transitions).
With little time these days for handspinning on my wheel and a good demand for premium alpaca yarn, I was thrilled to get a new shipment of yarn this week that I had spun at a US mill for our own use and resale. We are finding that knitters are eager for top quality alpaca, and we certainly have the means to produce it! I love dyeing and handpainting the lighter colors, and got started immediately on some suri:
Having raised alpacas for nearly 14 years and being a knitter myself, I know that people want yarn that is SOFT (fine) and CLEAN (density helps in this regard, as does the farm environment) with very few to no straight fibers (uniformity). Some love natural colors, others like dyed and I personally love working with multi-colored yarns. People are also demanding USA-produced yarn! I didn't used to think that that the market would bear this out, but I was proven wrong when I first offered millspun yarn directly from OUR own Kentucky alpacas and it sold quickly, despite a higher pricetag than imports in the yarn stores.
