Starting today, Gordon and I are responsible for the Friday blog post.
Because this is a first for us, I’ve chosen to write about another first, a shawl I knit for our dearest friend Cindy.
Last summer, while cleaning up the craft room I found a huge amount of teal blue suri alpaca yarn, which matches Cindy’s eyes. I had in inventory two skeins of black alpaca yarn from Andrew’s mill (Spring Too Fibers), and the idea of these yarns knit together would become Cindy’s Christmas present. What I didn’t know, is how long it would take me to complete the shawl. Suffice it to say, I had just finished wrapping her gift as she walked into the door of our home on Christmas eve.
I had no idea how much yarn my “blue” loom was going to consume before the shawl was finished. I used 250 yards of the black yarn and 250 yards of the teal blue suri alpaca. This didn’t include the yarn I used for the fringe. For the fringe I used a four ply yarn that I pulled apart. Cindy thinks it looks like a horse’s braided mane. What do you think?
I don’t know how the suri (the teal blue) and the yarn for the fringe matched so well. I found both yarns while tidying up the craft room. Maybe someone is trying to tell me I need to keep my craft room cleaner.
Next Friday, Donna’s black and white scarf. She is the fun loving lady in the middle of the picture.
Cliff House Alpacas 
Well the shawl is very lovely. The colours work well together and the fringe is very original and pretty. I can see how much work went into it. Did you do it all on the loom in the picture? Are you mum? How do you know how many yards you needed? have you a counter or something? So far I have only measured by weight. I would love to work out how many yards I have spun, but I don’t know how to do it.
Poor Momma had to adapt to fact that I tend to think in yardages rather than weights, because when I count the yarn off the bobbin using my niddy-noddy, that’s the number that sticks with me. I often hand her a skein of yarn and only tell her the yardage. I suspect she’s done so many projects that way, she is very good at estimating how much she’ll need without the weight.
That is as good a way as any. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your comments and questions about Cindy’s shawl. Yes, I’m the momma. I knit the entire shawl on my “blue” loom in the photo. Frankly, I had no idea how many yards I would need to complete the project. I don’t use a pattern for anything I create, I just have someone or something in mind when I get started. Cindy’s eyes are blue and the suri yarn I found started it all. I know you understand we have an abundance of alpaca yarn, fleeces and rovings so I’m at an advantage in this respect. I am going to defer your question regarding how many yards you have spun to my daughter Kirstin who is one of our spinners. I have watched Kirstin use her knitty-knotty to measure yardage. I will ask her to get back to you on this.