Winter seems to have come to us a bit early this year! We had our second big snowstorm yesterday, and it kept Mom and Dad hopping.
Wow, right? Talk about a winter color palette. Dad took this picture from the tractor, while snow blowing the driveway.
Sometimes, having a super long driveway is a real pain in the neck. Good thing Dad has an awesome Mikayla hat to keep his head warm. Though, the alpacas have their wool on and they still don’t seem to approve of the snow.
Little man Tripoli is growing up, as all babies are wont to do (“…are wont to do…”? I think I’m living in the wrong century. I say good people, have you seen my monocle?).
He’s got this funny little patch of hair beneath his chin that looks like a metal player’s goatee to me.
Am I right?
In honor of Halloween (I know, I’m late) I give you pictures of Skele-paca!
Mom always objects when I call her Skele-paca. She says that Marsy looks more like Groucho Marx, which really isn’t much nicer.
What do you think?
My Aunt Geri makes most of the hats. Mom and I are very basic knitters, still using looms for the most part. We’ve been getting orders, and we always have to go through the obligatory, “Well, do you want a square-ish hat or more roundy or…what?” Rather than struggle with describing that on the phone, here’s the low down.
Yurt hat:
Knit with one color of yarn (the green and blue yarns above are variegated), these hats are super warm. They look sort of Mongolian to me. You could put a tassel on top of it as well, up to you (see the Paco hats, below).
Taos pony hat:
Named for the colors, the Taos pony hat is a variation on the yurt hat decorated with a running pony.
Paco/Flame hat:
Also the same style as the yurt hat, only decorated either with an alpaca or a pony. This hat is knit in two contrasting colors, with a brim and other decorations in the same contrast as the animal. Tassel or no tassel, up to you.
Patty hat:
A brand new hat type that matches Aunt Geri’s beautiful patty scarves. Knit using two different colors, these hats are a ton of work.
Basic brimmed stocking hat:
Mom and I make these using our rake looms. It’s a simple knit stitch, single stitch for a lacy-er hat, double stitch for something warmer. The width of the brim is up to you, as is whether or not you want a pom-pom.
Baby alpaca brimmed stocking hat:
This is a variation on the basic stocking hat that has baby alpaca yarn as a brim. This yarn is especially soft and warm, so it’s particularly nice to have over your ears and around your face.
Basic beanie:
Mom and I make these too, we use either no or a very narrow brim. Hats with no brim, as on the right, tend to curl in a very feminine way. Beanies don’t have pompoms, as a rule.
I’ve been making all sorts of crafty confessions lately. Here’s another: I knit on a rake loom. It’s not that I can’t use knitting needles, I’ve done it that way too, it’s just that for a standard double or single knit stitch, rake looms are so much easier.
While Mom and I do have a set of the Knifty Knitters above, for lace weight alpaca yarn and for particularly warm hats we use a loom that has pegs that are closer together. It makes a tighter stitch.
Looms make knitting in the round super easy. You wrap the yarn around the pegs, starting by going around the circle twice (so there are two yarn wraps around each peg). Then, using a pointy tool, you “yarn over”, pulling the bottom strand over the top strand and the peg.
I don’t have the patience for anything more complicated than that, so Aunt Geri does those orders with her needles. Mom uses the same rake loom concept on a long, not round loom to make light and airy scarves.
The sigh my bike tire makes as it goes flat, people who step on the heels of my shoes, and having to go down three flights of stairs to take the dog out are a few of my least favorite things. But more than any of those, the most agonizingly annoying thing in my privileged life, is running out of yarn with an inch of hat left to knit. I hate it. So. Much.
I know I can just skirt, wash, card, spin, and ply some more yarn, but I can’t decide if that is even a good thing. If there was no way to acquire more, I could just knit the top of the hat in different color and be like “I know this hat looks either like a snow-capped peak or something entirely more suggestive (and definitely not manly), but I was out of yarn…”
Winter has decided to smack us around a bit. They’re forecasting 4-8 inches of snow for us today and this evening. It’s hard on the animals, because on Monday it was 80 degrees F, and today it’s snowing with a forecasted low of 17 degrees F tomorrow morning. Quick weather changes like that always throw everyone off, especially the horses.
But in honor of our first serious snow storm of the season, I’m sharing with you one of my favorite yarns, “Studded Snows”. The “marketing” department (aka Mom) always vetoes my awesome yarn names by the time they make it into the store, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.
This is a special order for a friend’s sister. This particular friend has sold the scarf right off of her own neck at least three times for us! We are lucky to have her as a friend.
The yarn is spun from Mikayla’s fiber. It’s two ply, very light weight. The beads are strung onto a black silk embroidery thread, which is plied with the two alpaca singles (see here for details on spinning with beads). I use two sizes of beads, to add to the texture of the piece.
It’s a great visual right? When I tell people “I spin”, invariably, there’s a long pause. I can see the wheels in their heads turning. Most of my hippie bean eating friends (love you guys) have a visual of me “indoor cycling” on one of those bike rigs. Others probably visualize me standing in one spot spinning around like a top.
Anyway, spinners who work with sheep’s wool usually work with washed fiber. When they use unwashed fiber, it’s called “spinning in the grease”, because sheep’s wool has a ton of lanolin in it. Lanolin is colloquially called “wool fat” but it is actually a wax secreted by glands in the sheep’s skin. It helps them waterproof their coats. It is exactly as gross as it sounds to work with, but leaves your hands soft and well conditioned.
Alpacas don’t have lanolin in their fiber. It’s one of the things that makes their wool hypoallergenic. So when I’m spinning unwashed fiber, I’m not really spinning “in the grease”. It’s more like spinning “in the dirt”.
Eeeew. I was working with some of our fiber left over from last year, when Mom hadn’t started washing it for me. Thank goodness I have the wheel all set up on a table cloth I can take outside easily, but I forgot how gross it is to get all those dust (& etc.) particles air-borne. I’ll be cleaning it out of my ears for a week.
On Sunday, I spun Marcello’s fiber for the first time! It’s an order from a friend, a search and rescue guy in need of a warm, weather proof hat. Mom called before she sent the batts up, afraid that since Marcello’s color is somewhat flat, the finished product would look like, and I quote: “A dead squirrel on his head.” So I spiced it up with some of Tuscany’s fiber.
Actually, I found Marcello’s fiber easy to work with and surprisingly fluffy. It had good loft, which should add to the warmth of the hat. Tuscany’s fiber has much more crimp and length, but the two complement each other well. I spun them as a marled yarn, holding both colors at once. It was hard, since I had half as much Tuscany to work with and the two have very different characters.
The best way to describe Tuscany's fiber, as you spin and relative to Marcello, is "sticky". It clings to itself instead of slipping out of your hands.
I never spin when I’m unhappy, and when I’m spinning for someone I know and care about, I try to spin my care for them into the yarn. As I work, I think about the fun times I’ve shared with the person and who they are on a fundamental level, both good parts and bad parts.
I think about their future as well. Where will this hat be worn? What challenges will this person be facing when he has it on? If there is one thing I could wish for this person, what would it be? Then I try to spin my hope that they will overcome those future obstacles into the yarn. To me, it even feels like the character of the yarn reflects these hopes.
I’ve named this yarn “Deep Roots”. It is bulky, semi-worsted yarn, consistent, strong and warm. I spun it for a guy who is strong, but could probably use a bit of help in the consistency department. My hope for him is that throughout all his ice climbing, mountaineering, outdoorsy adventuring, he recognizes the value of deep roots.
Wow. Ok, feel free to get off the crazy train now.
The holidays are right around the corner, if you are a crafter, and I’m cranking on my special orders. Last night, I finished plying this yarn:
It’s the first finished product I’ve made that involves Tuscany’s fiber, and I rather like it. I’m just afraid I might not have enough to fill the order (and I was spinning with friends, so I completely forgot to count my yardage, but it feels light).
I think I’m going to call it “Funky Carolina Blues”. The blue is pretty subtle, especially next to the black. Brittany’s fiber has this scary ability to absorb light and color.
Cliff House Alpacas 