Norwegian Mittens in Paca de Seda

Hellllloooooooo! I've missed you, my bloggy friends! I was so sick for the past few weeks, too sick to compose entertaining, informative blog posts, too sick to take care of my home/family/life, heck, even too sick to knit (gasp!)

I was not too sick to browse ravelry though. Wow! We've got some talented members of our Alpaca Yarn Company circle out there! I want to introduce you to some of my new friends & share with you the projects they've made. I've been inspired to queue a stole out of sock yarn, a lace shawl in crimson (I so would have gone with a pastel normally), a fitted sweater and many, many more things.

My current favorite lovely is a pair of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Norwegian Mittens from the book Knitting Around. Made by our friend Amy in the Limeade and Purple Passion colorways of Paca de Seda, our Alpaca/Silk blend. Aren't they stunning! Amy reports that they are soft & smooshy, possibly not the most practical things in the world, but we think they are way up there on the WOW factor scale.

If you would like to share your projects with us, be sure to give us a shout here or on ravelry. We would love to see them!

Spinner - Winners!

Big fuzzy congratulations right off the bat to Beth & her group of York County 4-H spinners, The Fast and the Fibrous!


They garnered second place honors at this year's Fleece to Shawl contest at the PA Farm Show!!! Not only were they the first off the loom, but their shawl sold for $500 at auction! What a wonderful accomplishment -- we are so proud of all of you!

(Beth would be the one without the hat)

Our friend, YarniMarni once again did an amazing job of live blogging during the competition. Visit her site to find out exactly why are girls are in sailor suits & be sure to go give her some comment-love and see the loads of fantastic photos from both the youth Fleece-to-Shawl competition and the open-age Sheep-to-Shawl competition including the pics of the shawl that brought an amazing $3400 at auction! Hats off to all the competitors, team captains, parents and judges for making it such wonderful day. (Angela inserts a special shout-out to her friend, judge Susan Withnell & wants to know how Susan is coming along with her inner-wonky)

If you want to unleash a little of your inner-wonky, you can spin, knit or crochet a piece for an upcoming art exhibit called The Milkweed Project. Visit Stitches and Sticks for more information. I'm thinking of sending in some test crochet & knit samples that I've done over the past few months. And maybe some handspun Paca-Puf in the white color with a little fawn heather blended in as well. Yummy!

Forest Path KAL

Here in South-Central PA we woke up this morning to another of our lovely snow/sleet/freezing rain days. Most of the country gets snow or rain. We seem to live along the perfect "rain-snow" line, where the term "wintery mix" is something we hear weekly from December till March. The bright side of this is that it makes for some lovely pictures. This was what greeted me this morning:I don't know a lot about plants, so I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's one of my azalea bushes. I do know a fair amount about pretty though and these icy days sure do provide us with plenty of pretty.

Days like this are perfect for snuggling in and not moving except to go get more tea and to maybe put another log on the fire. This is also the perfect time for lace knitting. The outside world in on hold and you can devote yourself to a few hours of dedicated knitting time. With that in mind, we thought it would be the perfect time to tell you about a Knit-a-Long going on for the Forest Path Stole.

This is one of our most stunning lace patterns. Its unique construction and varied sections will keep you interested throughout the process. Joining in the KAL will give you support and encouragement plus there are loads of lace knitting experts who can hold your hand along the way. Originally featured in the Interweave Knits Summer 2003 issue, this stole was also selected to be part of the book "Best of Interweave Knits: Our Favorite Designs from the First Ten Years". The pattern can also be purchased online.

So, if (like me) you've always wanted to knit this stole but were afraid to jump in, the start of 2009 seems like a perfect time to warm up those needles and join in the fun.

Sharing the good stuff

Okay, so it's the first Monday of the new year and the time for slacking off is officially over. Not that Tasha & Beth have been slacking -- they've been working like maniacs getting ready for TNNA and The PA Farm Show, both coming up in the next two weeks. I however have been slacking just a little bit from my bloggy-type duties. However, rest assured, I will make it up to you this week with all sorts of fun and informative postings.

It occurred to me that I never even shared with you our favorite fibery Christmas gifts. Mine was such an easy decision for Beth, I may as well just have grabbed a sharpie and written "I want this della q bag for Christmas" on my forehead. When we went to Stitches East with our LYS, Uncommon Threads, I just kept going on and on (and on) about the della q bags we had brought with us to sell. I especially fell in love with this one and wouldn't you know, Beth was so smart, she managed to sneak it out of the 'return' pile after the show and it magically appeared under the Christmas tree for me. I LOVE it!!! It's the perfect size for a pair of socks or the Suri Chic Jabot that I am getting ready to cast on using some Suri Elegance yarn that Santa brought. Uncommon Threads has lots of other fantastic della q bags in stock, along with those nifty new interchangeable needle cases that everyone is raving about. Give them a call and they will be happy to hook you up with the best goodies.

Tasha had an excellent Christmas. For starters she got the hottest spinning wheel on the market today, the Schacht Ladybug. I'll admit it, I might have a tiny bit of wheel envy (just don't tell my Lendrum DT, I wouldn't want her to get jealous). Tasha says the ladybug spins like a dream. All I know is that it has the cute factor down pat. I love the idea of the built in lazy-kate. That's the one feature that my Lendrum doesn't have. Maybe I can convince Tasha to bring it into the warehouse for some show & tell next week.

When I asked Beth about her best fibery Christmas gift she laughed and told me that her family seems convinced that she needs to spend more time in the kitchen. Her gifts were all kitchen related. Nice gifts, but yeah, they are still not fibery fun. Beth did however get to play Santa in the best kind of way. Remember how I said Tasha had an excellent Christmas? You haven't even heard the most awesome part. Tasha's husband made arrangements to have Beth deliver a new alpaca on Christmas morning. No, he did NOT go under the tree, but Beth said the look on Tasha's face was priceless when she was drug out to the barn by her family to see her newest pet, Justin Time. Justin is quite the handsome man & is the perfect addition to Tasha's family.

We hope you had the most wonderful of holidays and we look forward to an exciting 2009!

2008 Year End Thoughts

We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying this perfect crafting weather that has swept across the US & Canada. We realize the blog has been a bit quiet; we were struck by the sickies and the hustle and bustle of the holidays last week. This week we are in full-fledged TNNA & PA Farm Show prep mode. Tasha has been dyeing up a storm for the farm show. Angela has been working on the TNNA displays. Beth's mom has been working the skein winder and making up the new Paca-Peds color cards. And Beth has been working on some new patterns, new garments for display, new advertising, cool new Swizzle stuff and lots more -- it's all new-new-new! This has been a big year for us at The Alpaca Yarn Company. We added new yarns and some new colorways for our old favorites. We added Angela, our new marketing person. We've started playing on ravelry, plurk & twitter. We've made a ton of friends here on our new blog. See, all new-new-new; and it's only going to get better in 2009!

Look for us on Facebook & MySpace soon. Be sure to stay tuned to the blog for more features, more free patterns, more fun contests and more exciting new product updates. And whether your passion is spinning, crocheting or knitting, we look forward to you sharing your stories with us throughout the new year.

Name That Yarn Contest comes to a close

We want to start by sincerely thanking each and every one of you who posted color suggestions to the paca-blog over the past two weeks. It has been so much fun for us, getting to know you, reading your blogs, seeing your raverly projects and in some cases seeing how those minds of your work. Frankly, a few of you frighten us, but we suppose since you are yarn fans we will look the other way.

So, without further ado, I give you our final two winners!!!

Color number 9 will heretofore be know as.... Kaleidosock! What a colorful, expressive and all around great name! Congrats to Dana! p.s. we love your citrus peel scarf! How fun!!!

And last, but certainly not least, our final winner is OneSheep with the name My Darkest Secrets. What a deliciously naughty sounding name. That just makes me want to take a skein of paca-peds and knit up a very long, very luxurious set of lace stockings. Yowza!

Again, thank you all so much for playing. Be sure to stay tuned for more fun contests coming up after the new year as well as more patterns, profiles and general frivolity. We appreciate you!!!

FREE PATTERN: Ridged Handwarmers

Here it is, part two of our special holiday free pattern, Tasha's Ridged Handwarmers. Just perfect for the breezy office or when you need your fingers free. And when you use Swizzle, you will need just one skein to make both these and the beanie. Yay!!!

Ridged Handwarmers

LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE
Advanced Beginner

SIZE
Handwarmers: 6” wide

MATERIALS

SWIZZLE by The Alpaca Yarn Company 100% hand dyed alpaca 3.5 oz (100g) hank = approx 215 yds per 50 gm ball Shown in #03 Sugar Rose – 1 hank

Needles: US #5 (3.75 mm) 16” circular and double point needles

Notions: Stitch Markers, Tapestry Needle

Gauge: 6 st per inch in Ridge pattern

Techniques & Special Stitch Instructions:

Ridge Pattern

Round 1: * [P1, K2], repeat from * around.

Round 2: Repeat round 1.

Round 3: Repeat round 1.

Round 4: Purl every stitch.

Handwarmers:

Cast on 45 sts on DP needles. Divide evenly onto 3 needles. Join into a round. Work in Ridge pattern for 5”.

Thumb Opening

Work in pattern for 20 sts. BO next 5 sts, continue in pattern to the end of the round. Work next row in pattern until thumb opening (20 sts). Cast on 5 sts and continue in pattern until end of round. Continue working in pattern until 3-4” from thumb opening or desired length. BO all sts. Weave in ends.