22 February 2013

More Alpaca


Remember that black cherry alpaca from the last post? I have more of this alpaca but in a different colorway. Hand painted yarn is tricky stuff because the skeins don't always match up. You can see this in the first photo.  Just look at the differences in that yarn. Oh my.

I knew I wanted to knit a side-to-side rectangular vest using this alpaca, and remembering what happened with the black cherry alpaca I am adding a fingering weight brown wool to the alpaca and knitting with a doubled stand of yarn. The fingering weight combined with the DK weight of the alpaca is giving me a worsted weight yarn when combined. Here is about 3/4ths of the back of the vest. If you study it, you can see the various skeins of alpaca, but it is what it is. *shrug*


This is the last of the alpaca and I do believe I'll have enough left from this vest for a pair of mittens and possibly a hat.

Now, here's the other problem. That brown wool I bought to combine with the alpaca? Well I totally had a *DOH* moment when I ordered. I thought that because there are 10 skeins of alpaca then I needed 10 skeins of the brown wool. That sounds logical, right? Wrong. The alpaca has 110 yards in a skein and the brown wool has 200 yards in a skein. I bought too much. I wonder if I could get another vest from the leftovers of the brown wool?

What's on your needles?

5 comments:

  1. It surely is knitting up pretty! I know what you mean about matching up hand dyed skeins!

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  2. It's like you speak another language - but the work is pretty *s*

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  3. Anonymous5:09 PM

    I'm not nearly the experienced knitter you are but I love alpaca yarn which I used for my Reader's Wrap I knitted. I will definitely use alpaca again. First I gotta' finish up what I have on hand.

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  4. At least you didn't run short of the brown, which would be my fear.

    The vest is looking great! I can't distinguish the different skeins once it is knitted.

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  5. Your vest is going to be gorgeous! I'm sure you won't have any problem finding a great pattern for your extra brown.

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