My knitting has taken a back seat to a sundry of family concerns and events. Today I decided to hop back in the drivers seat.....
This change for me was ignited by the pure and simple act of binding off...a.k.a.... finishing a project. This project has a little story and one that I haven't shared until now.
After moving from Chicago to Cincinnati, I found a nearby alpaca farm that captured my heart. No lie....love at first sight. It was this visit, when I purchased the yarn for the just-off-the-needles project. You probably have guessed that the the yarn is 100% alpaca and its lovely. The yarn is named from the animal it was sheared from, "Serin"......I'm getting ahead of myself.
The farm is the Eagle Bend Alpaca Farm and Yarn Shop in Burlington Kentucky. The farm has a bounty of alpacas, some sheep, gorgeous chickens, 3 Scotties (2 black, 1 white....they look like salt and pepper shakers) and a cat. The shop is in a small building/house at the front of the property, but you can't help but to be drawn to the closest barn and pasture near the shop where there are some alpacas and a pen next to the shop with chickens. Before I got to the front porch of the shop, I was greeted by overjoyed Scotties and the owner of the farm and shop, Linda. I couldn't have felt more welcomed.
Eagle Bend sells both commercial yarns and yarns milled from there own animals. Their alpaca yarn comes in a variety of weights, but I was thrilled when I found the section that held the thinner weights. These were in-between a fingering and a lace weight..... I guess that would make it a light fingering. It was the color caught my eye, its kind of a cross between a dusty lavender and a taupe. I don't normally lean toward the purple family, but it had an antique-ish feel to it that I couldn't resist. I pulled it off the shelf and Linda quickly apologized for it and said that she was trying her hand at dying and it was a mistake. "Mistake?", I said, "I love it!". Linda said I had made her day, but I think it was my day that was made. Linda said that she was trying dye on yarn from one of her tawny colored alpacas, which accounted for the lack of clarity of the colorway. To me it was perfect.
Until now, I have never worked with alpaca yarn straight off the farm. The experience.....well....its glorious! After winding up a ball, I started swatching and came up with a few designs I liked, but with a jury vote decided on a chevron lace design interrupted with a mini diamond motif. The jury were the lovely ladies from the Eagle Bend Happy Knitter Knit Club.
Inspiration can come from anything, anywhere, anytime.....it can be the fiber/yarn, the animal, the color, the motif, the audience.........OR its just my excuse to start a new project.
Since I started from the end and jumped to how it all began....in the next post, I will share details about the completed pashmina style wrap.
Until next time....
Happy Knitting!
what a beautiful stitch pattern!
Posted by: Beth G. | May 27, 2018 at 07:46 AM