Trip to the Alpaca Ranch

 

Went to a local Alpaca Ranch with my mother (who snapped the above picture of me) and my knitting friend Michelle on Saturday.  The Ranch is called Sungate Alpaca Ranch and is just a few miles out of town they were having an “Open Ranch” to allow the community to come out and check out, and learning about,  their Alpaca.  They were amazing about teaching everyone about what it means to raise alpaca, so good  in fact that my mother is thinking she wants to get a couple for herself (which is FINE by me).

While there we enjoyed some Alpaca-shaped sugar cookies, made a little alpaca magnet, and shopped in their amazing little store 🙂 I am so glad that we went it was a great experience, nothing like getting up close and personal with the source of some great fiber

Here are some of the pictures that I snapped of the fun guys (I am pretty sure all these are of the males, they were more fun)

Sovak (sp?) was told that he was named after Spock’s father.

 

I think this one is Gunsmoke I bought some of his fiber, and the gray one in the back is Max, their only gray, I bought a skein of his fiber as well

They kept calling this guy “Don”…he likes to give kisses

very close, and not so great picture of Gunsmoke, he was looking for some food

This multi-colored fellow is Carlos

 

Here is the fiber that I bought, (from left to right) Roxy Hart, Maximo “Max”, and Gunsmoke

 

Hello Fall

Tomorrow marks the first day of fall and we are feeling it here in Wyoming.  Luckily the colder weather has helped with the wild fires in the area, there has been a fire ban all summer which really gotten in the way of enjoying a glass of wine in our backyard while watching a warm fire.

The colder weather is making my hand practically itch with the need to knit anything and everything, I think that is how my body prepares for the winter hibernation that is to come.  I am still in “knit down my stash” mode and so far it is working little by little.  I fished a beautiful and soft alpaca hat out of the yarn I bought at the farmers market.  The pattern is “Slouchy Bubbles” on Ravelry

Also finished is the lace tank I literally knit ALL SUMMER….and it turned out pretty small for me, it fits like a muscle tank so there are currently no pictures, but it is still hanging in my closet.

What is on the needles right now?

Well after telling myself I wouldn’t do multiple projects at once…I started casting on for multiple projects at once, I think I have two parts of my brain…the logical part, and the obsessive knitter side that wants to just knit anything and everything.

I started trying to knit myself a pair of podster mittens from Glenna C.’s Pattern on Ravelry, it did not go well…

 

I loved the yarn color variation, it is a Paton’s Kroy sock yarn, but it is has been sitting in my stash for so long I lost the tag that tells me the color way :).  Not sure if anyone can tell from this picture, but the thumb gusset instructions didn’t make a lick of since to me and the thumb and the mitten ended up WAY too big.  So I angrily frogged the whole thing and and haven’t looks at the yarn or the pattern since because I am still pouting about the whole thing.

Just a couple of days ago I picked up my DPN’s and decided to knit up some socks using the “Socks for the Deputy Headmistress” pattern, I am still on the cuff, but I am excited how they will turn out.  I am knitting them out of a cascade 220 sport weight in a light gray so that the stitches are tighter, but at the same time my gauge is a few stitches wider than that is called for, I am hoping slightly bigger than the ones from the pattern that I think were knit to fit a 5.5 size foot, and my feet are 9.5, that is the part that is a bit of a wild card.  I hope they fit, it would make me sad if they didn’t.

I also have a wide and soft scarf out of malabrigo on the needles from the Joyeux Noel pattern, and at the rate I am going, they will be done around Christmas 🙂 I tend to loose steam on large projects if you haven’t noticed, but isn’t the cabled pattern pretty?

I think that should catch everyone up for now on what I am crafting right now.  Hope to blog again very very soon.