Icicles in Alpaca

In Peru, a couple of years back, I purchased some handspun alpaca while in Cusco in Peru from here

Do I look happy or what?  I'm suspecting that the yarn is in the bag.

Here is the label

Consa from Pitumarca handspun it. It's two ply. Cost, if I'm not wrong…$16.oo.  OMG. I might have to name my next cat Consa.  Consa probably speaks Quechua. My handwriting is on the left of the above label, I guestimated the yardage. Here is a map showing where Pitumarca is, southeast of Cusco.

So, I had to figure out what to do with it. Sometimes yarn must sit and pickup the vibes at my house before it knows what it's meant for.

A while back I saw a pattern in Knitters for Susana IC's Icicles Shawl.

It seemed to be right for this yarn.

I added green toned beads at the border.  I love the natural striations of the yarn.


So it was finished up last week.  Here's a lousy photo that is out of focus, but it gives an idea of the drape and potential.

An aside: there was leftover yarn so I knit Anne's "Spiraluscious."  The lace in both projects shows the yarn to advantage…

(Yes, sometimes there's the iPhone photo and sometimes the Nikon…neither are that grand this time 'round, though)

My church is having an exhibit of art done by those who attend.

On Saturday we hung the artwork.  I was pleased that my shawl was hung underneath a lovely oyster wreath done by my friend Cheryl; lovely natural tones from two parts of the world together…ignore the plastic hangers, please…)

If You're Cold, Put on a WOOL Sweater

My Mom went to Scandinavia in 1999.  She visited Tanum in the north of Bohuslan on the west coast of Sweden.



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Tanum is the location of the Vitlycke Museum, location of bronze age rock carvings or if you want three syllables, "petroglyphs."

(They all kinda look like JarJarBinks, no?)

A clever knitter and designer created sweater patterns from them.

And a clever Mom knew to buy some. You know, while Brenda says "if you're cold, put on a sweater"…my Mom says "if you're cold, put on a WOOL sweater." I guess that in the Bronze age, one would say, "if you're cold, put on a FUR!"

There was a hat, too.  She also bought a kit for me to knit for my little (at the time) sons (in the darker gray)

And then…some folks who I am related to, including the woman who is smart about wool sweaters...showed up for Christmas this year

(note the hat)

So I noted the label in Mom's sweater and did a web search

I found the designer!  She is Cecilia Bergil of Goteborg. Here is Cecilia's blog:

http://tollasstickning.blogspot.com

Cecilia's blog is in Swedish but her English is great too.

She has kits for sale if you'd like one.  Or better yet, go to Vitlycke and buy one in person…!

Merry Christmas and Thoughts on Bernat's Classic Santa Stockings

Once Upon a Time…

Grandma Helen knit the her three grandchildren Chistmas stockings

here's mine

My sister decided to knit the same pattern for her family.  She knit one for her two children and for her husband, and kept her Grandma Helen original.  Santa's beard on hers had disintegrated.  The beard I believe was knit from an angora blend.  Here's my sister's, pre- repair

(This was very interesting to me as an acquaintance of mine just last month said that she herself had a classic hand knit holiday stocking in which the angora beard had disintegrated.  Must've been a feature from the original pattern with suggested yarns…)

The pattern was apparently published by Bernat in  1950 and re-released in the 70's.  

My sister tracked it down and bought a copy somewhere.  Heaven knows why Bernat isn't still publishing it as it seems that these are lovely vintage knitting that folks might spend money for...

I tried using duplicate stitch to fix the stocking, but holes were too big.  So, I watched a youtube video on darning and tried my best.  The replacement yarn?  That sturdy and rugged addictive Crack
Kid Silk Haze. 

Here's the repair…not great but Santa's beard should stay untact for a couple more years!

Where does your tee shirt come from? or…thoughts on not-local

A bit of diversion from my usual…Where exactly does your tee shirt come from?

I was listening to NPR the other morning and they were airing a Planet Money segment

http://seedtoshirt.tumblr.com

They made their own tee shirt from "scratch." You really should watch this.  Basically the voyage is:  cotton grown in Mississippi, to India for spinning, then either to Bangla Desh or Guatemala for sewing, then back to the US.


Here is some natural cotton from Peru…it grows there too.  I love the green tone

It was a gift when we visited  a cotton packaging operation in Lima, here are some bales

I haven't yet tried to spin it…hopefully I won't need a charka a la Ghandi…they've been spinning cotton in India for a LOOOONG time

but who doesn't need a new spinning tool?  Here's a cute contemporary charka from Ashford

OK, diverted by fiber tools... anyway..

So how do tee shirts and their components get from continent to continent?

Interestingly, I was in Savannah about 2 months ago…on River Street with my sis and her family at Octoberfest.  A big Maersk container ship was cruising out of the port.  My brilliant sister googled the name of the ship on her cell and was able to see that it was going from Savannah to Houston.  Houston?  I though these ships only went overseas?  Did you know that you can track the path of a container ship at the Maersk website?  Did you know that Maersk is a Danish company?  Here's a cool site where you can see where their fleet is. And did you know that the Maersk seven pointed star represents the seven seas?  And did you see Captain Phillips?  I was shocked at the small size of the crew…


So, doesn't all of this international shipping crap
er… stuff make you happy that you can know exactly where your hand knit or crocheted sweater, scarf, shawl, mitts or even "tee shirt" came from?   The alpaca farm up the road?  The sheep farm in Vermont?  The angora in the back yard? The cotton grown down the road? And you know…how many cotton tee shirts do you or I really need?  Could we actually make our "tee shirts" local?

Here's one tee shirt that I really do need (from Wild Fibre in Savannah; I have a pink one too)…but where did it come from, exactly?

Well, the label revealed the final step…"hecho en Guatemala."  The brand is "Bella"…I do like the cap sleeves, won't wear  a tee shirt without a lady-like cut...


Ya know, I could have gotten a degree in textile engineering…..Roseanne Rosannadanna would say that I have alotta questions in this post. Would she say "follow the money"?  

Old School

So an old friend of mine dropped by last week,  that was lovely as he and his wife don't live nearby.


He mentioned that he still had a sweater that I knit for him some years ago (!)  I couldn't  believe that he still had it!   He was most gracious and said that it was one of only two handknit sweaters that he owned.  Of  course, I asked him to send me a photo.  Here it is

I could not recall the pattern or the yarn although I suspected that it was Candide yarn…I knit at least a couple of sweaters from this yarn back in the 70's.

I located the pattern quickly at Ravelry

Umm it's the Candide Raglan Herringbone pullover. 

Apparently, according to Ravelry, this tough, long wearing yarn is no longer available through Reynolds, but is still being produced by Briggs and Little under the name  "Atlantic."  

"Back in the day" as some would say, great yarn would last a while...

Southeastern Animal Fiber Fest

I went to SAFF in Asheville last month.  I don't have alot of this type of event where I live...it's too hot here for anything but hair sheep that shed when the weather turns warm, save Carrie and Kurt in Hampton SC.  (However, someone I know spotted a local alpaca, but I haven't seen it).  So, SAFF was pretty darned fun.  Here are some views:

ALPACAS

LLAMAS?

ANGORAS

Yes, it's true, I want one.  I got to hold one …  puffy soft…I really seriously thought about coming home with one...

And, my friend Tamara…who led me down the garden path to indigo dyeing, which is truly a gateway addiction leading to more home chemistry experiments with natural dyes

I actually got to spin on this fabulous great wheel. An anonymous bystander actually talked me through the process…thank you, who ever you are!  This wheel was made by Lyle Wheeler of LyleWheelerchairmaker.com.  I want one

Vendor mart…serious fun…can't wait till next year!