My friends at Alta Vida Alpacas have gotten the first mill run of yarn made from their animals back. Woohoo!! It is Christmas in May! Cari Corley (of AVA) gave me samples to be knit up to help establish some critical characteristics of the yarn: mostly she is concerned with how the knitted fabric will wear, its gauge and the hand of the knitted fabric. They have two types of alpaca on the ranch, Suri and Huacaya, and the sample packages that she passed over the Starbuck’s table to me contained undyed yarn made from both alpaca types. Knit some stuff with this, she said. Like I said, Christmas in May. I quickly stuffed the bags into my knitting tote before she could take them back.
She gave me some unbelievable Huacaya yarn in a light bulky weight. We decided to knit it into a hat, and the pattern that her husband Dan chose is the Man Hat by Haven Ashley. I knitted it up in a jiffy (OK, it took an evening…) and this is what I got.
The light isn’t great on this shot because it was late at night (Hello…Midnight Knitter here!) but you can see the details of the hat. I added four rows of K1, P1 ribbing at the bottom as I wasn’t too sure about the elasticity of the yarn. As it turns out, it was not a problem at all. The yarn maintains shape really well and shows the stitch definition through a slight halo. On my head it feels like a cloud of soft warmth. Forget Man Hat; I want this hat. How about dyed a nice red? Should I add a pom pom? A crocheted flower?
There was enough yarn left over from the hat make a mitt (one, only one…) using the same stitch pattern and gauge. Here is the finished set:
Once I had made the hat (actually, I made a second hat of another run of the bulky yarn that was processed a little differently so that the two yarns could be compared to each other) and the mitt it was time to take on the other yarn that was given to me, a sport weight silky and shiny yarn made from Suri alpaca.
I steamed the lace to block it a little for the pictures and an amazing thing happened: the yarn bloomed, lost some shine, bulked out a little as it fluffed, and moved way up the softness chart.
Maybe Cari won’t make me give this stuff back.
What color should I dye my new set of alpaca accessories?
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Oh, my! Such lovely things. I’m especially taken with the Fir Cone scarf, but everything you’ve knit is making me want to crawl into my computer and hold it. 🙂
The scarf is especially yummy!! I’m pretty sad that it has stalled while waiting for more yarn.
They look so soft and luxurious, especially the scarf. I’d go a burnt orange tones for the hat and maybe a soft blue on the scarf! What a treat to get to test knit them 😃
It is! Cari has the dyes for a palette, I am looking forward to color choices.
Ooh that yarn looks a dream to knit with! I love all your projects – especially the lacy scarf.
It is really nice. I hope we sell a lot of the scarfs. 🙂
Oh my goodness! Gorgeous! I want it all! Or the hands and ability to make it. Sadly with my illness, I’ll never have the hands to do it. But I have the eyes to admire your great talent! Beautiful!
It feels wonderful! I gave the samples to Cari this weekend and the hats are in the wear-test phase.
My hands are getting worse but I’m lucky that I can still knit. Best therapy ever.
I bet it does! It looks so soft!!! I pray you can keep doing it! If I had started before I became ill, maybe it would have been different. I tried to start with large needles a few years back. But- I guess this old dog couldn’t learn a new trick- with these hands at least. 😜
I think I got lucky. I already was a knitter, and as my skin thickened I kept adapting. My doctor wants me to try yoga. My leg muscles cry out at just the thought, and my wrists are in shock. Maybe if I had started before things got so bad…
I think that is the secret. Sending gentle hugs to you!