So much alpaca fleece!!!

It happened guys, alpaca fleece galore!

Beth and I each bought 3 small fleeces of our own, then we bought a few more to split. I'm researching drum carders and spinning wheels so I can start making this gorgeous fleece into yarn! I enjoy my drop spindle, but with this much fleece I would be spinning til the cows come home! Any carder or wheel recommendations?

I wish you could feel the fleeces...they are so so so soft.

Pure alpaca joy!

Who loves alpacas?!

Ever want to get your husband's attention? Tell him you want to buy an alpaca.

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Long story short, I met a woman on the LA Yarn Crawl who owns 8 alpacas and she sells their fleece. My initial thought was, "I would love to have a herd of alpacas!". Turns out you don't even need to live on a farm to own alpacas - you can agist them at neighboring farms!

However, agistment is kinda pricey, and we don't live on a farm [yet]. So, I've decided to just buy a couple raw alapaca fleeces to process into roving and yarn. My friend, Beth, and I are going to try our hand at making our own drum carders so we can process the fleece quicker than using hand cards (which would take forevvvver with that much fiber). Then I'd love to try dying the white alpaca fibers with natural dyes, and eventually spin it into yarn. I have a drop spindle, but I have a feeling I'll be investing in a spinning wheel one of these days.

I'm going to buy one grey fleece and two white fleeces. Since I won't be buying an alapaca anytime soon, I've named the fleeces instead: Gandolf (the grey fleece), and Mary Kate and Ashley (the two white fleeces). I'm sure they'll keep me busy until I can someday have my very own alpacas. :)

Yarn...and more yarn!

This may be last-minute, but better late than never! If you live in the Los Angeles area, you must go check out Itza Knitterie today before they close! It officially closes at the end of today (8pm I believe) and boy oh boy do they have some amazing deals going on.

See all this 100% Icelandic wool?! Each pack of 8 is $8 - only $1 per skein! It's the deal of a lifetime, folks.

Everything in the entire shop is 50% off, including these amazing handmade knitting needles in size US36! I've been wanting to make an oversize throw like this one for a while.

And I had to buy some of this baby llama yarn - so soft. I figured red and white are Scandinavian colors and I could make something Christmas-y with it.

I certainly have a lot of yarn right now. Many projects to come!

Swedish Cowl - take one

I'm making progress on my newest knitting project, my Swedish cowl. It's almost complete - just two more sections and it'll be done!

I'm excited to share the pattern with you all once it's done! I made the yellow stripes in seed stitch to give it some texture and I really like how it looks. I was hoping I could get away with only using one skein of each color, but alas, I ran out of the cream. Thankfully, Ryan was a doll and went to the knitting shop where I bought it (A Major Knitwork) and picked me up another skein this week after his classes. Isn't he just the best?! 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

New Yarn

A couple weekends ago I ventured all over LA to participate in the LA Yarn Crawl with my fellow knitters. It was a blast and I came away with some awesome yarn. I did break my rule of buying yarn without a pattern to go with it...but I'm sure I'll come up with something for these lovely colors. They're Borecco's Maya yarn - a lightweight cotton and alpaca blend, and I'm in love.

I'm making another cowl pattern to knit with this blue and yellow yarn - it will be my Swedish cowl. :) When I'm finished I'll share the pattern with you all.

I'm usually not a big meme fan, but I found this one rather appropriate since I came back from the Yarn Crawl with 7 skeins of yarn and 2 bunches of roving...

Happy knitting, everyone!

New Wool

Back when Ryan and I went to Arizona, I scored this awesome raw wool from Tempe Yarn & Fiber. It was a great shop, I highly recommend it if you live in the area and are into yarn and/or roving.

What sold me was the cute picture of the lamb it came from! Look at that cute lamb face!

I love it because it has some natural curl to it, which I think will make for some super cute tomte beards. They were a big seller at last year's Lucia fair, so I hope not to run out this year. I also am hoping to design a Lucia for this year's fair. Either needle felted or a combination of mediums - wish me luck!

Have a wonderful day!

Sister Crafting Project 2014

Caryn and I had our first official 2014 Sister Crafting Day meeting back in February (it's already March?!) and we've decided on our project for the year - Christmas stockings!

I received a plethora of fun crafting books for Christmas last year, and there were quite a few patterns to choose from. In the running was this Julbock stocking pattern from Swedish Handknits (also where I got the crayfish hot pad pattern I knitted recently):

[photo credit: Just Crafty Enough]

The pattern we ended up choosing is from the book, Scandinavian Needlecraft:

[photo credit: Katy Elliot blog]

I really like the heart one with the tulip border on top. Plus the snowflake one is cute too, all very Scandinavian looking, which was obviously top priority. :) I was even thinking of making the reindeer one into a Julbock instead for Ryan's stocking.

We haven't actually started making them yet, but picking out a pattern and drinking coffee counts as a craft day in my book.

In other news, our apartment is almost completely unpacked! It's a March miracle! We still need to put up some artwork to brighten it up, but it feels good to have things out of boxes and where they belong. 

Have a great week!

Cray-Cray for Crayfish

Well, as most of my knitting projects go, I am just now finishing up a project from almost a year ago - the Swedish crayfish hotpad!

I still have to wet felt it to shrink it up and make it sturdier, but I'm loving the design. The little crayfish get me every time, I think they're hilarious for some weird reason (hence the title of this post, cray-cray for crayfish). The pattern is from the book Swedish Handknits and it is the first project I've actually finished from the book. There are tons of super cute patterns in the book and it's about time I start another knitting project - hopefully I can finish it in less than a year this time around.

I'm so glad today is Friday!! Even though I'll be packing all weekend for our upcoming move, I'm looking forward to waking up without an alarm and enjoying some good fika. Have a happy weekend!

Knitting a couple of crayfish

As promised, here are a couple shots of my most recent knitting project form Swedish handknits: the crayfish hot pad.  It's knitted in the round and the seams will be sewed shut when it's finished. Then, I will wet felt it so it shrinks up and becomes a little sturdier.  I'm using a 100% wool yarn...I couldn't find the exact color blue I wanted, but the one I settled on is working out better than I anticipated.

I've been working on it here and there for the past couple weeks. A couple rows while watching TV, a couple rows in the morning...a great leisurely project.

 

For those of you who don't know, crayfish are very popular in Sweden. Most Swedes throw crayfish parties in the summertime and it's quite a fun party to attend if you ever get the chance.  I'm thinking about throwing one this year...IKEA sells frozen crayfish for just the occasion!

Friday update!

Confession: I have been horribly horrible about regularly blogging these days. But I suppose you already figured that one out on your own.  I haven't been doing much crafting lately, but I've been doing a lot of list-making for projects and just plain ol' relaxing.

Our life these days have been great. Ryan and I are getting settled into our daily routines and, slowly but surely, I feel like our life is slowing down for a minute so we can play catch up. It's been wonderful to relax and just be. I've been watching a lot of TV lately, and quite frankly, I don't even care.  Maybe it's that Spring is upon us, but I feel like I am coming into a new season of life. And I like it.

Back to crafting. Thanks to Rachel's post during her craftbook review series, I found this little gem of a book:

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I strongly encourage you to check out Rachel's review of this book, it's what made me buy it! I am so excited about some of the projects in here - especially the Dala horse garland and crayfish hotpad. I've already started the crayfish hotpad...pics to come!

Then I was purusing through Etsy and found these inspiring things that went into my mental idea bank:

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I love the Scandinavian vintage look for the pillow.

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My mom just sent me a set of these little tins and I am quite excited to try a batch of sandbakkel!

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Ryan and I have been into vintage maps lately. Ryan has always had a place in his heart for geography, and during a recent antiqing venture we picked up an early 1800 map of the Virgin Islands for a few bucks. We went to the Virgin Islands for our honeymoon so it was fun to find an old map of a place we've been.  We framed it and hung it up and decided it would be fun to start collecting vintage maps of places we've been.  I love this old Stockholm map above - so cool!

That's all I have for now, folks!

Baby blanket complete!

Well, it took me 9 months, but I finally finished the baby blanket for my new niece that I started last Spring. It was one of those projects that I put down to take a short break from, then boom! 6 months goes by without touching it. So 2 weeks ago it was my new mission to get it finished by yesterday, when Ryan and I had plans to babysit Hannah and Noah. 

I worked up until the last minute until I had to leave, but I finished it!

When I gave it to Hannah, she gave me the look you see below, which I can only imagine she is thinking, "You really finished it?!?"

She then had to check my craftsmanship.

Hannah-approved, phew!

In other news, until Ryan and I can build the base for our new-old suitcase, we are improvising without one.  I had to use a little ingenuity to make the lamp sit higher, but it will work for now!

Happy Superbowl Sunday to all you football fans out there! I, for one, particularly enjoy all the Superbowl snacks!

Chugging along...

Plugging away at the baby blanket, on my 3rd stripe and have decided to nix the yellow altogther and just start back with white again.  Almost halfway done, just like this week!

Happy Wednesday!

Baby blanket

Despite the hot weather here in SoCal last week, I've been knitting up a storm.  I just started  knitting this baby blanket for my sister - woo!

I don't think I've shared the news yet here, but one of my sister's (I have 3) is expecting again! Wooooo! I love being an aunt!  It's like the best of both worlds.  You get to hang out and love a cute little kiddo but still get a full nights sleep.  I love my sleep. A lot.

That being said, I just started this chevron baby blanket pattern.  I'm using a pattern from Purl Bee (love their patterns and blog!) and it's coming along rather quickly.  It's knit on size 11 circular needles and is a relatively simple pattern if you're a beginner knitter.  I highly recommend it!  

It's going to be striped white, light gray, and light green.  I bought a skein of yellow too, but can't decide if I like it combined with the green...we'll see what happens there.  They aren't finding out the sex of the baby so I am trying to keep it to neutral colors.

In other news, Ryan just has 1 more month of school!!!!  Yay!!! : D

New knits and a Scandinavian fest

If you live in the Los Angeles area and are interested in Scandinavian things (or even if you just like a good cup of cofffee), you should come check out the Scandinavian Festival taking place at Cal Lutheran University this upcoming weekend, April 14 and 15.  Ryan and I, along with a few fellow Scandinavians, will be checking it out Sunday afternoon.  And I think it's safe to say tha Ryan and I are equally excited to see the ABBA Girlz perform.  :)

I will post pictures sometime next week and let you non-LA folk know how it went.

Unrelated to the upcoming festival, I've been working on a new knitting project this week:

I'm trying out a new stitch I haven't used before, the zig zag.  I think it's pretty fun, but in retrospect wish I had used a solid color so you could see the design better.  Alas, next time.

I started knitting the swatch without a specific thing in mind and now that it's coming along I think I may make it into a pillow? Maybe...we'll see.  I used a yarn combo of the Vanna's Glamour and a gray rayon blend.  I really love grays and yellows together.

When I knit, I often listen to random music on Spotify.  Recently I've been a little obsessed with this band, the Ditty Bops, and this song, "Sister Kate".  It's fantastic! However, I don't believe the video does the song justice.  I highly recommend you give them a listen on Spotify.  And the title of their most recent album cracks me up: Jelly for President: Yes we Jam! (Ha!)

Well, that's about all I have for today.  Hope you all have a lovely weekend! 

Knitting from the 50's

During a recent trip to Micheal's, my eye caught a new line of yarn: Vanna's Glamour.  Apparantly Vanna White is now endorsing yarn.  Naturally, I bought a skein in honor of my oldest sister who is obsessed loves  Wheel of Fortune, or as she likes to call it - "the Wheel".

The yarn is a yellowish-mustard color, for some reason it looks quite dark in the picture below.  I wasn't sure what to knit at first, and I can't say I have an exact idea of what I'm making, but I'm fiddling around with what will perhaps turn into a cowl?  I found a new stitch in a 1950's McCall's Knitting book called the "easy lace knit stitch" and am giving it go!

I acquired three of these fabulous McCalls Knitting magazine-books from the 50's from an older lady from my church back in Michigan about 10 years ago.  She also gave me her stash of knitting needles (which quadrupled my then amount of knitting needles) and some yarn.  I guess you could say that's when my knitting obsession kicked in.

  

And below is the new stitch I'm trying out, easy lace pattern.  And there are tons of classic pictures and poses in this book.

Remember when your soccer coach would wear a hand-knit cardigan?  Yeah, me either.  But apparently they did.

And I'm seriously considering making these for me and Ryan.   They're pretty spectacular.  And they just look so happy wearing them.

But the picture that takes the cake is definitely this squirelly-looking man.  The poses that all of the models make in the book are priceless.  But there's something about this guy that just cracks me up.  I'm laughing at him right now actually. Ha.

Here's to knitting up a storm!

New knit cowl for "winter"

Some of you may know that while I currently reside here in LA, I was born and raised in Michigan. Home of freezing winters and snowstorms galore. I then moved to Chicago, which also has its fair share of blizzards and frost, and then I finally wised up and moved to the West coast where sunshine abounds.

That being said, you'd think that a midwestern girl like me wouldn't be getting cold here in LA when it drops below 70. I've completely lost my edge, I get cold so easily now. It doesn't help that our apartment doesn't even have heat yet! Ryan and I were going to try to make it through the LA "winter" without having to turn on our gas (so we can have heat), but we finally caved and the gas man is making his way out to turn on our gas....in another 2 weeks!?! So, until then, we will be under mountains of blankets and thinking of warm places. And just so you don't think I'm completely crazy and can't hack the cold, it's been crazy cold for LA this past week - Ryan even had frost on his car last week!?

All that to say that I have been knitting like crazy. Because I knit when I'm cold. And I came up with my own pattern for an LA "winter" cowl. And I want to share the said pattern with everyone and anyone who wants to make their own.

You will need:

size 13 circular needles

1 skein worsted weight yarn (I used a nylon/acrylic blend)

The Pattern

Cast on 165 stitches* (no gauge for this pattern, it doesn't really matter)

Row 1: Work in knit stitch for first 4 rows (4)

Row 5: Purl 3 rows (7)

Rows 8-28: Repeat rows 1-7, 3 times

Row 29: Knit last 3 rows. Cast off.

*Be very careful not to twist your stitches when connecting them on the circular needles. I may or may not have worked 24 rows before realizing mine were twisted. Oops.

Because it is knit on such large needles, you can wrap it around up to 3 times.

Wear your new cowl, or give as a gift!

(Photo credits: Ryan, my funny hubby who can always make me laugh.)

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Finished Cable Knit Cowl

Well, it's finished! It took a little less than a week to complete and it was fun to make. I added some buttons along the side (or you can wear them in the back) instead of sewing the seam.

I went ahead and cropped my face out of the above shot, early morning pictures are not so great.

I cut off the buttons from one of my old cardigans that I haven't worn in 2 years. I figured at least I'll get some use out of it now. I just love the little crowns on them, they look Swedish to me.

And, in this last shot I tried to get a better view of the cable knit throughout. You can't see them as well since it's all in stockinette stitch, but it makes it lay nicely around your neck. I used Julianne's pattern here and thought it was a great one!

Half cable knit cowl

I have been knitting away this entire weekend after coming into some beige-ish, nylon/acrylic blended yarn from my Aunt (thank you!). I'm knitting a cowl since it's been getting quite chilly here in SoCal during these Fall months and I will soon be in the very chilly midwest.

I love the cable stitches that are worked throughout, it really spices it up a bit! I am using this free pattern from Julianne that she titled the "Burberry inspired cowl neck scarf". The scarf she got the inspiration from (Burberry) was $750 (?!?!?!). I personally don't know of anyone who would spend that much to keep their neck warm.

I actually don't even know if I will keep this project or gift it...I'm still deciding. It will largely depend on how it turns out (or how attached I become...ha).

I'll be sure to post some finished pictures when it's completed. I just love knitting when it's cold out!