Frog pile

None of these projects have been seen on the blog before and maybe that was the beginning of their demise.  All of these have been languishing away upstairs while I cast on according to the whim of the day.  Since I have been on a cleaning mission for Diva Knitting ((Basically the unused bedrooms upstaris look like they were hit by a yarn hurricairne.  Maybe the fantasy of some but I like to see my floors once in a while.)) I decided it might be a good idea to clean up these projects as well.  The blue one was a design project of mine for a cardigan…the back almost compeltely finished.  I’m sure I had notes about the CO and armhole shaping at somepoint but it is nowhere to be found.  The red was a cardigan I was knitting from a free online pattern.  I lost the pattern and spent several hours trying to find it again.  It was very simple pattern from a Canadian magazine but I never did find it.  I probably could have used what I already had for a cardigan back but it was looking a little big anyway.  Finally a panel of the Fabulous Lace Inset Cardigan1 The back is finished and I decided to leave that but since I have no idea where I was in the pattern and I remember “issues” with this front panel anyway…well, might as well frog it too.

Now don’t be hating on me for what I’m about to tell you.  I picked up 4 pounds of alpaca yesterday for FREE.  Yep, free.  Long story shortened:  friend asks Jim what I’ve been up to, Jim says business, spinning, knitting, etc., friend says, “Spinning?  I know someone who raises alpacas and has a whole bunch of wool she doesn’t know what to do with, think Cheryl would want it?”2  Jim says yes3 so yesterday I picked up the fiber.  There is just one small catch…up to this point I have never prepared a fleece.  I’ve always used commerically prepared fiber and I never did buy that carder (although there is a slight chance the place still has it).  So….suggestions?  What is your experience with preparing alpaca?  Something a beginner can easily do?  It also seems like I read somewhere once that alpaca doesn’t need to be washed first since it doesn’t have all the sheepy oil?  It certainly doesn’t look very dirty.  Maybe I should just send it somewhere to have it processed into roving?  If I do that…again, suggestions?  Thanks in advance for the help.  There may be a little blog pause next week while I am away.  I always intend to keep posting but sometimes big fun gets in the way.

1. According to the blog, I started it March 1, 2007.  Sometimes it’s not so great to have  a record of one’s digressions. [↩]
2. Yes he said “wool”…muggle. [↩]
3. Did I train him well or what? [↩]