A Productive Long Weekend

11 April 2007

Sometimes you just need to hang out inside all day, wearing jammies and knitting

So I'm 2 for 2 in promised projects that have taken waaaay longer than their due date. Most people I know who like handcrafty things advise to never tell people up front that they're getting a present which relieves the issue of a due date. However, I find that the imposed deadline (even the horrifically overdue deadline or the impossible deadline) is a good motivator for finishing something, and I hope that the thought, intent, and niftiness of a handmade gift more than makes up for being (cough) six months late.

Thus finishes the saga of my dad's alpaca hat. I don't have many pictures of it in progress, but here it is in yarn stage:

The yarn is made from the alpaca fleece I bought at Amber Leaf Alpacas. The colours are all natural; the grey is a blend of the white and black. I prepared this yarn using my nifty minicombs and it was very easy to spin after combing (the combing part, though, was time-consuming and grubby due to alpacas' propensity for dust baths).

And here it is after I finished knitting it up (basically the entirety of my day on Easter Monday):

I'm pretty pleased with it. It's very soft, warm, and comfy to wear. Here is the close up of the stranded colourwork pattern (just some simple triangles to make the zigzags):

Just in time for the North American spring! Ha! (Well at least it's getting nippy here...)