The Sweetest Things

One week ago, I was in a meeting in Andover taking to a colleague who said her aunt keeps a few alpaca.

Yesterday I went out to Marlow to meet the lovely Julie who keeps a veritable menagerie of animals in the most idyllic spot, including these boys:

Meet Teddy - isn't he gorgeous? This is how close he got - so inquisitive - and we were able to feed him carrots.

And here's Teddy (fawn), Bubble (white) and Dallas (black) lurking there in the background. If I could've smuggled them in my bag without Julie noticing, I would've! (Do you think she'd have noticed?)

I learned loads about alpaca and came away with a few kilos of fleece. Julie's really interested in seeing how the saddle spins up in comparison with neck (2nd quality) so I'm going to take some along to the guild meeting tomorrow to see if someone would be willing to spin up a sample of each so that I can send them back to Julie. If anyone has any thoughts on spinning alpaca - they'd be gratefully received. Anyway, it was great to find another person to chat about fibre, crafty stuff and animals with.

On a knitting note, I have some photos of my Aqueous Martini Ishbel which is finished and blocked and worn today.

It was inspired by alabamawhirly's Count Olaf Ishbel which you can see via the link. I used the sixth installment of the Unfortunate Club in Dark Avenue colourway using about 70% of a skein of Encore for the small size. The last row was knitted in a scrap of Wisp in Caran D'Ache colourway a la whirly's contrast colour.

I loved the pattern and the way it was written made it relatively easy and even I didn't make many mistakes - until I got over-confident and cracked open a bottle of wine with only three rows to go!

And looky here - my cheesy face appeared in the Farnham Herald and Surrey and Hants News following the Unravel show. Thanks, Helena for taking the time to send me the clips. Barbara (wildfennel) appeared too as a trendy, glamourous knitter - she's an absolute star - but I'm guessing she wouldn't appreciate me putting the photo here! Am I right, Barbara?

Unravel - the big day

What a fantastic day!

See alabamawhirly's full-size Ishbel (by Ysolda Teague) shawl in the background made from one skein of Encore with a contrast edging.

Some yarn

Some knits

Some of the gloves by alabamawhirly are for sale in her Knit Happens etsy shop. The Zig and Zag pram blanket is a free pattern by me which you can find here. The Ten O'Clock scarf pattern is free and can be found here. The Chevron scarf pattern is by Joelle Hoverson and can be found in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. The Print o' the Waves stole which alabamawhirly created with three skeins of Wisp 2 ply cashmere/silk is a pattern by Eunny Jang which is free and can be found here.

Alabamawhirly in her trademark yellow and some lovely friends from Ravelry.

Wildfennel and Melarno knitting the Ten O'Clock scarf in the Outcast "museum of the mundane" corner.

It was so good to chat to so many friends from Ravelry and Susan from Knit on the Net (watch out for a SQ yarn review on there) and Elisabeth Beverley with her beautiful plant-dyed merinos and cashmeres and knits, the ladies from the Kennet Valley Spinners, Dyers and Weavers guild (I'm going to go along and learn to spin - v. exciting) and the man whose name I didn't catch from Pandora's wool shop in Guildford.

Some things I learnt for the next time:

1. Bring more of everything - more yarn, more business cards, more free patterns, more change, more helpers (thanks, Whirly for helping so much - we make a good team.)
2. Knit up an item in each different type of yarn.
3. Don't dread the tidying up - it only takes a quarter of the time of setting up.
4. Don't bring sandwiches containing onions and leave them all day in your bag on the floor which had underfloor heating!

Thanks so much to everyone who came - shall we do it all again soon? Maybe six months time?!