Keep the Chill off with Alpaca!
A scarf knit from alpaca yarn
The first year we had our alpacas sheared and their fleece processed into yarn. That yarn was all sold before it was even sent back from the mill. We had only four animals then, and the demand for their fibre amongst our staff and friends of the Garden was more than the animals produced. I, like many others, had to wait until the next season to get a skein of the coveted yarn for myself.
Now that the initial craving to have this beautiful yarn has worn off, it can be found in our Gift Shop usually by mid August. We do not have our fibre dyed, so it comes in the colours of our alpacas. Last year it was available in two different weights and three different colours. Alpaca is a very strong, light-weight fibre that is luxuriously soft and provides substantial warmth. Unfortunately it does not seem to have much memory, so we have ours blended with 15% bamboo. This gives it much-needed structure and makes it easier and more versatile to work with. Alpacas do not produce lanolin like sheep do; many people who cannot wear wool due to allergies may be able to wear alpaca without a problem.
Like many other knitters out there I buy yarn more often than I have time to knit with it. Once I acquired some of our yarn it sat in my stash for a couple of years waiting for the right project or pattern to come along to complement it. This Christmas my brother was home for a visit, and I wanted to knit him something. Once he decided that he could use a scarf I pulled out my yarn stash and we began looking for something he liked. We went through most of my wool with no luck. Since I am a woman, most of my wool was not suited to him. At last I pulled out my Kingsbrae alpaca yarn. I had two colours: a manly shade of brown and a creamy off white. I said “how about this? I could make you a brown scarf with some stripes at the ends.” He thought that he would like that, so the project began.
I decided to use some 5.5mm needles so that it would knit up quickly. Even though the yarn was only a double knitting weight it was very fuzzy and I believed that it would make a nice, light-weight, airy sort of scarf that would keep the chill off. Since my brother lives on Vancouver Island this would be perfect for his needs since the climate there is milder than here on the east coast.
I would not call myself a novice knitter, more of an experienced beginner. Nonetheless I did not think that I needed a pattern to make something as simple as a scarf. Once I determined how thick the scarf should be, I simply started knitting in a stocking stitch. After a couple of rows I could tell that the scarf was going to curl around the edges, and I wanted a nice flat scarf. I pulled it out and tried a couple of other things, but it kept on curling!
Luckily for me, my fix was only a phone call away! I called up my Aunt Michelle of Fondle Patterns for some advice. She told me that in order for a scarf not to curl at the edges it needs to have approximately the same amount of knit and purl stitches on both sides. She suggested a garter stitch or a simple ribbed scarf, but then added “But you are past that. Why don’t you try moss or seed stitch something a bit more intermediate?”
I got out my most versatile knitting book and looked up the stitches she recommended. I settled on seed stitch since it was easy and each row would be the same and give the scarf a nice texture and a manly look. A seed stitch is a simple one-row pattern as long as you are working with an odd number of stitches. You knit the first stitch then purl the second then knit the third and so on until the end of the row. Then you would do the same thing on the next row and so on until finished. If you have an even number of stitches your second row would be the opposite of your first. You are essentially going to purl the stitches you knit of the first row and knit the stitches you purled, creating an interesting texture.
I cast on 27 stitches which made the scarf a little over 6 inches wide. After knitting for an inch I changed colours for an inch to make the first stripe. I changed back to the main colour for an inch then switched again. I did this three times to create three stripes. I continued on in the main colour until I figured the scarf was long enough then added matching stripes at the end. My finished scarf measured 54 inches unblocked or steamed.
For anyone that does not knit, this post was probably uninteresting. But maybe it sparked some interest which is why you kept reading. I encourage anyone who has never picked up a set of needles to give it a try because it is a very rewarding hobby—much like growing things! In my next post I am going to go off the topic of gardening and share some tips I have learned through my experience with knitting. Also I am going to give some reasons why knitting is such a wonderful hobby!
