Alpaca toques and a linen book cover...

Okay so here are the toques I knit from the alpaca fluff I spun (chunky) while I was in Calgary. Just basic K1 P1 rib, nothing fancy. The buttery yellow color was from a batch of dandelion dye that I made mid summer. I liked these because they were quick, and simple to both spin and knit. Plus they are oh sooooo soft!

And the following two images or of a book cover I have been working on in my spare time. The cover itself is straight single crochet linen and the borders are done with some midnight blue chenille my mom salvaged from a mistreated sweater. There is a bit of inkle up the spine that extends from the cover as a bookmark. I still have to do a little embellishment on the front cover and add some sort of clasp, but I am happy with how it is coming along and hope to try out a few book covers made completely with inkle strips.

there is the inkle spine and bookmark:


Alright so I am going to try very VERY hard not to forget my camera when I go in to the workshop tomorrow night, so hopefully I'll have a post up in the next week chalk full of action shots!
Cheers n beers everyone!
JQ

drop spindle blues

I love my drop spindle. I love the process and at this point am far more comfortable with it than with a spinning wheel. Unfortunately this means that I spin and spin and spin for hours only to end up with 150 yards of two ply. :(

It is a very beautiful two ply. I tried for something finer and with more twist than my past attempts and definitely succeeded, but the finer it is the longer to spin it so I had my heart set on finding out just how far that shopping bag of fleece would take me. Apparently it wasn't a lot of fibre and all I got was 300 yards of total singles, plied together 150 yards of rose-grey alpaca yarn for my mom. Unfortunately we discovered that even with a knitted lace scarf, that amount of yarn doesn't get very far! :( She'll probably have to find something pretty to put with it or else wait until I have some more fleece spun up.
Anyways, Here is a photo of the scarf and yarn:


I have some images of the inkle loom that Justin and I put together 10 of for the workshop. These needed to be inexpensive so we made them out of soft wood. Also we had little time to spare for the building of them so they aren't shiny perfect models but I have woven several strips on them and they work like a charm, at least for the duration of the workshop, until people see if they want to pursue the craft further. Then they can think about building out of hard wood or ordering a good one.
yes I look like a total goof here (too many hours of sanding), but you see the loom is pretty nice. :)

Hmmm...what else can I include in today's entry. Well I managed to forget my digital camera last night when I went to my workshop so I'll have to save those action shots for next week.

Here are a few pictures of the inkles I made using some rainbow variegated crochet cotton (hideous for any other purpose as far as I am concerned):



Tomorrow I'll unload all my photos of the new alpaca pen and share them here, as well as take a few pictures of my fluffy hand-spun alpaca toques that I made while I was in Calgary, sitting in my old haunt Central Blends catching up on all that missed LATTE. :P

Okay that's it for now
Hearts off the Charts!
JQ

Return of the Vacationator

Hello everyone! I'm back from my trip to Calgary and ready to make three or four posts!
I have some preparations to do for my workshop this evening but as of tomorrow morning I am free to post post post!
I have a few photos of the simple ribbed toques I knit up out of my first hand spun, and some pictures of the scarf my mom was making out of some pretty rose-grey alpaca fibre I salvaged from a bag that was supposed to be felting quality stuff. I am so glad I took the time to sort through it all! Also have images of all the crochet cotton my mom and I dyed while she was here for a visit, and of course some action shots from my inkle weaving workshop!
Promise I will begin posting tomorrow!
Hugs,
JQ