Fibery stuff

Remember when I used to post about knitting and spinning and stuff? Yeah, those were the good old days. LOL

Ok, well back a couple of weeks ago I introduced you to a new project of mine, the Sheep Sweater. You might remember that I had a rather unfortunate event with my beloved bunny sweater that involved winged vermin of a nasty variety. Well the sheep sweater is finished and the bunny sweater is all better again and I'm here to introduce you. :)

First, to put Judy's mind to rest, here is the repaired Bunny Sweater. For those who aren't so familiar with this one, the dark is cria (baby) huacaya alpaca and each of the colored stripes is from a special rabbit or alpaca I've owned or worked with. My very first 2 Satin angoras are represented there along with my red SA herd-buck Zahir on the collar. It certainly is a sweater worth repairing to me.

This is the back where the majority of damage was done. I think the re-weaving looks pretty darned good. I couldn't use the exact yarn so there is some color difference but with all that fluff.. Now the alpaca parts match better because I actually did find some leftover yarn. How's that for luck? I have to thank one reader for the excellent idea to full the sweater. I didn't' have to resort to cutting the sweater apart but fulling the entire thing really stabilized it and I think, made it a better sweater. Had I done that in the beginning, it might not have ended up so lonnnnnnnnngggggg. :)

And now the new sweater which I have dubbed the Sheepy Sweater:

I just love this thing. You might notice the different shades of natural white and if you could really see up close you'd see that the textures are quite different too. This was knitted using skeins of yarn spun at demos over the past years. Who knows what breeds of sheep those came from or where or when. Do I care? Not one whit. There is history in that sweater and I love that. I had planned to put more bunny designs and more angora in the yoke but as it progressed, it just didn't' seem right somehow. I really like the bands of color as they are.

Now, that is certainly not to say I didn't include angora. HA! not likely. How is that for an outrageous collar? That is 2 strands of FA yarn held together and just knitted garter stitch. Absolutely NOTHING was done to bring out that fluff either. That is the simple and decadent beauty of French Angora. That particular fiber came from a fantastic doe named Kaboom bred by Nancy Nickols. I never cared for the name 'Kaboom' and renamed her Morghanna...but ya know, the term "Ka-Boom!" sure fits that fiber doesn't it? :)

This is my own charted design though I borrowed the idea from a great sweater I saw at Farm Show. The design is supposed to represent a road next to a fence and the sheep standing behind the fence. Above the sheep is a row of texture work that represents fluffy clouds. OK, so it's stylized, I'm ok with that. The sheep design goes all the way around the back of the sweater and to the other side. I used an angora/alpaca blend handspun for the cuffs to they are soft, soft, soft. I hate scratchy cuffs. {shudder}
So that's my fibery exploits the past couple of weeks. I've also been knitting up some smaller stuff like barn caps and fingerless mitts just to use up more of this demo yarn but they really don't merit photos. They are warm and functional, but not so pretty.
Tomorrow, Photos from the Wool, Skein and Garment contest at the PAngora rabbit show last weekend.