Alpaca throw

Willie Nelson is one of Birdie’s babies and true to form, he was born in 2018 with a full head of hair! By his first shearing in the spring of 2019, his locks were nearly a foot long!

Here he is moments after that first shearing!

As amazing as it was to see this kind of fleece on an alpaca, it was so long that the fiber mill that spins our yarn said it was too long for them to fully process. They were able to make it into roving for me to spin.

I don’t have a ton of time to craft in general, especially with a farm to run. So between spinning and knitting, things take a long time to complete…especially projects that are big from the start.

I’ve tried to go through my camera roll to see if I had any shots of me it going from roving to yarn. But since I was spinning it here and there every year since 2019, and it’s now 2023, after an hour of scrolling I couldn’t find a single one so I gave up! Rest assured, it did spin it all — I think it was just shy of 2 pounds.

In the summer of 2022, I got it all plied up into 3 huge skeins of 2-ply fingering weight style yarn. And once day when I had a good indigo vat going, I took the chance to dye it my favorite shade of blue!

Here it is spun, plied and dyed.

This skein was nearly 900 yards.

Just for scale, I unraveled the skein and wore it as a heavy necklace.

On a cold evening on December 17th, I put the first skein on the swift.

I just about maxed out the ball winder.

The yarn cake was almost 6” across!

As big as my face!

I cast on the Anthology Throw pattern by Helen Steward. It’s a very easy pattern. Since it’s done in the round, it was mostly the knit stitch with a few knit-2-togethers with yarn-overs here and there.

As an advanced beginner with only a handful of years experience, it was that perfect TV knit. This was the first time I have ever been able to knit and watch TV without making mistakes!

And it was also my very first circular project. I’ve only ever done asymetrical triangles, triangles and squares before, so it was extra fun.

Working in that second skein was cool because it’s hue was slightly different.

And my extra long 60” knitting cable was starting to get quite full.

This project really kept me company.

Most of my winter memories are some version of knitting + couch + dog

This was a rare sunny and sock-free day in January!

It really grew quickly, and because it was an excellent lap blanket, I knew it was going to make a great spring & fall throw to replace the heavy winter quilt on our bed.

I had a few moments where I was disappointed that each skein had a different blue hue. But while knitting on the porch one day, it struck me how much the different shades were actually perfect. Maybe that had something to do with how it looked in the company of the blue porch ceiling and the blue sky.

I bound off the last stitch on April 1, 2023. The bind off round was nearly 1200 stitches so that was like a victory lap.

On the floor, it doesn’t look like it would fit on our queen size bed but I knew that once it was washed and blocked, it would be nearly perfect.

Each ring of blue is a different skein — and I quite like the proportions

So grateful we have the original old farmhouse tub because this definitely wouldn’t have fit in the sink!

I gave it several warm rinses in a natural fiber soaking solution.

My largest project to day, thus I had to improvise on blocking materials. I put together two cardboard boxes and gently stretched open the lace work.

It took about 2 days to fully dry — that is — once I remembered how much fans help!

I’m so glad I snapped this picture because my spinning wheel is off to the right hand side — and I am currently working on handspinning Hammie’s 2022 fleece.

See - it fits so nicely!

And wouldn’t you know as soon as I turned my head, Dally Sue got the first snuggle on it!

And here’s what it looks like without the quilt, on our blue & white comforter!

It took Willie Nelson a year to grow this fiber, and then it took me another 3ish years to hand spin and ply it, the dye it, before knitting it into this. I’m so happy with the result and have a new appreciation for big projects like this. I’m already planning to make another type of throw for the couch and maybe even the recliner.