I’m working on more knitting that I can’t show you. It seems to be that time of year. I’m really liking the item I’m making – I might make more. It’s one of those items that makes me really glad I learned to knit. I can and have done some wonderful things with crochet. However, the fabric in this item is just perfect and it’s something I’ve never been able to achieve with crochet.

It’s getting toward that time of year when showing photographs of finished objects becomes rather problematic. I finished an object yesterday. Pictures will follow, but not anytime soon.

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions regarding dealing with fabric falling off of needles. Lillian’s suggestion gave me an idea. Because I was working in the round with multiple DPN’s I couldn’t figure out how to gather the knitting in fabric with a rubber band, but I figured that if gathering the knitting worked for Orenburg lace, I could figure out how to make it work for me.

With a little experimentation, I found the best method was to gather the fabric and tie it up with scrap yarn as I had been doing. However, instead of untying and re-tying the yarn every for every needle, I figured out I could work with the ties in place. This meant I was only tying and untying every five to seven rows. I would have switched to rubber bands, but one can’t untie rubber bands and pull them from between the stitches.

Now to the next project – one involving a double-ended crochet hook, some handspun alpaca, and some millspun alpaca …

I have been knitting. Even though I have not been posting, I have not been slacking. That fact is that despite a week in DC (technically, Northern Virginia) getting up to speed at my new job, I have almost finished another object. Said business trip cut into my knitting time, although I did manage a little in the hotel in the evenings.

I’m having a problem with my current project. The project is knit in the round. It is large enough that I’m presently using six dpns. There are enough stitches on the needles that they’re spreading out the full length of the needle and falling off both ends. I have recovered the last stitch or two from my non-working needles many, many times today. The most problematic stitch, however, is the stitch at the far end of the needle I’m working the stitches from. I’m losing that stitch about every other needle. I am knitting with crochet hooks and extra needles on standby.

One solution would be to switch to circular needles which I don’t have – but may end up owning much sooner than anticipated. What are good ones? I see these kits that have eight or ten different sizes of needle and three or five different lengths of cable. Are they any good? How are the joins? I’m going to be using very soft handspun alpaca, so if it can catch on the joins, it will catch on the joins.

I have plastic stoppers – point covers – whatever the proper name is – for my larger needles. I haven’t found any small enough for the size one and two DPNs I’m using. Do such things exist? Where should I look for them?

Right now, believe it or not, I am tying the stitches onto the needles using pieces of scrap yarn. I wrap the yarn around the stitches right below the needle – basically gathering the stitches – and tie it so the stitches can’t spread out enough on the needle to fall off the ends. It works, but it’s a royal pain to tie one needle and untie the next every time I change needles. It’s better than grabbing the crochet hook and fishing a stitch that’s run several rows in dark, handspun, alpaca, but it’s still a pain.

Help. There has got to be a better way? Suggestions?

We drove to visit our alpacas today – several of them, not just Amelia. None of them were really anxious to pose for the camera, but Amelia, as usual, stole the show.

Amelia, however, was not particularly impressed with the strange two-leggers. It’s hard to accept that while she’s our baby, we’re not really her people. The alpacas that moved as adults may still remember us, but the babies really don’t know us. Besides, that grass was awfully short and very tasty. It’s a lot of work to feed a growing cria.

It’s a long way down to that grass. Eating is lots of work. Amelia was very intent on her grazing, despite our photography.

Amelia has a lot of different colors. Areas of rose gray are obvious on her neck, along her spine, and elsewhere. Although much of her blanket appears brown at the moment, we expect she will prove to be rose gray throughout – possibly with variation in shade. From the front, her ears have white tips. From the back, they show a lot of white. I really like her markings.

We also saw Jubilee, Maggee, Morghan, some alpacas we no longer own, and some cria born to those we no longer own. They’re all doing well. The babies are cute!

I’m wearing hand knit socks – socks I knit using fiber from my alpacas. Needless to say, I’m rather pleased with myself.

Socks. Fiber by Drake. Yarn by Ranch of the Oaks. Knitting by The Spinning Guy.

The pattern is Twisted Sisters basic sock pattern. One sock is four stitches larger than the other. I made some other adjustments on the way as well. My original plan was to give these as Christmas gifts. About half way through the first sock, it became apparent that my inexperience combined with switching to continental style was creating funky socks. I decided to keep them for myself as house socks. Because these were house socks for my own use, I decided to experiment a little bit with the second sock to see if I could learn something.

I did. The second sock is more consistent and fits better.

I’m not thrilled with the toe. So far, I’m wearing these around the house with my slippers and slip-on shoes. For this use, they are wonderful and warm. I have some concerns about the toe in boots – there are some thicker areas and I’m worried they would rub. I will experiment with other toe patterns in the future.

I’m excited. I’m wearing socks I made. The next step – a few pairs in the future – is to make socks from my own handspun.