Alpaca Scarf- Suri + Huacaya, gradientesque.

I wanted to “do” something with the suri alpaca yarn discussed here. There wasn’t very much of it though, so it needed boosting. Ah, I had a small amount of fairly coordinating grey huacaya alpaca yarn from the alpaca adventures of last winter.  These two:

I thought the shiny of the suri wanted a knit faced pattern. I decided on a pattern called “Favourite Scarf Ever” by Lisa Bruce, a free pattern on Ravelry.  I split every thing in two as called for by the pattern. Each side is knitted separately and then grafted together. I was worried that my limited yarn would not give enough length, but blocking delivered, hugely. The huacaya yarn is much softer and nicer to the touch so the central position serves both visual design and comfort.

Here is the finished scarf straight off the needles:

and after wet blocking:

Silly me forgot to take measurements before, but I hope you can see that a lot more length as well as stitch definition and drape was achieved in the blocking. It’s now about the minimum length I would hope for in a linear scarf. I’m a bit annoyed that is now obvious that my attempts to make a gradient of colour in the suri failed a bit. The dye did not fully penetrate the locks, so there was a variable amount of white blended in with the colour. That’s my reasoning anyway. Oh well, this is still a pretty thing.

Here is a pic of the ends to show the pattern in better detail:

and a couple of it on me:

 

 

Cabbage Coat

“Cabbage” is an old term for left over fabric. I gather it was often considered tailor’s perks. The client would provide the fabric and the tailor got to keep the scraps left over. Anyway, I keep the majority of the cabbage I generate, plus bits and pieces from elsewhere. I sort it by fibre type and some by weave. I’ve been thinking I’d have fun making a colourful patchwork coat from the soft wool coating cabbage. I thought I might have enough, and as it turns out I did.

Pull it all out, decide on a plan, start cutting squares

The main body pieces and sleeves cut. Gores, facings, pockets, lining still needed.

Lay out the body to try for a pleasing arrangement of colours. I started with a checkerboard of dark neutrals and colours. Then I offset the outer pieces to reduce both seam intersection bulk and strong horizonal lines.

Once all that was put together, I cut gores and pockets from the remaining fabric. Wasn’t easy, there wasn’t a lot left! They are all pieced based on available shapes rather than a pre determined plan.

Here it is at the point I felt I was happy with the shape. I also decided here to top stitch all those messy seams.

So much top stitching. I was very glad of my edge stitch foot.

Crazy gores and pockets. Even many of the main squares needed to be pieced.

Corded buttonholes for neatness and longevity. I like that the button border sort of echoes the top stitching. Buttons are cast off stash from a friend.

Lining is three kinds of silk/cotton. Teal satin from an opshop find, plain weave teal from a different friend’s stash castoffs, red satin that I have been using slowly for cushion patchwork and borders etc.

Here is the whole thing finished. I love it.

and a couple of pics on me

Of course there is a long list of source garments for all the different fabrics. So it is a memory coat of sorts.

Repeatery for linkage pickup