A Trip to the Alpaca Expo

We took a trip last Sunday over to Owatonna for the Minnesota Alpaca Expo.  This was such a fun event for us last year that we decided to make the trip again.  Alpacas are not the friendliest creatures -- they don't really care to be petted or even have strangers standing very close to them.  However, I was able to photograph some of the many different colors and cute faces that we saw at this show and wanted to share them with you in this post.

 No, this wasn't a talking alpaca -- just happened to snap the picture in "mid-chew"

No ears on this guy!  Their ears are very expressive and it seemed like when something was going on they didn't like, the ears went down or back......extreme paparazzi disapproval here!

Pretty gray coloring on this alpaca (I was seeing yarn shades.....)

Alpaca Kiss!

I really liked the colors on this one!

And look at this beautiful dark, dark brown color......like french roast coffee or dark chocolate!

This is Fancy Pants, sporting a fashionable hat and heading off to the show ring

Three different colored alpacas from the same farm (notice two have ears but one is in "no photos, please!" mode)

This sweet little gray one was watching some activity at the pen across the way.

This was also a fiber show and not limited to alpacas -- the angora bunnies were there!

along with their angora bunny babies!  I love angora -- it makes the softest (but very expensive!) yarn.

These guys were anxious to get back on the road to their home in Wisconsin.

I bought only 1 skein of yarn.  This colorway is called Ripe Tomato.

There's 500 yards in the skein and I'll be using it to knit this shawl. Can't wait to get started on it......



A Trip to the Alpaca Show

Today Mr. Johnson and I took a trip over to Owatonna to visit the Minnesota Alpaca Expo. I found out about this event months ago on Ravelry and thought it might be fun to check it out. There was no admission fee (how great is that?) We spent a couple of enjoyable hours wandering through the arena and marveling at all the cute faces.

There are 2 different varieties of alpacas. These are the Suri alpacas. They have long shiny locks like very soft, slightly curly hair.

And these are the Huacaya (pronounced Wuh-kai-ya) alpacas. They are fluffy like teddy bears.

They use their ears to express emotion. This one was not happy about me taking its picture and turned its ears way down around behind its head.

There was also judging taking place here.

Another cute Suri face.

This alpaca and its owner were on their way back from the show ring.

Aren't they sweet looking? We were most surprised at the different sounds they make. Mostly a high-pitched humming, but we also heard one making some little rhythmic squeaky noises too.

Here's a Suri and Huacaya together and you can really see the differences in their fleece. (also note their ears......not liking the camera at all!)

And of course, there was yarn! Lots of yarn! This vendor was my first and last stop at the expo. And I bought this skein of beautiful blue yarn from her (400 yards!) You can't believe how soft it is.

I also found this skein of 100% alpaca yarn in a gorgeous apricot color -- 498 yards!

What a fun day. I'm really glad we went and will definitely watch the calendar for next year's dates and the chance to attend again.

Recently Completed Knitting Projects

I haven't shown you any photos of knitting projects lately, so that's what this post is going to be about. Last year, one of my resolutions was to try an keep an accurate record of knitting projects I started and finished during the year. I printed out worksheets and actually did pretty good until the middle of November when I was just so busy with knitting projects that I didn't take the time to keep track for the last few weeks of the year. However, I was pretty faithful about recording my projects for the rest of the year. In a review of the list, here are the results for 2010: Projects started was 112! Projects completed was 98. Ideally the number of completed projects would be greater than projects started, but only in a perfect world (which also explains why I have so many unfinished projects stashed all over the house!)

I've already decided I won't be keeping track of any knitting projects this year -- at least not officially. However, here are a few of my FOs (finished objects) for 2011.

A co-worker asked if I could make an earflap hat for his wife similar to a hat they saw on the Columbia website. I didn't have a pattern, but drawing on my years of knitting experience and components of several different hat patterns, here's how the hat turned out. It had to be purple and pink with long tails on the earflaps. I knitted it with Vanna's Choice 100% acrylic yarn, so it's machine washable and dryable (plus the yarn is really soft). I really like how this hat turned out.
Here's one of the scarves I'm knitting for the 2011 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project. I found out about this project from another knitting friend's blog. I've pledged to knit 3 scarves in these "official" colors of blue and turquoise. All of the athletes will have a handmade scarf to wear when participating in the 2011 Special Olympics. I'm sure it will be quite a sight to see all of them wearing these beautiful scarves.

I like to try new yarn colors. I picked up this ball of Patons wool a couple weeks ago because I was curious to see how this weird color combination would knit up. I probably will not buy this yarn again, but I'm sure there's someone who will see these half-mitts in my Etsy store and will love them enough to buy them.

Lastly, here's a small shawl I finished last week. I started it on Dec. 24th and the yarn used to knit this was Berroco Sox Metallic. (Ravelry members can download this pattern for free -- it's the Dane Shawl.)

I wore it to work yesterday. I love that it will coordinate with a lot of different colored tops. I know I will wear this shawl often.

Here's the back view. I was going to be just a few yards short to finish up this shawl but then I visited Yarnology (where I originally bought the yarn), the lovely owners there had a partial ball of this yarn in their backroom and graciously loaned it to me so I could finish up my shawl without having to purchase a whole 'nother ball. Now that's what I call "customer service!"

This yarn is beautiful with a silver metallic thread running through it. It was hard to photograph, but if you look real close a the photo below, you might be able to see it.

Fixes for My Fiber Addiction

One good thing about our cold Minnesota winters is that I can wear sweaters for at least 6 months. I haven't started or finished a sweater for myself in quite a while, so a couple weeks ago I rewarded myself by starting a new sweater (since I managed to finish 8 projects in January). This is called the Big Sven Sveater, but since it's for me, I'm calling it the "Big Lena Sveater!"

The nice thing about being an experienced knitter is that you can make revisions to the pattern. This sweater has a circular patterned yoke, but I decided to add an element of the yoke pattern at the bottom of the sleeves and body of the sweater also. As you probably know already, I really like doing two-colored knitting and the thought of all those rows of just one color till I got to the yoke was just more than I could bear. I really like this yarn--a nice heavy worsted weight wool from Canada. It's a little rough when you're knitting with it and sometimes I even come across a small piece of grass the sheep picked up out in the pasture. I used this yarn in a hat a while back and found that once I washed it, the yarn softens up really nicely. I'm making pretty fast progress on this sweater and hope to get it finished by the end of February, so stay tuned!

I completed a few more items for my Etsy store and hope to get them added to the inventory after supper tonight. Here are some wool half-mitts in a nice variegated colorway called "Rosewood."

How about this groovy granny square ensemble? Fortunately, I didn't throw all my old patterns away and when I went through the pattern box downstairs I found this awesome pattern that my mom bought for me when I first started crocheting. Remember years ago when Simplicity sold crochet and craft patterns? I checked the date on the envelope and it was from 1971 and the cost of the pattern was 85 cents! We picked out the pattern because it featured a granny square poncho and I recall making several of those for myself and friends. I really love this hat and probably will make several more (including one for myself!)

In case you're wondering......my model's name is Larissa.

All Done by Christmas!

For the first time that I can remember, I managed to get all of my Christmas gifts completed by Christmas! I showed you some of the things in previous posts, but here are the rest of the items that were finished and given as gifts this year.

Shown below are a couple pairs of slippers (I was sewing them together Christmas morning!). Also shown is a little pair of mittens for my great nephew.

These half-mitts went to my SIL in California (along with the black "magic gloves" they're shown with). I hope she likes them.

This is one of Kathleen Taylor's Freebie Friday patterns (Easy Lace Fingerless Mittens). I love these fingerless mittens and wear them for most of the winter--at home and at work. The nice thing about them is if you wear just the mitt, your fingers are still free for typing or other work, but if you add them over a pair of gloves (like in the photo above), they really keep your hands warm.

And here are the last items--2 off-white dishcloths for a couple of co-workers and the blue & white variegated one for my sissy. This is Cathy Waldie's free pattern called Christmas Lace Dishcloth. She also has a pattern for a matching hand towel to knit, but I wasn't that ambitious this year. You can check out her "Wishing I Was Knitting at the Lake" blog here or click on it in the Knitting Blogs and Links section in my sidebar.

I have a goal for 2009 of trying to finish at least one old project every month. I would also like to try and get my Etsy site up and running with some knitting projects to sell. If there are any Etsy sellers reading this post, I would welcome any advice you have to share. And I also have a plan to do a confessional post about my knitting addiction sometime in the next couple weeks. I think you will be entertained (and also slightly horrified) reading about how something as harmless as knitting can take over a person's life (much like the way birding has also taken over my life!)

I hope you all have a good weekend. I'll be working now until next Wednesday to satisfy the end-of-the-year deadlines, but that means that time off I'll enjoy from January 1-4 will be extra sweet.

Miscellaneous Monday

I hope you're all staying warm tonight. It's pretty darn cold here, but not as cold as some places. I'm glad I don't live in Minot, North Dakota--I saw on the news they had an air temp of -22 degrees and the windchill made it feel like -65 or something awful like that. We had a temp of -7, with a windchill of -35 when we left for work this morning; that was pretty hard to take especially since it was 43 degrees (above zero!) on Sunday morning. That little thaw resulted in our garage door becoming frozen to the ground, so there were a few anxious moments this morning as Mr. Johnson had to use the ice chipper to loosen the garage door so it would open and we could leave for work. For any of you that live (or have lived) in colder climates, you know that it's the wind that makes it feel coldest. Here's what a wind chill of -30 does to the bubbler in the heated birdbath on my deck.
I have what appears to be a little ice volcano over the bubbler. You can see that the water is completely ice free, but the air temperature is so cold that it freezes the spray of the water that's being pumped up over the rock, resulting in this covering of ice over the bubbler. The birds still come to the edge of this birdbath to drink, but they know it's too cold for bathing. Once the wind dies down, the warmth of the water should eventually melt this icy covering away.

To take my mind off the frigid weather, look what arrived in my mailbox today:

Yea!! My first seed catalog! I took a few minutes to look through it and think about the nice warm days of next May when I'll be planting my next vegetable garden.

Here are some pictures of several recently completed knitting projects.

This hat is a Christmas present going to my nephew Charlie in California. This pattern is called Ear Flap Kids Hat and can be found at Knitting Pattern Central. The pattern is for a plain hat, but I decided to knit in a little color. After I got done with the white design, I noticed it wasn't lined up exactly with the blue design, but I don't think Charlie will notice. I'll have to remember that for next time though. (In case you're wondering, my hat model is a squash!)

This next hat (entitled "A Pup Named Phil Hat") is from the toddler's clothing section of Knitting Pattern Central. It will be going to my great nephew for Christmas. You know, I've been knitting for a lot of years, but I can honestly say that I don't remember knitting anything as cute as this ever before. I can hardly wait to see how this looks on Ethan.

The rest of these aren't Christmas presents, just pictures of projects you've only seen partially completed before. Here's the shawl I made from the Noro Kureyon sock yarn. It's a small shawl, but adds a nice bit of warmth around my shoulders. I probably should have used a plain colored yarn, because I don't think you really notice the lace pattern with the color changes in the yarn. I'm also not totally happy with the edging. The points on the edge that pulled out very nicely when I blocked it are now tending to curl up. I'm thinking about adding some beads on those points around the edge to give the fabric a bit of extra weight and keep it from curling up.

Here's the other Tam O'Shanter I knitted from Angela Sixian Wu's "Three Tams" pattern. I really like how these colors turned out. The dark colored yarn is a 2-ply worsted weight wool called Regal (part of that yarn my friend Don gave to me last summer). As I was knitting with it, I thought the yarn was a little bit rough, but once I washed this hat and put in a little fabric softener, it dried so nicely (over the dinnerplate again) and is now really soft to the touch. I'll add it to my drawer of finished projects until I find the perfect giftee or silent auction to donate it to.

Top View of Tam

Bottom View of Tam

Have a good evening and stay warm! It's time for me to go sit by the fireplace and knit some more!