I learned to spin a few years ago and, since then, I’ve spun some of my own alpaca yarn and I’ve purchased handspun alpaca at various retreats and festivals. But now I’m wondering what to do with this assortment of yarn. It ranges in weight from fine sport to worsted and includes a variety of natural colors. I’ve been disappointed in enough alpaca sweaters that sagged and dragged after a few wearings so I’ve been reluctant to knit another. I had planned to make a shawl out of my own handspun, but what to do with the rest?
The answer came to me one evening when I was snuggled under a woven alpaca throw that my sister had given me. I can combine the assortment of yarns in a blanket! To take advantage of the various colors, I plan to follow Vivian Hoxbro’s mitered square technique outlined in Domino Knitting, which was published by Interweave back in 2002.
The garter-stitch structure of the mitered squares should help minimize stretching and mitigate some of the gauge differences. I plan to use size U.S. 8 (5 mm) needles for all of the yarns and hold two strands together for the finest yarn.
It figures that I didn’t get this idea until the end of winter. The biggest challenge will be keeping my hands from sweating while I knit. I think this will be a late night and early morning project.
look forward to seeing some pics of your progress with the blanket 🙂
What timing! I was just looking at some homespun alpaca yarn in my stash wondering what to do with it. Oddly enough, I was thinking of a shawl. I’ll look forward to seeing how your blanket works!
“It figures that I didn’t get this idea until the end of winter.” lol At least it will be small during the summer months? Think how big and heavy it will get, just about the time you won’t mind having it on your lap.