The Alpaca

This is the yummy alpaca sweater I made for Kevin for Christmas. The yarn feels so wonderful, but the project hit some hitches. This is the first sweater I've completed (still working on Cookie monster cables, even though I started it first). There are a couple of obvious places where I did the wrong stitch.

Then there is the unexpected "stretch" factor. I knit (is that the past tense?) this on size 11 needles. It went very fast, but b/c of the loose-ness of the stitch, the arms stretch out when you put it on. I'm going to attempt a technique my knitting teacher in college used to make shoulder seams to try and counteract this stretching....as soon as I can get to the sewing machine in my studio!!!

Here's the technique....Place pins perpindicular to the seam on either end of the shoulder seam. Then wrap yarn around these pins in a figure 8 pattern, cinching up the seam to the measurement you want. Then sew with a sewing machine zig zag stitch to secure.

Hope it works.

I also found out 2 things about alpaca AFTER I had the whole thing done. 1) it sheds, and 2) it's heavy.

I'm not sure if Kevin will ever actually where this or not, but it was fun to make. I think I'll try a similar pattern to this next time in wool and a slightly smaller needle.