Prince Charming has friends

Prince Charming (lower left)
CVM (upper left)
Shetland (on the right)

Singles in a stack

Hanks and Swatch

Long story

Peggy and I were on vacation in Oroville, WA a few of years ago (birthplace of our Betty Roberts Spinning Wheels) and we went across The Lake to visit Karen at Cloud Ranch Alpacas because it was June and the babies had just been born and the spring shearing completed and there was nothing for us to do but admire the critters and drool over the fiber. And perhaps buy some.

While admiring the older babies, Peggy totally fell in love with a friendly lad named Prince Charming, so named for his winning ways with people, and asked Karen to save his first fleece for her, which she did. Fast forward to the following summer and waa-laa, 2 lbs of luscious red alpaca in a bag. It was worth every cent and Peggy took it to Dawn's Custom Carding for processing.

During the ensuing year while she was spinning The Prince she started speculating about the type of garment she wanted and decided upon a rag sweater, a big 'ol barn pullover and found this pattern. Rag, however, would require more fiber. At Conference in Tacoma she found 20 ounces of the incredible two-tone CVM from Reflection Farm and then at Oregon Flock and Fiber last September she found some Shetland from From Barn To Yarn, which was way way nicer than any other we saw. She bought a pound. Let's see: 2 lbs + 20 oz + 1 lb = 3 lbs 4 oz. That's a lotta sweater! And a lot of spinning.

The swatch knit up to 4 stitches to the inch, perfect for her barn sweater, which will be featured in a future post.