Two Shear Spirits

always with the cliches

The Victory Ranch package arrived!  I'd requested an assortment of  millspun worsted weight alpaca, planning to make 4 Taos Berets*.  Chronically indecisive as I am, I asked Carol to choose for me. She came through with flying naturals.
Heavenly. Every last ounce. In the course of spending time on all the fiber farms last year I fell crazy in love with natural yarns again, after years of preferring strong dyed colors. I'm especially taken with this two toned skein. I'd never have selected it, yet it is the one I decided to knit first. I've already cast on in the natural white and 2 tone.

*fyi: I'd be lying if I said I'm test knitting this pattern from the book. I've already knit two and so has Joan. It so works, in a way that you must knit one or two or four more. They're designed, by Devra Wagner,  to be knit with two colors but I've made a four colored one, and really, what more fun could that be? I did mention that indecisive problem, right?  I don't have much knitting time this weekend so I just suggested we kill plans to go out and watch a dvd at home instead. Ulterior motive, knitting ? You bet.

encounters

Tubac is the oldest European settlement in Arizona, and today it's full of artists' galleries. I stopped in at Rosso & Russ, where owner Ellyn Ahmer had racks of gorgeous tops and scarves made of ribbons dyed and knitted into lovely garments.Anna - the "Friday lady"- showed me some surprisingly soft yarn made from buffalo fiber and sent me to the Tortuga bookstore to alert them to Shear Spirit. It turned out that the clerk used to raise not only mohair goats but also Gulf Coast sheep. Small fiber world .

Hats off

My technological explorations seem to have come to an end at last, so I finally got back to my knitting! It had really been a long time, but I had all my mother's knitting needles and all those neat Shear Spirit patterns. I actually managed to figure out the circular needles and do an entire beret. I knew it was meant to be slouchy, but I think it was meant to be slouchy on someone with a bigger head or more hair.
But there was still plenty of alpaca yarn left, especially for a smaller version. So I did version two.

Finding the buttons that went on top was a whole other story. The fabric store that used to carry them went out of business several years ago. Another fabric store sent me to a craft store, but I didn't like anything there. Finally I found a real trove in Fine Fabrics, which not only had a cache of wonderful buttons but amazing bolts of French lace embedded with bits of leather, feathers, and sequins. Just looking at the cloth was a bit like looking at an art gallery. Too bad I don't have another beret on the horizon. But now that I know where to get buttons, can a cardigan be far behind?

my trip to michael's

I went to Michaels to look for adhesive velcro, since I'm about to rehang my rugs. I think I've been there once before. What an eyeopener that was! Did I need to be reminded that Christmas is upon us? But I had no idea there were so many knitting things there too – including books. Like ours, I hope.