So, at the beginning of the year I mentioned that I was taking part in one year one outfit, the brain child of Nicki of this is moonlight; the challenge being that we participants have one year in which to make an outfit for ourselves that is 100% locally grown or sourced.
And this cardigan is my first thing! the first component of my outfit finally finished. Phew!
Earlier in the year, Nicki drove Sue of fadanista and me to Toodyay, where the three of us visited the Fibre of the Gods, the alpaca farm owned and run by Hazel and Michael McKone. The farm is also home to a tiny and thriving wool mill; processing fleece into yarn for anyone who has some and wants it done; AND very importantly for the purpose of our project, also processes and spins its own alpaca yarn, shorn from their very own animals! The lovely Hazel took us into the girls’ paddock and introduced us … below are some of the hembras. That’s the term for a female alpaca, fyi. Also did you know that a male alpaca is known as a macho?! We saw one macho, out on his lonely lonesome in a separate paddock, all manly-like and aloof, looking down on us girls.
No, they’re not checking out the macho… they’re giving the evil eye to the farm’s cat! Alpacas are very wary of cats; and dogs too, according to my friend J, who has a small herd of her own. They will protect your sheep from vermin like foxes, and are likely to turn on a dog and kick him out of a paddock if they don’t know him well.
Hazel kindly showed us the mill equipment and explained how the entire operation is run entirely on their farm; from the animal right through to the finished yarn. And then we obviously shopped in their tiny store, cleaning out a, erm, sizeably large chunk of their eponymous stock, eep! They do stock some lovely coloured yarns and a few knitted and felted products for sale, however we were all of us after their own natural, un-dyed yarns for the purposes of our 100% homegrown project 🙂
Sue and Nicki also have written about our day out on their individual blogs too.
Anyway; my cardigan!
I used natural or undyed alpaca yarn from “white” alpacas, which when viewed objectively and ex situ is actually not even vaguely white at all really! but this lovely, very pale caramel colour. So how apt that I should choose a pattern called “Caramel”!
The Caramel blanket-style cardigan or jacket is designed by Isabell Kraemer, and is freeeee! available to download here on Ravelry. Basically; I put the search words “free” “cardigan” “8ply” into the Ravelry search engine and this came up… I thought it a rather nice and elegant shape. Well, “shape”; of course “blanket style” is basically another way of saying “giant rectangle with sleeves”… anyway I love how it looks loose with the fronts gently draping upon themselves, the points hanging down longer than the back.
My Caramel is knitted pretty much to the pattern; with just a few minor variations. Obviously mine has no real stripes. My sleeves and body are much longer. Also, I left off the the decorative? purl side seam stitching and the ribbing off the sleeves and lower edge. In the process of knitting I decided I really preferred the streamlined look with slight curl-up of the ends that you get with no ribbing. I had initially finished a sleeve lower edge with ribbing, to trial it; but then I unravelled that bit and redid the edges sans ribbing.
Plus; and herein is a huge advantage of a top-down knitted design, I just kept on knitting knitting knitting until I had used up all my wool, then cast off that lower edge. It’s a lot easier to do that if you know you don’t have to allow for ribbing.
Result; barely no leftovers! Win!
One thing about the Fibre of the Gods yarn that I really really LOVE! is how Hazel and Michael have labelled the balls with the name of the animal along with a little picture of them. So I know that my alpaca yarn came from Bandit, Coral and Pearl.
Hey, guys! Thanks so much for the shirts off your backs… figuratively speaking. 😉
I also made a little wooden “pin” to hold the cardigan closed if it’s cold; by sanding down a nice and straight, little stick, found on my morning walk. It’s local obviously, so it too fits in with my one year one outfit challenge!
I can’t decide if I prefer my cardigan open or closed; I think I like it both ways equally!
Details:
Cardigan; hand-knitted by me, the Caramel pattern by Isabell Kraemer, natural alpaca yarn from Fibre of the Gods mill in Toodyay.
Tshirt; own pattern, blue jersey over dyed black, details here
Skirt; own pattern, charcoal ponte, details here
Tights; own pattern, black stretch poly, details here
Socks; not seen, hand-knit by me from Noro wool yarn, details here
That's a beautiful cardigan, Carolyn. I love the style and loose drape. Also the colour and thickness of the yarn by the alpacas is just perfect. Great idea of a project to use everything local. Btw which size of needles did you use? Looks like very small one? I'm looking forward to seeing th other components.
thank you Kathrin! I used 2.75mm needles, the pattern specifies 4mm but then I do usually have to use a needle approximately 2-3 sizes smaller than suggested in the pattern to get the correct tension anyway. I must be a very loose knitter!!
Love the concept and especially the cardi, very natural and very local too. Looks really great!!
thank you so much Dilliander! 🙂
perfect!
Wow I really love your jacket! Thank you for mentioning about the pattern, I think I need to get it and knit one for myself too. Yours looks so nice! Everything about it also sounds perfect. It's a dream local project.
This is so pretty. My sweater I have been knitting is taking forever. I got my sleeve too long too which I didn't notice. Now it is packed away. Do I start over or do I make the second sleeve the length to match? I am not sure what to do. Maybe my pattern is too difficult even though it is for a beginner. I really want to knit, but then think maybe I should give up….until I see something you have made again!
thank you Shirley Ann; and no, don't give up! If you think the sleeve is too long just unravel it a touch, back to the length you want it to be, and then pick up the stitches again to cast off.
Thank you for the advice!
This is divine, right down to it's wooden closure. I love Nicki's OYOO and have been reading along with great interest. Your Caramel looks lovely, and I also adore the subtle variegations from the different alpacas.
The idea of only using local products is awesome! I also think a lot about environment-friendly cloth. Until now I wasn't able to source a lot local fabric producers in Germany but at least no poor women got exploited sewing my recent cloth. It's great that you take part in this challange and your cardigan looks lovely!
It's beautiful. And I particularly like the pin. There must be scope to get all super-celtic-broochy with twigs. (You know, with the round thing and the floppy-pin? As you can tell, I'm all over that 😉 )
How do you find the weight of the fibre? Does it feel different to wool?
thanks Liz! It's a nice light cardigan; warm and dense and cosy. If I'm being super picky it maybe feels a touch "rougher" than merino? but it's still pretty nice and soft 🙂
Lovely cardigan, and a great way to fulfill your challenge! The stick pin makes me smile too.
Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Mwah!
Gorgeous. You did those lovely looking alpacas proud!
It's lovely!
Just lovely, versatile and warm.
thank you very much Rosemary! 🙂
Talk about knowing the origin of your clothing….that is amazing! I love that you get a picture of the alpacas who gave up their coats for you! Well done!
I love everything about this from the story of buying the wool to the beautifully coloured, subtely striped finished cardi. What a lovely start to your outfit!
This is stunning. And I love how you are trying to source all your fabric and wool locally. What an amazing project!
thank you very much! It's been a challenge, but a fun one! 🙂
I am not sure my comment reached you, so I am writing another one! I really enjoyed reading your post! I'm a real alpaca fan, I love how stupid they look 😉 And I think the project is great! The cardigan turned out beautiful, the subtle stripes make the cardigan very interesting. I think I like the cardi better closed but it looks open great as well 🙂 Great job and great post! 🙂
Cannot wait to see what else you make for this project. Gorgeous cardigan. The subtle color variations add so much depth! And love the clever stick pin.
This is a very interesting project! We have learnt something about alpacas with their cosy and light wool! Your cardigan is a really versatile garment. I love the colour and especially the little closing stick. That is such a nice idea! I admire your project and I am wondering wether it would be possible here, too?
Lovely. And how much fun to visit the animals that provided the materials!
Lovely cardigan, the colour and the style and how perfect it is 100% local.
Very cool!
thank you Roberta! 🙂
Wow…this is a very special garment! Congratulations to suppliers of raw materials and creator of finished garment!
thank you so much Rianna! 🙂
Lovely cardigan Carolyn, and the pin closure is perfect. Sienna should be a little concerned about keeping her own coat – those colours would look good on you too….
Love everything about this project! Yarn 'named' for the alpaca is just way too neat….. and your cardi is not only gorgeous, but oh-so-extra-special now, I would suppose. The pin is the absolutely perfect touch. 🙂 Thank you for sharing your farm field trip with us too. I sooooo look forward to the unveiling of your final project.
simply stunning. I have to confess that when I think alpaca I think of those stratchy south american jumpers we wore in the 70s.
AMAZING Carolyn, just amazing! What a great concept for you guys.. would love to do this one year… a bit hard this year… :/
I love your entire outfit!
Such a cool project! I love the resulting cardigan, what a special piece!
What a lovely cardigan and made more special by knowing exactly where it came from.
Soooo beautiful!
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