I’m kind of embarrassed to post this.  I swear, I do things other than sit around and knit (although admittedly I do that a lot!)  The cropped cardigan is finished.

My best attempt at copying the model photo

Pattern: Cropped Cardigan by Blue Sky Alpacas, size XS

Yarn: Frog Tree Alpaca Sport #12(charcoal), doubled

Needles: US 10.5 and 9

Notes: I think this would be a great beginner sweater.  Since it’s knit with doubled yarn on big needles, and since it has neither long sleeves nor a full length, it’s the fastest knit sweater I’ve ever made by far.  I swear, I wasn’t even trying to finish this thing!  It just sort of happened.   I followed the pattern exactly as written except for the needle sizes.  I was really nervous about making an alpaca sweater.  My verdict?  Not itchy.  It was slightly itchy, although not horribly so, before I washed and conditioned it, but now there’s no real itch factor.  I am not someone who is sensitive to such things anyway, so YMMV.  Apparently I don’t have a sensitive nose either, because while Marc could smell the “wet alpaca” smell during blocking, all I smelled was hair conditioner.  I wore it around for awhile to see if it would overheat me, but then I remembered – I’m the pianist at church who spends every homily in the bathroom trying to thaw out her fingers.  I have issues with the cold, so I’m not sure I can be overheated.  I loved knitting with the alpaca so much – it felt like butter sliding through my fingers.  I’m definitely going to be making another alpaca sweater soon!

The edges rolled before blocking, but they settled in pretty nicely.  I also like it with a pin.

 

This is a nice wardrobe basic for me.  I actually don’t have any other sweaters this color – I don’t buy black because of the cats, and I think this is a nice compromise.

Does anyone else have cats that go crazy over alpaca?  My cats are totally obsessed with it.  They want to smell it, and roll around in it, and I even think they would eat it given the chance.