Jen - your afghan is beautiful. I have made many afghans but only the crochet across, zig zag, or in panels. The last swap was my first attempt at granny squares, or any kind of squares.
Jean - good job. I can follow a pattern, and the one I did for the last swap was just easier for me to read and figure out. I finally figured out how to make a basic granny square without any instructions.
Darlene - your collection is beautiful. I only have the hooks I just bought. I also have all of my grandmas hooks - some of them are bone. I also keep all my hooks in a jar. I also have all of her (gramma's) knitting needles, although she preferred to crochet. I have about 20 quilts she never finished - as she got older she cut out all kinds of quilts, but never put them together. Some day (when I retire) I need to at least put hers together. I also have a quilt I made - not quilted yet - for my son before he was born and he is now 26!!! I guess I will finish it when he has his first child.
I will show you all how the fiber gets from the alpaca to being yarn. We are shearing on June 9, then we sort the fiber - blanket (good stuff), seconds (okay stuff), thirds (gets made into felt) - we skirt the fiber and remove all the "stuff" called VM (vegatable matter) as in hay, etc. Then I wash the fleece, card or comb the fleece and then it can be spun into yarn. We don't keep all of our fleece, we send some of it to the Alpaca Fiber Co-Op of North America. Then we can buy products from them (socks, scarves, yarn, gloves) at a discount and sell those. The best fleeces I keep and they are sitting in my basement waiting for me to process. I need about 50 more hours a day!!!
My sister and I are trying to start a farm store and yes I will then sell the yarn I have been making plus products from the fiber co-op. Last year we sold all the fiber from our angora rabbits and this year the lady wants all of it too.
I think tonight I will do some spinning - although I did a square today on the way to work on the rapid -
Bonnie
