It's 50% Alpaca, 30% Merino and 20% silk in her "Filly" colorway. Really pretty stuff.
I finally got around to spinning it.
I made a nice, bulky weight 2-ply (part of my ongoing effort to spin a bit thicker). I got about 140 yards from a 4-oz braid. I found a simple hat pattern and knitted away and made a cute slouchy hat. Except that after I washed and blocked it, it grew to huge sack-like proportions. Not so cute.
So, I did something slightly horrifying and threw it in the wash. It felted up nicely, and I let it dry over a mixing bowl to shape it into a cloche (which is still kind of big- amazing).
It's a bit hard to see the spiral pattern now, but it doesn't look like I've got a hat that belongs on one of those Macy's Thanksgiving floats either.
I had to go back with scissors once I had felted it and trim all the alpaca guard hairs. Those apparently don't felt at all, and it gave the hat a bristly look. I didn't notice the guard hairs at all when I was spinning and knitting the fiber.
The specs:
The pattern is "Spiral Hat" from the book "100 Designer One-Skein Wonders" (I'm not quite sure about calling this hat a wonder). I used size 8 needles and about 100 yards of yarn. It's a very easy pattern and only took me a few hours to make.
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