25 pairs of liquid brown eyes, staring out at me from their cozy barn space, is a sight I will not soon forget.  A couple of weeks ago, on a cold April day, my daughter and I visited Peeter’s Pride Alpacas, just north of Edmonton, in Canada.

Laurie Peeters, and her husband Pete, own 30 alpacas of varying colours and sizes, along with a herd of cattle, on a picturesque farm in north central Alberta.

Laurie’s passion for her alpacas is evident immediately upon meeting her. She was quick to share her vast knowledge and honest assessment of the current alpaca industry in western Canada, once she learned that my daughter is contemplating raising alpacas on Vancouver Island.

We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours learning about these beautiful, fibre bearing marvels, as well as fondling a number of items Laurie has made from her alpaca yarn, such as mitts and scarves and lined hiking socks which are made up for them.

I purchased 2 generous skeins of laceweight alpaca; one in a natural fawn colour and one for my daughter in various rich shades which Laurie had hand dyed.

I’m halfway through knitting my skein into a long, lacy scarf.  This yarn is incredible to work with; so soft with a beautiful silky texture.  Because of its’ delicate nature, alpaca yarn does stretch easily and  for a sweater or fitted garment I would combine it with a sturdier wool, but for my drapey, lace scarf it’s perfect.

I also purchased 200 grams of alpaca roving.  After spinning half of it I’m converted!  I may never go back to wool. The alpaca is spinning up into a beautiful, even, laceweight yarn with very little effort.

If you live in the Edmonton area, watch for a mini fibre festival that Laurie and other fibre enthusiasts host in the fall.  She’s promised to send me details once a date is set for 2010 and I will be sure to post that information here.

For more information on Peeter’s Pride  Alpacas visit:

http://www.alpacanation.com/farmsandbreeders/03_viewfarm.asp?name=12631

One last thing…

did you know that alpacas communicate through humming? The sound of them softly humming to one another, mothers, babies and mothers- to- be, all huddled together in that cozy barn space, made it a place that I could easily spend a  great deal of time in, and found very  hard to leave.

I have long avoided lace knitting, after a couple of experiences with very tricky patterns that left me with a pile of fine tangled yarn and major frustration.

After reading Elizabeth Zimmermann’s advice, however, I’m now working on my 4th lace shawl, using the Einband Icelandic laceweight yarn available here schoolhouse press

The trick, for me, is to find patterns where pattern stitches are only done on the right side rows, allowing me to purl back every wrong side row.  This ‘grounds’ me and my lace knitting, somehow, and makes it much more manageable.

I’ve also discovered, from experience, that the yarn must be smooth enough to frog easily, when I inevitably make a mistake in the pattern. An earlier attempt, with fine alpaca yarn, resulted in a tangled mass of fiber when I tried to frog a couple of rows. Most of that beautiful skein ended up in the garbage.

I had 9 generous skeins of laceweight Icelandic yarn in my stash, in a natural tan colour. It had been intended for a sweater which never happened.

Using professional acid dyes, I dyed the skeins into vivid Colonial Blue, Forest Green and Magenta colours.  This yarn took the dyes extremely well and the colours are so rich they gave me a whole new outlook and inspiration for lacy little shawls and scarves.

With the help of a few stitch dictionaries, lace how – to books from the library, and my rainbow of lace yarn, I expect to be knitting lace all summer.

Although this is primarily a knitting blog, my intro blurb claims to “weave my knitting and teaching lives together”.  I haven’t written about my teaching self for some time, due to the fact that  I’ve been on a one year, unpaid leave this year.

Full time teaching  with my own classroom that is.  I’ve  still been teaching part time, as a substitute, but that’s nothing like having your own class and your own ‘kids’.

My leave came about because of some long standing health problems that needed more than a couple of weeks to sort out and because of my feelings of professional burn out.

I was terrified of becoming one of ‘those’ teachers.  You know the ones.  All the joy and excitement has gone out of their teaching and they show up for work everyday putting in time until they have their magic retirement number. They’re tired, bitter and completely out of touch with why they became teachers in the first place.

Once  I felt myself inching down that slippery slope, I knew it was time to leave, at least for awhile.  Luckily for me, due to hard work and planning with my husband for the past 28 years, we were in a financial position for me to take this year of renewal.

When I left my classroom at the end of June last year, I fully expected never to be back in any capacity other than a substitute teacher. I cleaned everything out and gave anything useful away to the younger, still enthusiastic staff around me.  I walked out with 3 small boxes to show for 20 years of teaching.  One box of teaching books, one of kids books for future grandchildren and one of art ideas for subbing.

Early in the year, I set some groundrules for myself:

- my health is my #1 priority and now is the time to get it back, before it’s too late.

- I must do something that scares me everyday; wise words spoken by Eleanor Roosevelt, which I remind myself of every morning.

- do lots of what I love; take care of my  family, walk my dogs, knit and spin, knit and spin, knit and spin.

Miracles do happen, personal groundrules work and I’m now preparing to return to my former school and a new classroom in September. And,  I can hardly wait to get there.  I’ll walk in with my 2 little boxes and start all over again, without the baggage.

This year has enabled me to recapture the joy and satisfaction I felt in my early years of teaching.  It has enabled me to break out of familiar patterns and look at new ways of doing and viewing things. Most importantly, it has taught me to take myself, and the multitude of issues that teachers face everyday, far less seriously, while looking for joy at every turn.

100%  of my proceeds for the sale of this pattern will be donated to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti.

The pattern is available for purchase  for $3.00 USD  on ravelry  or buy now  through paypal.

 Inspiration for this pattern came from a yellowed, crumbling old pattern book that was my grandmother’s, circa 1930.

The socks pictured knit up quickly in Trekking pro natura; a bamboo/wool blend of sock yarn. The color shown is ‘Color Pack 30′.

The lacy ribbing and the openwork panels running along the legs keep the knitting interesting and add a feminine touch.

Questions and comments are always welcome!

I found this timeless pattern while browsing through my mom’s old knitting books and I thought I’d share it.

The yarn called for is no longer available but any worsted, aran or medium weight yarn should produce the gauge required: 16 sts  = 4 in (10 cm.)

Pattern download:

Zipped Cardigan for Boys and Girls