Since I've become active on Ravelry

I tend to document a lot of my thoughts on projects there when perhaps I should be doing so here.  So I will try to do that for an idea I have for a cardigan for Todd.

I have a lot of decisions to make and a lot of things to figure out.  I am developing theories about alpaca and how I can use it more effectively.  It really does act differently from wool, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.  One thing to consider is drape.  Many people mix in a bit of wool to make it maintain some springiness.  Is that really needed?  Maybe the structure of the garment just needs to be different.

I have an alpaca sweater that has had 2 different hemlines.  It is a rather fitted sweater, intentionally tailored to my body with a decent amount of success.  I have come to the conclusion that a ribbed hemline might not be best for alpaca so I changed it to a split welt.  That lets it hang freely.  I should complete that tonight.
Maybe alpaca is better if it is more tailored as it doesn't spring like wool does.  This might make it harder to work with but the results might be more satisfying.  I have a feeling that I might end up being happy with the sweater I finish tonight.

Anyway, my sweater inspiration is the urban aran cardigan which is a variation of the urban aran.  I have yet to buy the pattern.  I actually want to turn it into  hybrid sweater, OK, if you aren't on ravelry that link won't work.  If you are really interested in knitting you must join ravelry.  There.  I said it.  I think I want to steek it and I also want to change the direction of the side thing and turn put in some slash pockets.  Yup, that'd be pretty sweet.  I also want to change it to a finer gauge.  This is alpaca after all.

OK, soo I re-edit this post to think how much fiber do I actually need?  If it were chunky weight it could be  3 pounds.  Somebody said alpaca can be heavier than you think.  I mean, it's hard for me to reckon exactly what I need.  I am going to try to card more than I need and spin and hopefully I will not have a repeat of what happened with my shawl.  I had to spin a LOT more than I thought I would.

I have however chosen a fleece and a bit of dyed fleece to card.  I want it to be 75% natural black and 25% dyed blue and green.  I need to get a better idea of what I need before I spin anything.  This really is tricky.