Wild Mohair Sighted in San Diego

I can always tell when fall is on its way by the return of cool weather fibers. When the wool, alpaca, and mohair start appearing on my doorstep, I know summer is almost over.

Case in point:

This was waiting for me when I got home from Jamaica. Six balls of the softest, coffee brown mohair I've ever felt. It's just begging to be made into a fuzzy shawl.

And then, I got an email from Ram Wools, telling me that the hand-painted BFL I ordered is on its way. I don't entirely remember placing such an order, but hey, who am I to argue with serendipity?

And a huge box of bulky weight alpaca (enough for four sweaters) has also made its appearance. I do remember placing that order, but I'm still not sure what I was thinking when I ordered so much. Two of the lots are even the same color. Different texture, though. The fact that it never actually gets cold enough in San Diego for bulky weight alpaca evidently did not figure into my calculations.

In the meantime, I am still working on my last summer sweater for the year. I am a bit behind, because I did not do any knitting while on vacation! Can you imagine such a thing? I did knit a little on the plane, but only enough to make it this far:

That's most of the yoke for Grecian Plaits. It's supposed to be 46 inches long. I'm at about 40 inches. Once the length is right, I will graft the ends together to make a loop, then pick up and knit downward in the round. I love this design for many reasons, not the least of which is that, apart from the short grafted seam that closes the yoke, there are no seams and no finishing. You will notice that the entire yoke is cabled. I cannot even begin to tell you how much faster and easier cabling is if you learn to do it without a cable needle. If you haven't tried it, I beg you to go check out Grumperina's tutorial. It only takes a couple of minutes to learn and saves hours of time over the course of a sweater.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to catch up on some blog reading.