Alpaca Direct Blog

Have you heard of Izzy Dolls? They're darling little toys that are included in aid packages, and are sometimes a child's first toy. Designer Esther Braithwaite has developed many patterns for Izzy Dolls, sometimes called Comfort Dolls, and they're available free in her Ravelry store. 

Kelley fell in love with them and decided to feature Izzy Dolls on her weekly Facebook Live broadcast, Technique Tuesday.

After a lot of careful consideration, we are temporarily closing our store due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Customers who have questions that they’d normally ask in our store can get answers through our online VIP community on Facebook. You can also email or call us with questions. In the meantime, thank you for your understanding, your patience, and most of all, for being a part of our local community. 

Sometimes you want a little pretty at the end of a project, and the picot cast-off is just the ticket. It makes a lovely edging as you cast off, perfect for baby items or anything, really.

There are a few decorative cast-offs worth knowing, and Kelley demonstrated two of them, the picot cast-off and the Channel Island cast-off, on this week's Technique Tuesday on Facebook Live. 

Shop owner Kelley's favorite fiber is alpaca. It's one of the warmest fibers to work with, and so soft—why wouldn't you want it for your baby?

Kelley has developed a free alpaca baby hat, Claire's Baby Hat, and she's following up with a pair of baby socks, Claire's Baby Boot Socks. (If you're wondering who Claire is, she's Kelley and Jim's second granddaughter, due in May.)

Learn how to work a German short-row heel and the Icelandic bind-off!

Alpaca Direct is excited to participate in the upcoming Malabrigo Dos Tierras Knit-Along, beginning on April 1, 2020. We have a fresh supply of Dos Tierras yarn to help you plan your project! 

Kelley, our shop owner is getting ready for a new grand baby in May, and her latest project is the Chevron Baby Blanket by Melissa Clulow, a free pattern on Ravelry.

This is a really easy pattern—just a 2-row repeat for the entire thing! So perfect for knit night or TV knitting. It's knit with a worsted-weight yarn, so that makes it quick, too. Kelley used HiKoo CoBaSi Plus for her blanket. It's a blend of cotton, bamboo, silk, and nylon that's perfect for kids; it's machine washable!

A new baby is something to be celebrated, and this coming May, shop owner Kelley is going to welcome her second granddaughter. So exciting! I don't know about you, but I still have some of my own baby clothes saved carefully in my hope chest. These include a receiving blanket and a couple of handmade dresses; they're such wonderful keepsakes.

Kelley designed a future keepsake for her new grand baby, Claire—a hat fittingly named Clair's Baby Hat. It's knit with our new luxury yarn, Bravo, a 100-percent baby alpaca yarn, so it'll be warm, cozy, and beautiful. We are so proud of this luscious yarn!

I just finished repairing a baby blanket that had a hole in it. The owner was anxious to get it back, so it was a rush job. Oh, and the owner of the blanket is 14 years old! Isn't that great? It shows how important these blankies can be for children of all ages.

Shop owners Kelley and Jim are expecting their second grandchild, and Kelley has baby blankets on her mind. I thought I'd share a few options for those of you who need a shower gift or are expecting a baby of your own.

Our shop owner Kelley recently finished Ambah O'Brien's Adventurer Cowl, and during our weekly Technique Tuesday broadcasts on Facebook Live, she demonstrated a few techniques used in the project. 

This project is really gorgeous, no matter if you choose a bunch of mini-skeins to work with, or just two colors like Kelley did. 

And with so many techniques to practice, it's a great pattern for stretching your skills. Ambah wrote the Adventurer Cowl for advanced beginners and beyond, and if you're a beginning chart reader, the pattern includes both written and charted instructions for the lace.

If you've ever struggled with the decrease section when knitting a hat on 16-inch circular needles, you need to learn the Magic Loop method of knitting. Similarly, if you hate how sweater sleeves twist up while knitting in the round, you need to learn the magic loop technique.

This technique works on just about any size project, so you can use it exclusively for smaller projects in the round, such as hats, sleeves, mittens, cowls, socks, and so on.

Kelley just finished knitting the Shift Cowl by Andrea Mowry, and she's fallen in love with mosaic knitting.

While it sounds complicated or fiddly—mosaics are made up of little pieces of glass, after all—mosaic knitting is super easy. Seriously, you end up with a beautiful colorwork project, but you're only using one color in each row.