Lion Brand Al-Pa-Ka

From the Lion Brand web site:
Our luxurious blend of 30% wool, 30% alpaca, and 40% acrylic is warm and hand washable. It wears well and looks great year after year. Whatever you create, Al•Pa•Ka makes it even more special.

4-ply worsted weight.1.75 oz./50g (107 yd./98m) balls.
30% wool, 30% alpaca, and 40% acrylic.
Gauge: Knit: 16 St sts + 23 rows = 4" (10 cm) on size 8 (5mm) needles.
Crochet: 13 sc + 16 rows = 4" (10 cm) on size I hook.
Made in Turkey.
Fabric Care Instructions: Hand wash in in cool or warm water; dry flat and not by machine. Do not bleach or iron.



Whew, that Lion link is looking a bit wonky, so I decided to just copy all the remaining info about this yarn. It's sort of sad that a nice chunky worsted alpaca blend was discontinued just as alpaca yarns became really hot and popular, but c'est la fibre. Gosh I hope the silly spelling didn't have anything to do with it...not with those cute cute alpacas also on the label!

I once was forced to knit a 100% alpaca sweater, in black, in sport weight, as a design sample. The memory of all...that...hot...warm...fuzzy...unyielding yarn has stayed with me. I also don't need anything that warm. But when I came across heavily discounted packages of Lion Brand AlPaKa at my fave local yarn sale about hm seven or eight years ago, I fell in love. It's soft, cuddly, just slightly fuzzy, with a slight sheen and nice strong ply.

I bought lots of Mink Brown and have been steadily working away at a gigantic cabled hoodie; this particular item will be blogged about if and when I finish it, because the triple-intersect cable design is extremely mind-boggling and is worth noting. It nearly reduced me to tears on the first row. My fear right now is that having put it aside for about 2 years, wanting lighter-weight projects, is that I'll be unable to remember the trick to it. Even in such dark fuzzy yarn, the cables are crisp and well worth the effort.

The package of 10 creamy white balls became the shawl excerpted below:

I love love love this shawl. It's warm and cuddly on chilly winter nights and mornings as I sit toiling away at my computer in my big-windowed living room. The leaf pattern came from a knitting stitch encyclopedia. EZ knitting on nice fat needles. Beautiful stitch definition.

The package of black yarn is nearly a jacket now, combined with Noro Silk Garden in mosaic panels, using a really striking pattern from Knitter's mag from way back then. I lucked out, having found the Noro yarn 1/2 price at a different Local Yarn Store; it seemed extremely logical to combine it with the luxurious alpaca blend that just happened to be the same gauge and lent the slightly scratchy Silk Garden yarn some softness and suppleness it lacks alone. Only five years later, that too is nearly done! Every summer I swear I'll finish it for the coming fall and winter...I'm hoping that Blog Karma will operate in my favor and force a satisfying conclusion.