My Best in Show Alpaca Pattern

It took some doing but I put together the steps I use for my alpacas.  I messed around with getting it on Raverly but you have to fill out pages and pages of stuff and geez forget it maybe another time. But finally, finally, I have added it to my Etsy Shop.

CatchMeHooking Best in Show Alpaca

And I’d like to point out that unlike some other versions, mine WILL stand up on its own without tipping over.

Just a wee bit of history on this.  It was originally the No Drama Llama that Red Heart offered for free in a pattern they emailed me.  I thought it was cute and made my first one, which I screwed up because the steps were vague as heck in many areas, can you tell I sewed the neck/chest on BACKWARDS because the pattern didn’t say which way to put it?:

Then I was like wow, this came out BIG.  Like REALLY BIG.  I wanted it smaller, I thought it would be cuter.  So I used Caron Simply Soft which is a “4” but feels smaller than that and made this guy:

He was still just TOO BIG!  I started by scaling the face way down, the neck down, which helped reduce the body and made this little lady:

I wanted to make it maybe a little smaller so I tried scaling the body down more and the legs smaller, and made this guy:

Cute but, I thought the eyes were now too big.  I scaled the eye size down.  The body was a little too small so I went back to the original. Then I made this one:

The back of the head was a little too big but I thought perhaps the body was too long, so I tried for a smaller one on this one:

And the light green one.  No, the small body made the legs harder to place and made the alpaca a little top heavy. SOOOO I scaled the back of the head down more, went back to the original body width and length,

I though this one was nearly PERFECT.  Smaller face, head, body, legs, eyes.  But but but.  I did all that work for the fleece on it and I’m covering a big part of it with a blanket.  That’s pretty dumb, isn’t it?  And mine were so small and cute I felt they really weren’t “llamas” any more, they were alpacas, who, let’s be honest, are just cuter all around.

I then removed the blanket and came up with my own design (based off a grannie square) for a wreath instead.  And the “Best In Show Alpaca” was born!

I also did a lamb version with a two-tone variation and sheep ears:

Needless to say this whole process of testing and rewriting took several months.

Another blanket conversion

Funny enough my pink and grey virus blanket got featured on another website, but I turned it around into a wearable since those are more useful.

In my shop now!

Dressing up like me

I started putting shirts on my mannequin and decided to slap pants on it too for the ponchos I was making.  It doesn’t actually have legs and I have no clue what one of the plastic models would cost, like the ones at Kohls.  I wouldn’t mind having one of those, something with a head, arms and legs would be great. But for now this is fine.

Pretty Ponchos

With all that yarn I bought I figured I could make a virus cocoon sweater, and a matching poncho.  I’ve done ponchos in black and off-white so far.

The black one is in my shop and the white one will be posted tomorrow!

Portfolio Patterns

I’ve been making a number of different things, but for speed and efficiency I think I’m going to focus on just a few that I specialize in.

One I decided on is the virus cocoon sweater. I made one in black this past week. In my shop now!

It takes about a week and a half to make, but I am happy with the version as far as size and border detail.  It’s a combination of the virus pattern for blankets and a border I picked up from basic stitches I liked.