Beautifully soft yarn made from 100% alpaca sourced from only 2 alpacas on Jester Farm - a brother and sister. I have always wanted to knit with yarn from animals I have met, so thank you PJ for helping me with that!

The farm is run by my great friend PJ, and the photos show the male alpaca who donated the fleece for these mitts, along with his sister (I am very grateful!). He was getting edged out of the photo by the gorgeous guy in front, who was telling us it was dinner time. The last photo is the converted barn where the fleece was spun into yarn, near Rochester NY. We managed to load up the car with materials, and we did all manage to fit in for the drive home.

Mitts - had 48g of the yarn and it was the perfect amount for these mitts. knitted up as a fine DK weight.

The instructions below are for my reference, because these fit me well and I expect I’ll be using this as a base pattern again.

3.5mm pins, cast on 40, 2x2 rib for 24r Change to 4mm pins, k stocking st on palm, moss st on front for 25r

Increase for thumb:
row 1 - inc 1 st on either side of 1st st, PM
row 2 - k in pattern
Repeat row 1 and 2 x 5 so there are 11 st between markers
Slip thumb st onto spare wool, knit the rest of the hand in patter until about 3cm away from finished length

Decrease for top:
row 1 - dec 1 st on front and back at pinky side only,
row 2 - k
row 3 - dec 1 st on front and back at pinky side only,
row 4 - k
row 5 - dec 1 st on front and back at both sides
row 6 - k
row 7 - dec 1 st on front and back at both sides
row 8 - k
row 9 - dec 1 st on front and back at both sides
row 10 - k
row 11 - k 2 tog all way round
Graft the two sides together when casting off.