Raglan Lace Alpaca Sweater Lesson 1 The Body

If you are like me, you process your own fibre and spin your own yarn. At a fibre fair I ran across a wonderful bag of alpaca fibre. It was teddy bear soft and I wanted a sweater. While doing research I read you must add wool to the alpaca by at least 30% or the knit item will not maintain shape and size. I also read alpaca yarn makes a beautiful sweater. I have also ran across patterns for alpaca yarn and you can purchase 100% alpaca sweaters, I was surprised by so many opposing views.

I decided to spin 100% alpaca yarn and either prove or disprove the theory. Welcome to my alpaca journey.

Any time one is designing a sweater it must always start by knitting a sample called a swatch. This is especially important when using 100% alpaca yarn.

Unlike wool, alpaca has little to no crimp. That equates to less spring in the fibre and less memory. Alpaca can be unforgiving and stretch from its original shape and size.

To knit your swatch you will knit in the pattern included at the bottom of the page. Knit a piece no smaller than a 4 X 4 inch square. Wash and block out your swatch. Once dry measure the width and length of the piece. Measurements should be accurate to 1/8 at least. Now use hair clips or clothespins and hang the swatch from a wire hanger. Let it hang out for a few days.

You may think this is a bit strange, but there is a method to my madness here. You want to emulate wearing an alpaca garment. Remove the swatch from the hanger and measure the width and length again. Did it change? If not that’s a bonus and you are ready to move onto completing calculations to design your own alpaca sweater.

If by chance your swatch is larger after hanging, you need to try again. Try going down another needle size. If you chose a different lace design you may need to sample a few times to find the best needle size for your hand spun yarn and the lace design chosen. Your stitch gauge is the number of stitches in a row in your swatch divided by the width of the swatch. Your row gauge is the number of rows divided by the vertical measurement of the swatch.

Now let’s move onto the calculation phase of the sweater. We will be starting with the body of the sweater. For the body you will measure across a sample sweater at the bust line. Take the bust measurement, multiply by two then multiply by your stitch gauge. The lace pattern we are using needs a number that is divisible by 7 after subtracting 2.

Let’s take a look at an example.

For my sweater I’m using 21 inches across the bust. My stitch gauge is 5.285.

My calculation is 21 X 2 X 5.285 = 221.97

As I need a number divisible by 7 after subtracting 2, I will use 219 as my cast on number. This will give me the two additional stitches required in the lace pattern and 31 pattern repeats.

As alpaca can easily stretch I will want a light weight hemline finish. I’ve chosen to use an I-cord cast on for the hem line. Instructions for an I-cord cast on are available on our YouTube channel.

Once you have cast on all the required stitches begin knitting in pattern starting on row 2 of the 4 row lace repeat. Continue to knit until the body is the length required for your “H” number (hem to armpit)

Set the body aside, this completes lesson one.

Videos have been added to support these instructions.

I-cord Cast On

The Importance of the Swatch

Raglan Lace Alpaca Sweater Lesson 1:The Body