Last day of the Year 2025 – an FO Hat and Just Started Hats and a Baby Sweater.

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I started the baby sweater (in the 1st picture in the light blue, Spa color way) in Yarn Bee Warm & Cozy yarn a few weeks ago, but had to frog it and start again. Been a while since I’ve done the Tin Can Knits Flax sweater pattern. Plus I decided to do a cable on the sleeves instead of the garter stitch. I have the neck done and the stitch markers in to mark off the front, back and sleeves. Just started the increases for the raglan part. I will be working on it soon, it needs to be done in February.

The hats are something I work on during the year for the local homeless shelter and as a bonus they give me a mindless knit when I need to knit but don’t have the brain power to think about complicated patterns. I don’t normally have more than one on my needles at a time, because having too many things going at one time gives me anxiety. But, for some reason, I started 3, sigh. The one in the 1st picture, that is finished, was done with I Love This Yarn, Print in the Mahogany Singe color way, it’s a very nice color. The 2nd one in blue in the 2nd picture is the I Love This Yarn, print color way Blueberry Buckle, which is also a very nice color knit up. The 3rd one I went with Yarn Bee Yarn ID in the color way Thistle (a light lavender). All these yarns I buy at Hobby Lobby on the weeks that they are 30% off (which is every other week) and they are all worsted weight. Hobby Lobby has a nice selection and you can also order them online if you don’t like to go to a store to shop. I’m a tactile person and like to see and handle the yarn before I buy :P. Anyway these should keep me busy for a few weeks. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will start spinning again too.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed New Year!!!

The Christmas Story Told by Children

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This is from the Book of Mormon on Christmas Eve day, so I’m putting this up on Christmas Eve day :). The prophet Nephi, son of Helaman, is crying to the Lord because the the wicked had said if the sign of the Savior’s birth did not manifest when the Prophet Samuel had foretold, that they would destroy all those who believed in the Savior, Jesus Christ, and they were preparing to do that.

“And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:

Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets” 3 Nephi 1:12-13

May you all have a blessed and wonderful Christmas, and may the peace of this season be with you through out the New Year.

The first Christmas Story told by Children. Hope you enjoy this link.

Winter Temps are Here

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It will get colder in Jan and Feb with minus teens and 20’s in the day time, but the wind chills (-20 to -30) tonight and into tomorrow and Sunday, with this Alberta Clipper, are close to our late Jan and Feb chill. Makes me afraid of what our late Jan and Feb temps will be!! Our mid winter thaw is starting on Tuesday this week (also a month early), but those mid to upper 30’s will be so nice. And tho’ the roads will be messy as all the snow melts, the roads will be clear and then we start over again.

Because of the very cold frostbite temps, my son’s farm won’t be open to the public for alpaca visits tomorrow, tho he’s leaving his store open for shoppers (hope some of them can brave the cold temps for alpaca yarn, alpaca socks and hats, and his 3D printed items.) I get the day off, so the plan is to sleep in, stay home, drink some hot chocolate and knit!

A Buck, Finally a Picture of that Blanket I finished, Some Pictures of Alpaca Stuff

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I showed you a picture of a doe that was eating under a tree in the snow before and I took a picture of a Buck a couple of days ago eating under the same tree. They sure are pretty but pretty pesky here in town.

I finished the Look for Happiness Blanket by Fifty Four Ten Studio a few weeks ago and just haven’t gotten around to showing it, so here it is. I made the medium size for a lap blanket. I still need to wash and block it. Hope she will like it. It took me some time, but I found it a peaceful knit and enjoyed this pattern, so I didn’t hurry through it. :). Taking pictures at night sure doesn’t give true color, lol, this is actually a denim color so it’s a little darker and brighter than it shows up. Maybe someday I will master taking pictures for my blog, or not.

The next two pictures I took last week at the Farm’s annual open to the public Christmas celebration. I neglected to get pictures of the alpaca who were wearing candy cane horns, tho I have to admit most of them managed to get them off, lol. But there were cookies (an alpaca cookie I managed to snag). I accidentally broke it on the way home (breaking things seem to be my thing), but it still took a pretty picture and his reg farm hand drew a picture in the snow of an alpaca before people came out, I thought it was cute. Along with the cookies there was also hot chocolate for the people who came out. They also had Santa who asked all the kids what they wanted for Christmas and he gave them all a gift bag with alpaca goodies. Because it was cold we didn’t have a ton of people, but they had put together 50 gift bags for the kids and they were all claimed ;). I think everyone had fun. They are debating, for this next Saturday because of the Alberta clipper that is heading this way with very cold temps, on rather they will open, don’t want little ones getting frostbite. They would still keep the store open for people wanting to shop for Christmas. It will depend on if the clipper arrives on time or is slower moving. It is supposed to be -30 with the wind chills by Monday, winds from 30 to 50 miles per hr in some areas of IA, ugh.

These minus temps are our late Jan and early Feb temps, I can hardly wait to see what they will be in Jan and Feb :0. Even our mid winter thaw (warm up) is coming early, the week before Christmas, according to the weather man, sigh. We need it tho, in 2008 there was no mid winter thaw (we always get one, but not that year, it’s generally in Jan) so the snow on the ground did not melt and when it melted in the spring there was so much snow melting from the top of IA on down that the Cedar River flooded big time, over flowing 5 miles on each side of the river. Rail road cars had been put on the tracks that go over the bridges to try to keep the bridges from being washed away, but the flood was so high it took the rail road cars that had been filled with big rocks to weigh them down more, right off the bridge. A Dairy Queen that was a few blocks away from the river was flooded over the roof. So we need that mid winter thaw. Maybe it means spring will come sooner! I’ll just keep that thought.

Stay warm!!!

Hats, Roving and Temps!!

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I have 5 hats ready to go for my Hats for Warmth project to send to my local homeless shelter, and since you will notice the temps today, I will get that in the mail tomorrow!! Now to start knitting more hats. I like to have 5 or more hats to send out.

My son and his spouse went to a fiber show, several hrs away, two weeks ago, and while they were there they bought me 2 Haunui spinning roving, which is a new sheep breed to me. This sheep breed is only found in New Zealand and I have been eyeing this fiber for a while. There is a fiber artist with a small business here in the USA, Twine, that imports the fiber and carries it. He also carries the Majacraft spinning wheels. It’s a new website and he doesn’t have much up on it yet, but I will be following it for more fiber batts and drooling over the spinning wheels :P. He’s doing the fiber fair circuit at the moment so I’m sure it will be after the holidays before he has his website setup completed and will probably depend on what stock he has left after the holiday shows. I have to say this wool is soft like Merino and the one he blended with alpaca and silk is very soft!!!

I’m rushing to get the hats out to the shelter because our cold weather has hit a little early this year. Fortunately it’s just today and will warm back up to the lower 20’s and teens in the day, but this minus temperature is our Jan and colder Feb weather. The first temp is the ambient temp, the lower one next to it is the feels like temp, the next number is the dew point and the percentage next to that is the humidity.

I will be blocking the baby blanket, that I finished a couple of weeks ago and sharing a picture of it and a new baby sweater I started, in a few days. I also need to start the color work Christmas tree balls. I have put it off because I’m not a color work person and lol, it gives me a little anxiety. I know, once I start them, it will be fine. sigh

Stay warm everyone!!!