Month: September 2012

Knitting for Fall

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2 Sweaters for Fall

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I got a request to knit sweaters.  Believe it or not from a 6 year old!!!  And her 4 year old brother did not want to be left out, lol.  The multi color sweater is for the oldest, note I chose different more pastel colors than the sweater on the pattern shows (on the left).  The yarn for the sweater on the right is not shown in the picture because our “new” JoAnn’s store (YEA!! we got a bigger JoAnn’s store) was out of the blue the 4 year old picked out ;).  It’s a beautiful royal blue in the same yarn.  I do use acrylic yarn for children so the upkeep is more in line with a busy working mom :).  I will be starting those very soon, because the 6 year old will be keeping track of how far along “her” sweater is. She reminded me that it was starting to get cold, LOL.

At the moment I’m trying to finish plying the teal singles I have on the Baynes spinning wheel (crosses her fingers that the band will hold fast) and then begin spinning the Polypay roving that I had processed from the lamb’s fleece a friend gave me.  I think her daughter is also keeping track of how far along I am for her scarf.  LOL  I better be getting my bottom end in gear!!!! 😛  I will knit on the 2 children’s sweaters while I spin (tho not exactly at the same time :P).  Sometimes I feel more like knitting and sometimes I feel more like spinning, nice to have two projects going so I can do what I want when I feel like it.  🙂

The end of summer and fall here has been so wonderful and cool.  I know winter is coming, but I will try to make a few “warmer” memories to get me through those very cold dreary winter months here in IA, that seem to go on forever, while I anticipate the beautiful green spring again :).

Remembering 9/11

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In Memory of 9/11

This picture is on the side of a tractor trailer truck that has made it’s rounds around the United States. Although the master mind behind the attacks was eliminated last year from participating in any more aggressive acts against our country, there are those whom he lead who still want to hurt us, may we never forget this horrendous act of aggression on our soil so that we might always be free.

As we remember the 11th year since this heinous attack was perpetrated, may we take a moment to remember all those who died on this day 11 years ago and thank those who helped in the aftermath. I would like to salute those heroes on flight 93, and all those who, on that day, willingly and unselfishly sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others. I also salute those in our armed services who have given their lives and those who continue to fight, selflessly putting their own lives in jeopardy to protect us and others from terrorism. They are all heroes to me and I will never forget.

Bison Scarf Finished :)

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Bison little lace scarf

A friend of mine has a friend with a Bison herd (American Buffalo).  She asked me if I could make something nice for her friend from the down that her bison shed every spring, and I agreed to do so.  She collected the down and sent me about 7 ozs or so, which included the weight of the mud and dirt, and I sent it off to a fiber mill to be dehaired and processed into roving or fluff so I could spin it and knit a scarf for her.  I have used this fiber mill before and they do a lovely job of processing, and anyone familiar with the fiber mills know there is always a wait because they are very busy.   Unfortunately a misunderstanding occurred in understanding the processing I had requested and they blended and spun it into yarn.  Because bison is such a short fiber the mill blends with with another fine fiber (merino) for spinning it into yarn.  The yarn is beautiful, so their work is still impeccable, but my friend’s friend wanted pure bison fiber for the scarf.  The box I got back had a beautiful skein of sport weight blended bison yarn (I would have spun it a little lighter into a heavy sock weight), some left over roving (which is very soft and wonderful) and the hair that came from the dehairing.  Tho I know there is weight lost during the washing process, I didn’t realize how much was lost in the dehairing process as I’ve never had a fiber that required it before so that was a learning process for me, but it was still enough for a nice scarf a little less long than I had intended.  I got the finished scarf, used my Little Lace Cast’s Paw scarf pattern, off in the mail on Tuesday and she should get the scarf and left over fibers today. 🙂  I hope she will be pleased with the results even if it wasn’t quite what she had wanted.  There is always next year.  Oh the fiber mill was very apologetic, they had just hired a new employee who was still learning what to do with the orders.  All is forgiven, their work is very nice.

Hmmm, the depths of deep space seems to have eaten my last post which was about football season and my beloved Cowboys, maybe WordPress doesn’t like the Cowboys, hmmm, gonna sneak it back in here anyway.  😛  GO COWBOYS!!!