Month: July 2024

Lots of Flowers & Alpaca

/ LDSVenus / 14 Comments

My braided hibiscus tree occasionally goes crazy with flowers. Love the flowers! Every so often I have to spray it for aphids with a soapy water with a few drops of cedar wood oil (one of my doTERRA oils). The soapy water kills the aphids and cedar wood oil smell keeps them off for a while.

The alpacas in the next picture are enjoying the splash pad on a hot day. My son bought it for them last year. They love it, as soon as he drags it out and sets it up they are in it like any kid, lol. Occasionally one will lay down in it and hog it up. Tisk, tisk tisk. Sometimes he brings out a sprinkler instead, but there are some that stand on top of the sprinkler and hog it up, lol. They much prefer our winters which are often -20’s to -30’s without the windchill. Their coats are so dense that snow doesn’t melt on their backs, and rain doesn’t soak in! But, they spend a lot of time in the barn too, they always have access to get into or out of the barn. They love playing in the snow. He has large fans going 24/7 in the barn in the summer so they can stay comfortable when the heat is too hot to be outside.

Hope you all are staying cool, we are very humid and hot. Sweltering is what the weatherman said. Tomorrow they said with the humidity factor we will be around 101F.

RAGBRI Spin is a WIP

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

My drive band was very frayed so I went and bought some jute to make another one, I did get the new drive band on my spinning wheel and this is the fiber I am spinning. It’s a BFL-Corriedale cross 64%, Alpaca 27% and Sari Silk waste 9%. The blue and green looks really pretty against the brown fiber. The color sure pops on the brown back ground. This is a thinner spin compared to the Pop Rock tweed, will probably be a light sport weight. When the RAGBRI is finished tomorrow, I will go ahead and spin for the Summer Olympics, lol. Promised myself I would work on some older fibers and this is one. I think I bought it about 5 years or more ago at a small fiber festival in my little town. I have lots to choose from when this one is done :).

RAGBRAI 2024 – There’s Still Hope!

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

For those of you not familiar with RAGBRIA, it stands for Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. It’s a non competitive 434 mile bicycle tour across the state of Iowa from west to east. This is the 51st year for this. So instead of spinning to the ride across France this year I will spin to the ride across Iowa, so all is not lost with my spinning. I planned on starting today which is the first day of RAGBRAI, however I noticed my the plied string I use as my drive band, is very frayed and being held by two of the small strings, so I will go get more string tomorrow and fix the drive band and start tomorrow. Always something isn’t it, I’ll call it a flat tire on day one.

Tour de Fleece FO

/ LDSVenus / 14 Comments

I had a hard time fitting my spinning time in this year and properly participating with the Tour de Fleece, but I will keep spinning to get some skeins done that I had planned on spinning for that. I hate that life gets in the way sometimes with my knitting and spinning, which are my way to relax and get away from our chaotic world. I did finish this skein of yarn that I started spinning last September, see my Spinning a Tweed Yarn for more information on the fiber :P. This is 4 ozs and about 150 yards, it is a bulky yarn. It’s really hard to spin a thiner yarn with a fiber with lots of thicker viscose bits. I did go ahead and just do a 2 ply because a chain ply makes a 3 ply yarn and I knew it was already going to be thick and thin and bulky, so I decided the 2 ply would be better. I think the colors turned out nice and looking more like a speckled yarn because of the bits of tweed color :). This will be given to my Ophthalmologist at my next visit for her 18 month old daughter. Should make a nice bulky hat for her, lol should knit up really fast, and yes we do get very cold in the winter here :). She did my eye surgeries in Dec and is a knitter, so this is why I chose to spin a skein of yarn for her. If I had realized how thick the viscose bits for the tweedy look were, I would have chosen a different fiber to spin for a sport weight yarn for a little one.

I have been enjoying the cooler temps, but this will be short lived as we start ticking up to the upper 80’s by next week end and August, which is only about a week away, is our hottest month. Last year my daughter got married in August, on the hottest day of the year, outside, and with the heat index it was 118 F. ugh.

Tour de Fleece Update & More Mail

/ LDSVenus / 5 Comments

Almost finished with the 2nd bobbin, then the plying can begin! More mail too, the Tour de Fleece tee shirt arrived so now I can spin with a 2024 Tour de Fleece shirt (I need to wash it, it’s bit wrinkled) :). I try to get one for the current year each year. And I may have ordered some Angora rabbit fur to blend with some wool :). It was 2.5 oz, that is a lot of rabbit fur and oh so soft!

We will be having a heat wave Saturday through Monday. Low 90’s and with the humidity and dew point it is suppose to be upper 90’s to 102, sweltering I believe they said. Stay cool everyone, I’ll be inside being grateful for the guy that invented the air conditioner :).

Tour de Fleece Update and Mail

/ LDSVenus / 11 Comments

I’m about 1/2 way finished with the 2nd bobbin, have missed a few days, hate when life gets in the way of stuff you’d rather be doing. But I’ll be working on catching up and spinning on the riders days off to rest.

2nd picture: I may have accidently purchased something I saw on Etsy, from Friends in Fiber, it was shipped quickly and is gorgeous. I promised myself I wouldn’t buy anymore fiber until I got some of the older things I have spun up. Fail :P. Hopefully I won’t have any more failures, but this was so pretty. Guess I need to quit looking until I have some older stuff spun ;). I am S.A.B.L.E. in fiber (stands for Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy), in the meantime I will leave it out to look at until I have at least one older fiber off the wheel :). Oh, the little piece of fiber at the top of this roving was a sample that was sent with this and the little gold thing is a beautiful charm of a tree of life, so pretty! I will be making this into a stitch marker or a progress keeper. Will show it off when I get it made :).

In the mean time enjoy your knitting or spinning or whatever hobby keeps you busy and happy :).