Author: LDSVenus

Memorial Day 2015

/ LDSVenus
In Memory of our Fallen Heroes

In Memory of our Fallen Heroes

I give a special reverence to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, for what they loved, a free and safe country for their families and all of us.    May we honor them in all we do and may we always keep this country free and safe in their honor.  I also want to thank all those who are now serving or have served, in any of the branches of the Armed Services, for your love of freedom and for being willing to serve us and your country without regard for your own lives, you’re all heroes to me. May we always remember that Freedom has a price and all those that have paid that price.

Spinning at the Park 2015 – Again

/ LDSVenus

 

Alpaca - 5-15

Alpaca – 5-15

Yes, I did get out to the park yesterday afternoon to spin again, but oops once again I forgot my camera, sigh :(.  So I took this picture at my house after getting back, sorry.  It was a beautiful day at the park, there was some kind of a birthday party going on, but I didn’t set up to spin in that area.  Was a little bit breezy but all in all a beautiful day.

I’m almost done with this spool of singles, so I will be starting my 2nd spool soon in anticipation of plying and having yarn for a nice hat for my dad for his birthday :).

We have had a ton of rain this year (I’m sure California is wishing they had some of it, and to be honest, if I could send some of it down there I would :P).  It makes everything green and beautiful, but I would love to have a few more sunny dry days :).

Happy Easter!! 2015

/ LDSVenus
He is Risen!

He is Risen!

May you have a Blessed Easter day, full of hope and love.

I get to watch General Conference this weekend on the BYU channel (Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 1 pm central time and 3 pm to 5 pm central time) it is always comforting and brings much peace to my spirit.  You can also see it on http://www.lds.org .

Spinning in the Park 2015

/ LDSVenus

Spinning the Alpaca

Ok, yesterday was soooo beautiful.  I thought it would be April before I could take my spinning wheel to the park to spin.  I just couldn’t wait to spin some of that luscious Alpaca that I got back from the mill.   And I have to apologize, I forgot in the excitement of getting out to the park, to bring my camera, sigh, so this picture I took after I got home.  I’ll go again and remember to take my camera when we have another nice 60’s day, but it looks like it won’t be this warm for another couple of weeks according to the 10 day forecast.

I like my Baynes wheel, it spins nicely, but the thing that drives me crazy is that sometimes the spool will fall off because the post will get a little loose and not hold the spool in place.  Gonna have to work on that.  I always say that someday when I get rich and good looking (:p) I want one of these custom made hand carved wheels.  (Yeah right :P)  A girl can dream can’t she :).

It’s Alpaca!!!

/ LDSVenus

Alpaca Roving I’m so excited!!!  I sent the Alpaca fleeces off to the Aroostook Fiber Works mill in Maine last month and it was done by the end of Feb.  I was able to send the rest of the money for the processing on the 3rd of this month and I now have 6 1/2 lbs of Alpaca roving :), a few of the 4 oz bumps are in the picture to the left.  It’s beautiful and very soft.  My daughter purchased the 2 fleeces from Savannah Breeze Alpacas  as my Christmas gift and I love it!!!  (The link is to Savannah Breeze Alpacas’ Ravelry page as she no longer has the farm but still has some fleeces for sale.)

Guess I know what I will be doing with spare time now :P.  I’ll put a picture up after I start spinning this luxurious fiber.

It is warming up outside, in the 40’s this week and maybe into the 50’s by the end of the week, I love Spring!!!  When it warms up to the lower 70’s I’ll be off to the park to spin :).

It’s a Mystery!! And Snow and a Polypay Fleece :)

/ LDSVenus

lots of snow

Ok I have been very lax on keeping up with stuff going on and I’m going to start with the first thing which was the snow, so here goes.  Yes that last winter storm a few weeks ago gave us a foot of snow.  Pretty coming down but such a mess to drive in for a while.  It melted off the roads and a little on the ground when we had a few days of nice warm up temps in the 20’s and a couple of days in the 30’s,  woot woot.  But it’s been cold again with -temps and today is snowing again.  They say we will get 3 to 6 inches by midnight.  sigh, is it Spring yet?  It is suppose to be back in the teens and 20’s next week, looking forward to that for sure.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

2nd thing that has happened, I went to visit my friend who raises sheep, and she gave me another fleece, how cool is that?  Polypay is a fine fleece and next to the skin soft.  When it warms up a bit, and I can take it outside and be comfortable, I will skirt it and get it ready to send to the fibermill in MO to turn into roving to spin, will probably be a month or so before that happens 🙂  How blessed can a girl be :).

 

Mysterious deliver of this beautiful DMC Merino Woolly yarn

Last thing I wanted to talk about is the Mystery.  I have not ordered any yarn online lately, last thing was last year,  some alpaca for a scarf I was knitting for a friend.  But mysteriously this package with a pattern kit of 11 skeins of DMC Merino wool, called Woolly, and the pattern for two color stranded pillows, arrived at my door step this morning from the DMC company.  I’m like “what?”  I didn’t order anything and I wondered if I maybe won something from a contest, but I didn’t remember entering anything like that.  There was no bill of laden or a congratulations you won something, just the yarn and the pattern wrapped in a beautiful pink paper with the DMC sticker and bubble wrap.  I’m the curious type so I called the DMC company to see if they can figure out why I received this package, I didn’t want to be billed for something I didn’t order.   She checked for a bit while I was on the line with her, but couldn’t figure it out so I gave her the tracking number to see if that would  help, she was going to call me back with information.  I haven’t heard yet.  I will let you know if I hear anything.  I’m VERY curious about this. 😛   The yarn is beautiful and very soft and looks to be a sport weight (it comes in a 50 gram ball with 136 yards per ball and  it’s superwash!!.  I’m thinking it would make wonderful hats and scarves for future projects  :).

*UPDATE*   She called me back and offered to give me a shipping label to return it, but I told her I wasn’t going to send it back until I found out why it came, incase a friend had ordered it and had it sent to me, that would be like buying something and giving it back with no refund.  She had thought maybe they had sent it by error, but I told her since they didnt find me in their system (because I have never ordered on line from their company) that they would not have my name and shipping address in their system and could not have accidentally shipped it to me.  She said she would keep checking.  Anyone want to own up to sending it to me?  😛

BRRRRRR

/ LDSVenus
Snow Woman!

Snow Woman!

 

Is this not so cute?  My sister made this for me for Christmas.  She promised to put the instructions up on her blog Eat It Anyway.  I’ll keep bugging her until she does cos’ I want to make a pair (snowman and snowwoman) lol.  She has some awesome things under Share It on her blog.    If you haven’t visited her site I would suggest it, she’s very crafty (in a good way :P).

For those of you following the weather here in IA, yes we are VERY cold.  It is -3F outside and if that were all it wouldn’t be too bad but with the wind chill it is about -28F, brrrrr.  It will only continue to get colder as the day goes on.  They closed the schools here today because of the wind chill.  It will be colder tonight at -17F ambient temp so I imagine the wind chill will be in the -30’s to -40’s depending on the wind.  I’m inside where I am safe and warm :).   On a positive note, it will be up to 17 on Saturday  and maybe the low 20’s on Sunday :).

No matter where you live, stay warm today :).

Merry Christmas

/ LDSVenus

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.

15 And it came to pass, the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. (St. Luke 2:8-16)

May you and your families have a very blessed Christmas Day.

Alpaca Fleeeces!!!!

/ LDSVenus
Alpaca Fleeces!!

Alpaca Fleeces!!

 

I went with my daughter yesterday to get my Christmas present.  She had asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her a fleece :).  She said really?  HAHA, oh yeah!!!!  So she said she would buy me one, of course that meant that I had to go with her to pick it out :).  An acquaintance of mine, through Ravelry (a wonderful place for fiber enthusiasts, knitters, crocheters, etc), had an Alpaca farm that she and her husband had recently sold and they then moved into the town right next to mine ;).  I had been talking to her about buying one of the fleeces she still had after the sale of her Alpaca farm.  When my daughter offered to buy me one of the fleeces I was OH YEAH!!  So off we went to look at the many fleeces she had.   I picked a light fawn blanket that is sooooo soft, an older cria (Alpaca baby) if I remember correctly.  My daughter fell in love with a brown fleece so of course we had to get that too, so I came away with 2 fleeces :), a total of about 8 lbs of Alpaca fleece.  I’m excited to send them off to have processed into roving to spin and then knit.   Both fleeces are soft but I can hardly stop touching the fawn fleece, it’s like a buttery cloud in my hands. WOOT WOOT, how lucky am I to have a daughter willing to spend money on a fleece for my Christmas present :).

Raggedy Ann

/ LDSVenus

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

My sister called today and among our regular chit chat we started talking about the Raggedy Ann dolls my mom and grandmother made for us.  Ah the memories, I told her the one I have was one that our grandmother had made for me one year when she asked me what I would like for Christmas and I told her that I would like her to make me a Raggedy Ann doll.  She had made me one when I was much younger and of course it went the way of all things that little kids have, sigh.  I am so glad she agreed to make me another one.  She passed away in 1988 and it is so nice to have something that she made me.  I don’t have one that my mom made, but my sister has one that mom made her.  The difference is the one my mom made had embroidered a little heart on it with the words I love you in the heart.  My grandmother sewed well but I don’t think it was her favorite thing to do.  My mom sewed but it wasn’t her favorite thing to do when she was young because she was very into sports and band in high school so she learned her sewing skills after getting married, when it was more fun :P.

I’m working on a sympathy shawl until I get the yarn I need for the Little Lace Daisy Scarf I’ll be making for my friend’s wife.  The scarf won’t take very long then I will get back to the sympathy shawl.