Author: LDSVenus

Fall Make Way For Old Man Winter

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

LDSVenus

.

Up front  just so you know, I am not a winter person.  Snow is awesome if you are looking out a big picture window at it in a nice heated room, and you don’t have to get out in it.  Warm snow would be terrific. 

My ferret and my bird shed and molted in preperation for winter in early August this year, about a month earlier than normal, during a heat wave.  We have been having cooler than normal temps in September and today, while I was walking to where I park my car for work, I saw geese flying over head,  headed south.  And altho’ I love watching and listening to the geese, it’s a bit earlier than normal as well.  So I’m getting ready for an early winter!  I wouldn’t mind winter so much if it wasn’t so, you know – COLD.  Guess I will be thinking about how nice it would be to live in Hawaii in a month or two :P.

My son gave me some of the fiber off of his goat.  All goat’s soft under fiber is called cashmere except for the Angora goat which gives mohair instead.  His goat has a lot of guard hairs which have to be picked out, so I have it at work and during my lunch break, since it only takes me about 10 to 15 min to eat, I sit there with tweezers and pick out guard hair and vm (vegetable matter) from the soft fiber.  The more guard hair I get out the softer it is.  It’s pretty dirty tho, so as soon as I get the picking done, I will need to wash it before I spin it.  I think this will be a long, on going project. 

 ***Just wanted to make mention that there is an actual cashmere goat that produces very nice cashmere fiber, but as I said before all goats produce cashmere (again except for the angora goat) tho not as abundantly and not the same quality as the actual cashmere goat does, but it’s all soft :).****

Wisp Shawl Update

/ LDSVenus / 1 Comment

2nd Skein Done

.Shawl progressI got the 2nd skein of the cria done.  I love spinning that, it is soooo soft!!!  On the right is a picture of the size so far.  I have just started the 2nd skein (which because of a problem when I was plying is a little less yardage than the first skein).  I should have enough for a 3rd skein and I’m gonna need it, not sure how much the

yardage will be, I will just spin until the fiber is gone. 

.

…

click picture for larger view

.
..
Here is an up close picture of the lace design.  Instead of the way the Wisp shows in it’s pictures, I am just leaving it a retangular shawl that she can put around her shoulders.  It will be very warm and soft. 😉
It has sure cooled down, but then I knew it was going to be an early winter, my ferret and bird did their molting and sheding thing in early August when it was still hot.

9/11 – 10 Years Later – May We Never Forget

/ LDSVenus

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 this 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 10th year since this heinous attack was perpetrated, may we take a moment to remember all those who died on this day 10 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.

Wisp Shawl Started

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

click picture for larger image

.

I’ve been working on comfort shawls this last year while starting this shawl languished, but I’ve finally got it started.  I decided on the Wisp shawl because it’s light and airy looking.  I’m not using the light weight yarn the pattern calls for tho, I’m using my hand spun which is about sport weight.  I’m also making it a little wider so it will cover more to keep her warmer in church or keep the chill of the fall and winter nights away.  I still have another skein or two to spin, part of one is on my wheel and I will try to finish it before I run out of the skein I am knitting from now because I knit during lunch at work for something to do.  This cria is sooooo soft, it is a pleasure to spin and knit with.   I’ll try to post another picture as I get more of it done.  You’ll notice the ball of yarn is not in a pull skein, because I forgot to wind it into a pull skein and took the long skein to work and ended up having to wind it by hand on my desk, but I didn’t mind because it’s so soft and squishy ;).

3rd Comfort Shawl Done

/ LDSVenus

3rd Comfort Shawl started

.

Yes, it’s the same picture because I finished it on my lunch hour at work and gave it to her so I didn’t get a finished picture, I know, I’m bad.  She was so surprised and held it close and said, it’s so warm.  I hope it will give her many days of warmth and comfort.

I’m starting another shawl, but this will be the one that I’m spinning the cria (baby alpaca) for a friend just because.  I have one skein and a spool on the wheel that I need to spin more onto and then ply it so that will give me 2 skeins.  I will need 3 maybe 4 skeins for this shawl.  It’s one I’ve done before, the Wisp shawl.  It’s light and very pretty.  I think light and airy for the warmth of the alpaca would be good, because alpaca is very warm.

I’ve been so moody this week, and then it hit me why, today would have been my youngest son’s birthday.  Happy Birthday son, I miss you.

I had to take Thor to the vet’s last week end.  He’s having some bowel issues and they put him on anti-biotics and a steroid.  She said if he’s better after the round of anti-biotics (the steroid is in the anti-biotic) then it was a helobactor infection and he should be fine, and that is my hope.  If not and it comes back  then it was an inflammation problem and the steroid was taking care it in the lower colon area, and she will try a different anti-biotic for the lower bowel and see if that takes care of it, and if not then she will have to do a biopsy to see what is going on.  Poor Thor was not a happy camper about getting his temperature taken (he had a sore bottom) – this was his first trip to the vet and I don’t think he likes vets now :P.  I’m glad I had a some savings, and it took it all.  This is why I don’t recommend ferrets to those who do not like to spend money at the vet’s office as the ferrets get older, because you will.  I have my own health check up’s coming soon and when all the free wellness checks that my health insurance takes care of for the year are done, I will be dropping my health insurance so that I can use the premiums I was paying for to take care of Thor.  He comes first.  Other than the free wellness checks (and they cover a lot of things), it was more of a catastrophic insurance plan, because it doesn’t pay for anything until I’ve spent $5,000 out of my own pocket, except for the wellness stuff.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL? 2011

/ LDSVenus / 1 Comment

Are you ready for some football?

.

I was afraid that there wasn’t going to be any football this year.  But they got it all figured out and we are in Pre-Season!!!  I didn’t get to see the Cowboys play their first pre-season game because it wasn’t televised, but they won!!!  I watched the Bears beat the Bills last night.  My son-in-law I’m sure is a very happy camper because he is a huge Bears fan :).  My daughter, like me, is a Cowboys fan, makes for an interesting household when those two teams play each other  :P.  My oldest son is a Steelers fan, no accounting for taste :P.  My 2nd son has no interest in football and neither did my youngest son, what can I say.

.

3rd Comfort Shawl started

This is a simple shawl by Lionbrand yarn.  It’s a garter stitch (knit every row) using their homespun yarn.  Very simple but the yarn makes it beautiful.  I have a co-worker that was diagnosed with cervical cancer.  She did the radiation and they found that it had migrated to her pancreas so she is doing radiation again and I believe they will follow up with chemo.  These treatments make her very sick and she gets cold easily so I thought a nice heavy soft shawl with a soothing color would be nice.  I’ll post a picture when I finish, which I hope will be be soon.  I’m not feeling very well today so I haven’t been knitting on it today.  I only have about a 1/3 of a skein left.  My grandchildren (3 & 5) saw it and wanted me to make them one.  I told them I would make them one for Christmas, they were so excited.  You don’t see little ones excited about a hand knit item very often, was a good feeling.
.
Our weather has cooled down significantly and I’ve been able to use my air conditioner much less.  Has been much less humid and much more comfortable. 🙂  My ferret and my parakeet both did their shedding/molting thing early this year, so I expect we will see an early fall and winter, sigh.

A Round Tuit – revisited

/ LDSVenus / 1 Comment

A Round Tuit

.

Years ago I saw one and thought it was so cute.  I found this one on the internet and used it several years ago, and have found that I have had to bring it out of mothballs and use it again :P.

When my son was going to move in with me, I had to move the 1/2 room of boxes out of the spare bedroom and ended up putting some of it in my bedroom.  He eventually decided to stay close to his daughter (5 hrs away from me), and after his death, I just couldn’t make myself sort everything out and put away.  It’s finally time, and finding time to do it is not fun…. but I have some motivation to get it done because it’s time for the apt inspection the city does here every 3 years.  It’s coming up soon so I have to get that bedroom cleaned out.  I’m part way done and decided to take a little break.  It would be much easier if I had a week of vacation to go through everything and do it right, but I don’t have any vacation time until late this fall.  Sooo I will just have to do the best I can with what little time I can squeeze out to get it done in.  I’m much better at procrastination :P.

I’ve begun working on a comfort shawl for a co-worker who has been diagnosed with cervical cancer.  I’m about 1/3 of the way done with it.  It’s a simple comfort shawl, as I felt that it would be needed in a hurry and no time to work on something that will take a long time to complete.  I’ll post a picture of  my progress later this week after the apt inspection.

Well it looks like we will have football this year.  That makes me happy 🙂

It’s been hot as heck here and lots of humidity.  I will be glad when fall gets here for the cooler temps and less humidity, but that means winter is right around the corner, so fall is a 2 edged sword. 😛

Heat Wave and Harry Potter

/ LDSVenus

Ok, the ambient temp the last two days has been about 96 degrees, and the heat index, with the wonderful humidity that IA is known for, has been around 111 degrees.  I always tell people that IA has two season, cold & ugly and hot & ugly.  It gets hotter out west but they (except for TX which is also very humid) don’t have the humidity to go with the high temps.  You can have the humidity, I prefer the dry heat!!  The night temps have been in the middle 70’s,  sigh and my air condtioner is running 24/7.  I’m so thankful for that!!!  Suppose to cool down next week I think (I hope).

I got to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 on Saturday with my daughter.  I have to say it was AWESOME!!!  Yes, it is not exactly like the book, but it was very well done and I loved it!!  I have loved all the Harry Potter movies but I have to say this is my favorite of all of them.  If you haven’t gone to see it and you enjoy Harry Potter, it is a must see.

I’m working on the shawl I started to get the stitch count right for the Daisy Rectangular Shawl.  I mean you can’t have a started shawl and not either finish it or frog it.  I chose not to frog it, it’s acrylic yarn so it will probably go to my grand daughter because it won’t need a lot of care like the natural fiber yarns do and she can enjoy it and I won’t be worried about it. 😛  I need to be spinning on that Cria, but it’s been so hot when I get home that I haven’t been in the mood for it.

Daisy Rectangular Shawl by LDSVenus

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

2nd Comfort Shawl Finished 001

I have reworked the design to take care of some mistakes I made in the pattern. Bare with me as I am not a pattern writer.  I can read them, but writing them is a totally different subject :). I also increased the border to 5 stitches instead of 3.

I designed this shawl using an old Shetland lace daisy design.

Do remember I offer this pattern for you to make the shawl, but you may NOT give this pattern out to someone else or sell the pattern.  Please direct them to this site or Ribblr to share the pattern.  With that out of the way, please enjoy my design.

B = border = k5
k = knit
p = purl
k2 tog = knit 2 together
yo = yarn over – note yo twice is a double yo and on the purl rows you will knit the first yo and purl the 2nd yo.
ssk = slip, slip, knit  (see the following site  : http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/decreases )
* * = repeat between the *

The lace design will appear as a diagonal design rather than horizontal or vertical and by shifting the design on rows 13-19 you can probably accomplish a vertical design.  This is worked from side to side so the cast on is the width.  I used approximately a fingering weight yarn and  size 7 needles.

This is not a hard pattern but you need to pay attention on the yarn overs to make sure you have two between the two decreases so it doesn’t mess up your stitch count (it can be easy to drop one when you do the ssk), and on the pearl row that you knit the first one and pearl the second one.) A life line might be nice :).

The k2tog is a right leaning decrease and the ssk is a left leaning decrease, I knit combined continental and the way I do my stitch decreases might not give you the lean you need, please feel free to do whatever decrease gives you the correct lean.

cast on 116 stitches.
Knit 5 rows for garter stitch border

Keep 5 stitches on each there after for garter stitch border through out.

Knit one row and purl one row keeping border in garter stitch before beginning the pattern.

The pattern ends with row 24

Rows 1, 5 and 9:
B, k6, *k2 tog, yo twice, ssk, k14*, end k6 instead of 14, B

Rows 2 and all even rows: B, p to last 5 stitches, B  (please note above in the stitch abreviations how to purl the double yo’s)

Rows 3, and 7:
B, k4, *k2 tog, yo twice, ssk, k2 tog, yo twice, ssk, k10*, end k4 instead of 10, B

Row 11:
B, knit to last 5stitches, B

Rows 13, 17, 21:
B, *k15, k2 tog, yo twice, ssk, k14*, end k15, B

Rows 15, & 19:
B, k13, *k2 tog, yo twice, ssk, k2 tog, yo twice, ssk, k10*, end k13 instead of 10, B

Row 23: B, knit to last 5 stitches, B

Row 24: B, p to last 5 stitches, B

Repeat these 24 rows until the shawl is the desired length.

End with 5 rows of garter stitches (the border should be already established with the garter stitch you are knitting) and bind off.

I did not notice any errors in my writing when I re-knit this, I used this printed page to knit from.  If you have any problems following my pattern please drop me a line and let me know so that I can help you.

2nd Comfort Shawl is finished!

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Finally Finished and Blocked!

.

Well, it is finished, blocked and given!!  As you can tell it is a diagonal pattern.  I orginally wanted to do vertical however that is just not the way it worked out.  I still have to figure out the correct number to cast on (had a little extra on one side and when I discovered it I was a bit too far to want to frog and begin again) and to cut the width down.  So give me a few days as I work this out and then I will post the pattern in My Free Knitting Patterns page for you to enjoy.  This Alpaca yarn drapes very nicely as a shawl and I’m sure it will be well loved.  I’m sad that it is a discontinued yarn tho, as it was lovely to work with and very soft.  I can now get back to spinning that wonderfully soft cria (baby Alpaca).

Well my children almost got to either come visit me in the hospital in the critial unit or to the morgue to identify me yesterday.  I was on my way to my daughter’s new house to get some steak and hambergers that were left over from her birthday party on Friday evening and as I was driving on a major street at 3o mph, a driver from a cross street didn’t stop at his stop sign and he was going about 40 to 50 mph.  I saw him out of he corner of my eye and knew he would not be stoping so I slammed on my brakes (fortunately there was no one behind me) and he came barreling out across the street and I missed hitting him by about 6 inches.  Hope it scared him as much as it did me.  I drive an older small sub compact car and the engine would have been sitting in my lap as I would have broadsided him.  Thank goodness for quick reactions and promptings from the Spirit alerting me to the other car.