Fiber

Late Spring Spinning in the Park

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Spinning in the Park

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Well, last week was just beautiful, cool, a bit breezy and perfect!!  So I chose to spend a little time in the park, close to where I live, spinning :).  A man and 3 women stopped to say hello and ask about what I was doing.  I really should do this more often this summer, especially before it gets “toooo hot”  ;).  As you can tell I am spinning this teal super-wash merino on my Baynes Spinning Wheel. 🙂
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I am almost done with the 2nd skein of yarn, I have been lazy with my time and should have finished this already.  My goal is to finish it tomorrow and get it in the mail on Tuesday, so my friend will have it by the end of the week.  When I get a picture of how she is doing with the shawl, I will post it. 🙂
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Thor

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Thor is doing so much better on his meds.  I have been able to go down on his steroid (it is slowly being  decreased to the lowest it can be and still have it keep his diarrhea at bay.)  He’s happy and playful and not grinding his teeth, so I can tell he is feeling much better. 🙂   He’s an awesome little companion.

Brag Book

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Brag Book front cover

Brag book inside shot

I went to another craft get together this month.  I chose to make this brag book.  I’m sending this one to my sister, but don’t tell her, she doesn’t know yet.  She became a grandmother and she is so excited!!!  So I figured this little brag book would be just the thing. 🙂

It was easy to make, but if you need the instructions I will let her tell you on her blog because she loves to pick things apart and show how they are made. 🙂  There are 6 double sided photo holders in this brag book so you can fit 12 almost 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 photos in it.  I had to cut the patterned paper just a tiny bit smaller than 3 1/2 by 2 1/2.  You can get the photo holders either wide or tall.  I chose the wide because I could get all the ribbon on the top that I wanted :).

I finished going through the fleece and picking out all the vm (vegetable matter), you know the straw, little twigs, weed seeds etc – getting it ready to pack up and mail to the fiber mill tomorrow.  They will be processing around the 15th, then I should get it back about 4 to 6 weeks later.  I will post a picture of the roving when I get it back.  I thought there might only be about 2 lbs, but I am wondering now if there is maybe 3 lbs.  It will all get spun up anyway. :).

I had to take Thor to the vet on Friday.  He’s had some IBS problems and was in some distress.  The vet put him on some antibiotics to see if that would help but they also put him on a steroid, because that had helped the last time – the last round of antibiotics were in case it was ulcers, but she said it probably wasn’t, it was more than likely IBS and the steroid would help, the antibiotic is a just in case thing.  He’ll be on a higher dose of steroids for 2 weeks and then we start weaning him down to the lowest level we can get that keeps the diarrhea away.  She said all in all he’s in pretty good health for a ferret his age.  His blood sugar was borderline low, but the steroid will also help with that.  She also said his potassium is also borderline low, so he will be happy to get his piece of banana everyday back again :), if I notice any muscle weakness, the vet said I will have to put him on potassium of some kind.  I’m just glad he’s feeling better and happy again ;).

1st Skein of the Teal Superwash Merino is DONE!

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1st Skein of Teal Superwash Merino

Ok, I finally have this skein done, between the “busyness” at work when I started it and re-organizing my time after early retirement, I have finally finished it.  I’m working with a new (old) program for fixing the pictures my digital camera takes and I’m not real sure about how to use it yet, but I’m sure as I mess around with it I will understand it better.  It’s very different than the one I was using and it has a little bit better control over what I want to do.  I’m sure my friend will be happy to get this so she can start on the shawl for the fair and I hope I haven’t stressed her out with how late I am getting this to her.  The next skein is already started  and I’m hopeful that I will have it done by this week end.  I will wind this into a center pull ball for her and get it in the mail to her tomorrow.

It’s General Conference weekend and I have thoroughly enjoyed conference so far.  One more session this afternoon.  We have General Conference 2 times a year and it is on both Saturday and Sunday, the beginning of April and the beginning of Oct and I look forward to them each time.  What a spiritual uplift they give. 🙂  Next Sunday I will be singing with the choir for Easter Sunday, and it’s a beautiful song.  The name of the song is Did You See Him in the Garden and you can hear it here by someone else on youtube.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, how could you not it’s SPRING!!!!

My First Fleece – Polypay Lamb

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a small sample before washing

the same small sample after washing

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I can not even tell you how excited I am to have received this Polypay lamb fleece from a friend that I visit with every month.  She and her husband have a farm where they raise corn and sheep (Polypay and Suffolk) the sheep are raised for meat rather than fiber.  I asked her a couple of years ago if when they sheared if I could buy a lamb fleece from her.  Not much more was said.  When I went to Church this morning she had a tub with a Polypay lamb fleece in it and said she told her shearer to keep back a fleece for her friend and what it was for and he even skirted it.  The shearer told her he would do the Polypay for spinning because it was a softer fleece.  I am very grateful because the shearer takes the fleeces for his time and skill to shear her flock, since my friend and her husband don’t sell the fleece but they have to have the sheep sheared, it saves them the money of having to pay someone to shear for them so their Ewes can lamb and then again when they go to market.  I am sooooo excited!!!! 

I couldn’t keep my hands off of it after I got home.  I had to take a small sample and bring inside to play with.  I live in a small apt so I left the fleece in my trunk until I can either bring it in and scour it (when it’s warmer as it will need to dry outside) or find a small mill that will take a 2  lb fleece to make into roving.  I have never started with a fresh fleece or carded my own before, the lamb is not quite a year old and the fiber is about 2  1/2 inches long.  It has a bit of lanolin in it, which looks dirty but is quite soft.  The lambs fleece is soft and I have a before and after picture above of the small sample I brought inside.  When I put it in the hot soapy water to get the lanolin out (which it did rather quickly), I put my hand in the hot water to push it under and the second time I couldn’t see the small fiber in there and thought, oh my gosh what happened?  It cleaned quickly and is so white I couldn’t see it against the bottom of the bathroom sink.  Also it is as soft as a cloud in the water so I could hardly feel it in there.  I was trying to be VERY careful so I didn’t felt it.   You can see the crimpiness in the before picture and tho’ you can’t see the crimpiness in the after picture, as I play with it I can feel the elasticity in it.  I will make her a scarf with some of it. Life is good :).  I proimse to get a picture of the whole fleece sometime next week. 🙂

We also had more snow since the last picture I posted, about the same amount and then again on Friday, but not a lot.  This next week is suppose to be a bit warmer than this last week and I’m excited about that because I am semi retiring.  My last day at work is Tuesday 1/31.  The rest of the week will be spent (after sleeping in :P), deep cleaning my apt, you know shampooing carpets etc.  I know it’s not spring yet, but I still have the “spring is in the air” feeling :).   A friend asked me what I would do with my time and all I could see was pictures of me at the spinning wheel and behind some knitting needles clacking along :).  I do intend to spend some time doing Genealogy now that I will have some time to do that, I have a feeling that will be my new addiction.  😛

Shawl Progress & Oh Yeah It’s My Birthday

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3rd skein of cria for shawl

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The 3rd skein is done and I’m about 1/2 way through knitting with it.  I will have the shawl finished this week and blocked and ready to give by this next week end. 😉  It’s been a pleasure spinning and knitting with this cria.

I have one more comfort shawl to knit and then my next project will be dying some superwash merino wool and spinning it.  🙂

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Christmas Cactus already budding

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I can not believe that my Christmas Cactus already has buds on it.  It’s a bit early this year, tho everything has been a bit early preparing for winter.  You wouldn’t know it with the wonderfully warm weather we have had this last week.  Tho it shows it will cool back down next week.  I’ll take the warm weather while it’s here because I know soon it will be all too cold, and snowy and icy.  sigh

And yes, today is my birthday.  I keep hoping it will go away each year, but it just comes anyway.  Guess I’m just stuck having it every year, cos you can’t seem to sneak around it. :P.

General Conference was last week end and what a wonderfully uplifting week end it was.  I love that peace that accompanies General Conference.  I also had to have my car repaired last week end, the cv axle went out and I was fortunate that my daughter knew someone who could fix it for about 1/2 the price of a car place.  It’s running well and I’m able to get around which is exactly what I need!!!  I also have a 3 day week end which I am enjoying immensely!!Have a great week end all!!

Fall Make Way For Old Man Winter

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LDSVenus

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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

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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. 

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click picture for larger view

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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.

2nd Comfort Shawl is finished!

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Finally Finished and Blocked!

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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.

PIF IS HERE!!!!

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PIF!!!! (click picture to enlarge)

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I got home from work today and there was a box for me.  WOOHOO! it was the PIF (pay it forward) from my knitting/spinning  friend at LS Fiber Adventures.

Don’t you love getting unexpected packages?  It came at a perfect time as this has been a hard week.  I opened it up and there was all this loveliness!  She knitted me the most beautiful lace scarf with beautiful shades of turquoise (my favorite color!)  I’m sure she spun the yarn as well.  It will be well loved! 🙂  There is some beautiful Bluefaced Leicester roving to spin – I’ve never spun this kind of wool it will be a fun adventure and spinning hand painted multi color roving is way fun because you never know what you will end up with.  There is a CD with gospel music that will be a wonderful addition to my Sunday music, I love hymns and gospel music ;).  There was a fun pair of Easter socks (they will be very fun to wear!)  There are two very cute  journals, as a latter-day saint I do keep a journal, tho not as diligently as I should, this is a great reminder to keep up with it and when my present journal is full, these will take it’s place.  And last but hardly least there is some very yummy eatable goodies – wonderfully delicious wafers rolled around a vanilla creme 🙂 and Cadbury mini eggs.  I feel like it’s Christmas!!!

Harry Potter and Other Things

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2nd Spool of Cria

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I’m finally spinning my 2nd spool of Alpaca Cria.  This is the softest stuff!!  It’s so wonderful to spin!!!  Knitting it will be wonderful too :).  This will be my 2nd skein of yarn and I might need one more, then I can make the shawl I have in mind for this wonderfully soft fiber.

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spinning BFL/Romney

I got a friend of mine at my church interested in spinning with a spindle I made her, and she has gone whole hog, buying whole fleeces and carding them herself.  I thought wow, I love to spin, but I’m not into getting a whole fleece, washing it, and carding it- yet! 🙂  She kindly gave me some of a BFL/Romney fleece (already carded of course) that she had purchased.  It’s a very springy and surprisingly soft fiber.  Not as soft as the Alpaca, but it will make a nice pair of socks or a scarf :).  She has 7 whole fleeces on order for next spring.  🙂

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I did go see Harry Potter 1 & 1/2 weeks ago.  It was wonderful, and well worth the 2 hr wait in line (yes my daughter and I were one of the first in line so we could get good seats.  Didn’t want a crick in my neck from having to sit way up front like I loved to do as a kid – can’t even imagine why I wanted to do that ;).  I think they chose a good place to break the movie and I’m anticipating the next and final installment of the movie series.  Nice thing is I don’t have to wait 2 years, it will be shown this coming June, so only a 7 month wait. 🙂  If you haven’t gone to see this yet, I encourage you to do so.  If you haven’t seen any of them yet, I suggest you rent them in order, and then go see this one (it won’t make a lot of sense unless you’ve seen the others, like starting a book near the end and then wondering what in the world it’s all about.)  Wonderful visual effects.

I will be a permanent employee as of 12/1.  I’m very excited and it relieves a lot of “uncertainty stress”.  I will still have to watch my finances until my son’s funeral is paid off, but it will be a permanent income source now instead of wondering how long will this one last and not losing pay on my paycheck for the holidays the company gives.