Fiber

Fiber and Yarn and Projects

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

Well, I might have accidentally bought another 8 oz of spinning fiber, my picture didn’t really capture the sparkles. Let’s face it I have AD-OS (attention deficit – Oh Shiny!). I now have the same fiber, that I bought in yellow, now in cranberry. Thought it might make a nice batt with yellow, gradually blending the yellow and cranberry together toward the middle for an orange gradually blending back out to the, cranberry for a fade, well it works in my head anyway. Just a thought. As usual I got this from Camaj Fiber Arts.

I saw that KnitPicks is having their annual yarn sale (until 11/27 at 11:59pm so hurry!!!) and I got the Chroma worsted weight, 70% super wash wool, 30% nylon, on sale 60% off for $4 a skein so I bought 3. Then I decided I wanted to try to make this Brioche cowl, Purple Mountain Majesties from KnitPicks, I think it was a free pattern. I have never tried brioche before and it’s small (lets see if I’m biting off more than I can chew) so I bought 2 skeins in the colors of the cowl in the Chroma fingering weight, not 60% off, but it was 50% off so it was $6 per skein, still not bad. I got them all in and they are gorgeous, not merino soft but soft enough. But they are single ply, ugh, no where on the skein did it say it was single ply. Not my favorite to knit with, but I have them and they are pretty, I will see what I can do with the 3 that are not in a project yet, hats maybe, is 198 yards is enough for a non cabled hat? I’ll do some digging.

Haven’t gotten notice yet on the yarn being shipped for my special project, hope it comes in soon, I think it’s been the 2 weeks they said it took them to get it in. I need to go buy more color ink for my printer with my next paycheck so I can print out the color work Christmas stocking that Arnie and Carlos are doing as a free knit along. I’ve never really liked knitting color work and here I am jumping head long into deep water with a huge color work sock with an after thought heel (never done before, I can barely do the regular heel), and it’s charted (maybe I can read colors better than I can read symbols) oh my, life is so interesting! But if you are following along with Arne and Carlos on YouTube, it is really pretty.

Was warm today in the low 50’s, but tomorrow is 39F and it gets colder and colder from there. The next Monday will be around 22F, and after tonight most nights, will be in the 20’s (F) to lower teens. Winter is on its way!

Alpaca Farm Days & Hat Tags

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

Ok, as promised :). The top pictures from left to right – The first picture is my son’s sock machine, it was rather windy – you can see the yarn blowing in the breeze, lol. He can whip out a pair of socks in about an hr, pretty cool huh? It’s made of metal and he lets the kids that come take turns turning the handle making a tube, they love it. Next picture is my spinning wheel, a Rick Reeves double drive wheel. It’s the smallest of my two wheels and will actually fit in the back seat of my car. My Kromski Polonaise is much bigger and would have to be taken apart to travel in my car, and nope not gonna do that! I’m not as sharing with my wheel at the event, it’s not replaceable, lol. I spin and people watch and ask questions that I am very happy to answer about the alpaca fiber and the wheel and making yarn, I do let them feel the alpaca fiber :). That cria fiber spins like a dream!! The 3rd picture is my son’s drum carder that he makes batts with for the dryer balls he sells at his farm store. I have two and put lavender on them before they go in the dryer, makes my clothes smell nice :). Behind the drum carder you can see his little tractor, that makes it easier for all the farm stuff he and Ev have to attend to. The 4th picture is the skirting table he made so it would be easier for them to skirt the fleeces and let the dirt fall to the ground and behind that you can see the frame with seats he made and attached on the trailer (that he pulls with the tractor) for hay rack rides he does once a week, everyone seems to enjoy the ride and the fire pit making smores afterwards :). My son is very handy with making things. The bigger picture to the left are his pea fowl and a family member who came to help. The peacock is starting to color out on the feathers on his back and a little on his tail, but it will be another 2 years before he has full color on all his feathers. He already looks at himself in the mirror that my son set out for him, the peacock is a narcissist, lol. The next 3 pictures to the left are of some of his herd. I did cover up faces of two people who were there because I didn’t get to ask them if they minded being in my blog. The last of those 3 pictures is the newest cria that was born a month ago, they call him Wish, but his full name is Wish Upon a Star, because his mother’s name is Star. He’s a cutie.

The last picture at the bottom is a hat with the new tags I ordered. I didn’t get leather because I was worried about how they would handle being washed and I wanted these to be easy care hats with a little something extra, so these are faux leather (a thick vinyl, lol) I chose the one that looked like bamboo. I think they look nice and everyone likes something nice. For the shelter I will make some with Child of God showing and some with the knitted heart showing so they have a choice. I think when I reorder I will get the ones I have to sew on instead of the snaps so they won’t come off in the washing machine. I’m a worry wort and I worry about everything, lol.

Prayers are going still going out to all those who were affected by Helena, please keep asking Heavenly Father for peace and comfort and help for them all. The devastation was massive and the emotional toll, for those who lost family and/or all they had, is great :(. I saw that there are many people out there trying to start helping with clean up and bringing things in, water, food etc, even tho FEMA and the Red Cross weren’t out there yet (where the heck are they?). My church always assesses what is needed and sends truck loads of things and there will be some of my church members from all over going to help with the clean up as well. I know that Ryan Hall Ya’ll (a YouTube weatherman) also sends trucks of things out to help from donations from those who watch his channel. Because food and things are coming in, I think clean up and housing will be the biggest issues, along with accounting for everyone that is still missing. :(. My heart is broken for all of them.

New Fiber and Alpaca Farm Days

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Well I might have accidentally bought some more fiber :O. I love yellow and this has sparkles and it was for 8oz at a sale price, so my excitement got the best of me. It’s Merino and Glitter and is called Sunny Day . The yellow is now only available by the lb and will be discontinued when sold out. I’m excited to see how it will spin up. The fiber under the yellow was a free 1 oz sample of Rambouillet from Camaj Fiber Arts, it is as soft as the merino. It will be fun to dye it too :).

It will be a while before I get to spin the yellow merino tho, because I only have two spinning wheels and my Kromski Polonaise has fiber still on it that I need to finish spinning, and I need my 2nd spinning wheel, my Rick Reeves wheel, empty because my son and his spouse are having their annual Alpaca Farms’ Day event on Saturday and I have to start the alpaca to spin on Saturday at the event. The fawn colored alpaca bump is not a new purchase, it’s a deep stash cria (baby alpaca). It is as soft as butter!!! I will try to remember to take pictures on Saturday. Usually the event is Saturday and Sunday but they are only opening their farm on Saturday this year so I expect it will be VERY busy!!!

Sending prayers out for those in Florida for safety with this hurricane :(.

Knitting Update and Fiber

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

This blanket looked like a perfect fairly mindless knit with a nice texture for a friend who is expecting. I didn’t ask if she was expecting a boy or girl so I chose yellow, cos yellow is an awesome color and she already had a girl and a boy sweater I had made her for previous little ones. Oh my gosh, this blanket was jinked! I got the bottom border and the plain stockinette stitch area done and started the main design and the stitch count was off. I recounted it several times and then looked at the stitch count according to the instructions. ARRRGGG, I had cast on the stitches for the one size larger than the baby blanket. Frogged it and started again. Got back up to the main design and the starting row was on the wrong side, ARRRGGG again. Only had to tink back one row, the pattern said row 1 was on the wrong side and I had started it on the right side. Ok, I think I’m done with (my) issues now and this is it so far. I think I’m going to have to ask Heavenly Father to bless it before I give it to her :P.

Next picture, this was the braid of fiber I bought, that I mentioned in an earlier post, that was so soft, Merino 18.5 microns (so soft!!!). It has Alpaca, Camel and Mulberry Silk and it’s like holding butter. Can hardly wait to spin this up!! Most Merino you buy is around 23 microns (that’s the fineness of the fiber, the lower the micron the softer), and that is still soft. I partly bought it because I knew all those fibers are amazingly soft and because I loved the colors on the braid.

I need to get back to knitting hats as well, fall is coming fast. They say it’s a La Niña year starting in the fall, so colder fall and winter, I can’t remember if that means more snow or just colder. But the last 2 summers have been sweltering, dang humidity.

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 :).

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 :).

Tour de Fleece 2024 Day 4

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

The first picture is my progress so far! The 2nd picture is what I have left to spin. I separated them into about 30″ pieces and then separated in the lengths of colors to spin back to back. If I had started them on a bulky bobbin I would do them as a chain ply to keep the colors seperate but I didn’t so I will ply the two bobbins together and the colors will overlap each other more of a fractal spin, I didn’t really have a plan at the time, it will be pretty. The last picture is my Kromski Polonaise spinning wheel and the beautiful view (a braided hibiscus tree and night sky pansies) that I get to see on my balcony while I spin :).

Tour de Fleece Starts Tomorrow 6-29-24!

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

Almost forgot to upload the things I chose to spin this year. Starting the 2nd bobbin on the the Pop Rox that I started last year, I shouldn’t have let it sit there for so long :(. Then the next one is a 5oz roving, a beautiful BFL, Corriedale Cross (64%),Alpaca (27%) and Sari Silk Waste (9%). It’s called After Midnight and is black, streaks of blue and a few streaks of green. I’m interested to see what it looks like spun up. If I run out before the end of the Tour de France (that’s what we spin with) then I will choose another one and share it 🙂

We cooled down a lot today with lots of rain, we needed it. Glad our heat wave is over for a little bit.

Farm Update :)

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

My son added a 6 month old Llama to his herd. They are pack animals in Central and South America, Alpacas aren’t really big enough to be pack animals they were more for fiber. Llamas can be fiber animals as well, tho they tend to have a lot more guard hairs, but they can have pretty soft fiber as well. She not full height yet, when I get down there next I’ll take a picture of Belle and an alpaca so you can see the difference, but her ears are a dead give away :). I’m hoping she will be a guard Llama, time will tell, they aren’t all good at that. I’ll let you know as she grows up.

He also added a peacock and a pea hen to his farm. They are not mature yet as you can tell by the lack of color in the peacocks tail. He said they were India Blues, because those are his favorite. They are in a large shed to protect them while they are getting use to his farm. The pole above them is their roost area. I haven’t seen the set up yet but I’m sure he has them in his old baby chick pen so they can’t get out of the fenced in area and predators can’t get to them. He’s very protective of his animals!