Knitting

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!!!!

Started Spinning the Teal Superwash Merino

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Spinning start of the teal Merino superwash

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I’ve begun spinning the merino superwash.  Merino is such a delight to spin, it’s soft and handles easily, even when dyed.  I do tease it a bit (pull it gently until it slips in it’s roving form) to make sure it will come out of the roving easily as I spin.  I’m striving for a baby weight, we will see how consistant I am with a near pound of this roving.  I will be spinning on it everyday so the consistancy should be there, I have trouble when I let it sit a while before going back to it, :P.  It should make a lovely shawl.  I will post a picture when this skein is done, probably this week end.   I love having a week of vacation :).

I know It’s Been a Month…

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Kettle dyed superwash merino roving

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Yes, it has been almost a month since my last post.  My job has been very stressful (mortgage industry and with the lower mortgage rates it has been VERY busy) and overtime has been involved, I caught a very bad cold almost 3 weeks ago that went into bronchitis, the severe coughing has subsided but there is still some coughing and still an occational coughing spasm,  and still some congestion, but at least I don’t have to sit up all night to sleep anymore.  I have a long awaited for and much needed vacation starting Monday this week, so much rest will be the order of the day everyday this week :).

I got the dye I ordered to dye the merino superwash roving that I had on hand.  It is for a friend who will be knitting the Daisy Rectangular Shawl I designed.  She will be entering it in the state fair where she lives this coming year.  I will post a picture of the skeins when I finish spinning, and I will post a picture of her shawl when she is finished knitting it, as she does not have a blog.  :).  Now, tho it’s a beautiful teal color on my screen (and exactly what I was hoping for), this denotes my lack of expertise in the picture taking arena – the roving did not turn out as teal as I had hoped, it is more green than the picture shows, but hopefully the color will be loved by my friend.  If I had more experience with dying I could probably correct the color to what I had hoped for, but alas I do not have that expertise at this time.  Maybe she can correct the color after she knits it.

I will be doing some cleaning tomorrow morning as my kitchen sink has a leak in the pipes underneath (I found it when I went to get the kettle out to dye the roving on Friday) and my landlord will be coming tomorrow morning to fix the pipe (the trap) and most of the stuff that was under my sink is now on my counter, some stuff I had to toss.  Sigh.

Start of Another Comfort Shawl & Christmas Cactus Blooming

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Another Comfort Shawl

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This is the last comfort shawl that I have on my plate.  It’s been a busy year for comfort shawls.  I used the Tara Shawl again with Lionbrand Homespun because it’s soft and quick to make.  The colors in this yarn make the shawl pretty, and it’s squishy ;).  You can’t really see the colors very well in this picture, they are a purple, blue and grey with cream through out.  It’s muted and very pretty.  I hope she will like it.

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Christmas Cactus 2011

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The Christmas cactus is blooming.  It has lots of new growth this year, will be time to re-pot it this coming spring.  Then it will get bigger, not sure how large I want it to get, I have a friend who had one that was huge, but I dont think I want a really big one.
I have some spider plants that are getting pretty big too.  I hate that they call them spider plants because I really DO NOT like spiders at all.  So much so that I didn’t put my plants out on the patio this year because every fall when I bring them in I find a spider running around close to it.  Ewwwwww.

2nd Wisp Shawl Finished!

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click picture for larger image

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I got this shawl finished yesterday evening and was able to block it last night and it was dry when I woke up this morning so I ran it down to my friend.  She was pleased with the result and that made me very happy ;).

It’s an easy pattern to knit even tho’ it looks complicated.  Once I have the projects on my plate finished, I will try to find a nice heavy lace weight to fingerling yarn and make another one of these. :).

I picked up some more homespun from Lionbrand to make a comfort shawl for my future daughter in law who lost her father 2 months ago.  I hope she will like the color I chose.  I wanted to find out what her father’s favorite color was and make it that color but I didn’t get that information and the yarn was on sale this holiday week end so I picked out what I hope will be an soothing color to help with her grief.  I’ll be doing the Tara Shawl again.  It’s quick, easy and, with their homespun yarn, pretty.  I’ll post a picture after I get it started and enough done on the shawl so that you can see what the color will look like.  I do not use the fringe when I make this shawl, fringe, to me seems to get in the way more often than not.

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!!

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.

Wisp Shawl Started

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click picture for larger image

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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

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3rd Comfort Shawl started

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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

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Are you ready for some football?

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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.

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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.
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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.