Life

A Buck, Finally a Picture of that Blanket I finished, Some Pictures of Alpaca Stuff

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

I showed you a picture of a doe that was eating under a tree in the snow before and I took a picture of a Buck a couple of days ago eating under the same tree. They sure are pretty but pretty pesky here in town.

I finished the Look for Happiness Blanket by Fifty Four Ten Studio a few weeks ago and just haven’t gotten around to showing it, so here it is. I made the medium size for a lap blanket. I still need to wash and block it. Hope she will like it. It took me some time, but I found it a peaceful knit and enjoyed this pattern, so I didn’t hurry through it. :). Taking pictures at night sure doesn’t give true color, lol, this is actually a denim color so it’s a little darker and brighter than it shows up. Maybe someday I will master taking pictures for my blog, or not.

The next two pictures I took last week at the Farm’s annual open to the public Christmas celebration. I neglected to get pictures of the alpaca who were wearing candy cane horns, tho I have to admit most of them managed to get them off, lol. But there were cookies (an alpaca cookie I managed to snag). I accidentally broke it on the way home (breaking things seem to be my thing), but it still took a pretty picture and his reg farm hand drew a picture in the snow of an alpaca before people came out, I thought it was cute. Along with the cookies there was also hot chocolate for the people who came out. They also had Santa who asked all the kids what they wanted for Christmas and he gave them all a gift bag with alpaca goodies. Because it was cold we didn’t have a ton of people, but they had put together 50 gift bags for the kids and they were all claimed ;). I think everyone had fun. They are debating, for this next Saturday because of the Alberta clipper that is heading this way with very cold temps, on rather they will open, don’t want little ones getting frostbite. They would still keep the store open for people wanting to shop for Christmas. It will depend on if the clipper arrives on time or is slower moving. It is supposed to be -30 with the wind chills by Monday, winds from 30 to 50 miles per hr in some areas of IA, ugh.

These minus temps are our late Jan and early Feb temps, I can hardly wait to see what they will be in Jan and Feb :0. Even our mid winter thaw (warm up) is coming early, the week before Christmas, according to the weather man, sigh. We need it tho, in 2008 there was no mid winter thaw (we always get one, but not that year, it’s generally in Jan) so the snow on the ground did not melt and when it melted in the spring there was so much snow melting from the top of IA on down that the Cedar River flooded big time, over flowing 5 miles on each side of the river. Rail road cars had been put on the tracks that go over the bridges to try to keep the bridges from being washed away, but the flood was so high it took the rail road cars that had been filled with big rocks to weigh them down more, right off the bridge. A Dairy Queen that was a few blocks away from the river was flooded over the roof. So we need that mid winter thaw. Maybe it means spring will come sooner! I’ll just keep that thought.

Stay warm!!!

Hats, Roving and Temps!!

/ LDSVenus / 5 Comments

I have 5 hats ready to go for my Hats for Warmth project to send to my local homeless shelter, and since you will notice the temps today, I will get that in the mail tomorrow!! Now to start knitting more hats. I like to have 5 or more hats to send out.

My son and his spouse went to a fiber show, several hrs away, two weeks ago, and while they were there they bought me 2 Haunui spinning roving, which is a new sheep breed to me. This sheep breed is only found in New Zealand and I have been eyeing this fiber for a while. There is a fiber artist with a small business here in the USA, Twine, that imports the fiber and carries it. He also carries the Majacraft spinning wheels. It’s a new website and he doesn’t have much up on it yet, but I will be following it for more fiber batts and drooling over the spinning wheels :P. He’s doing the fiber fair circuit at the moment so I’m sure it will be after the holidays before he has his website setup completed and will probably depend on what stock he has left after the holiday shows. I have to say this wool is soft like Merino and the one he blended with alpaca and silk is very soft!!!

I’m rushing to get the hats out to the shelter because our cold weather has hit a little early this year. Fortunately it’s just today and will warm back up to the lower 20’s and teens in the day, but this minus temperature is our Jan and colder Feb weather. The first temp is the ambient temp, the lower one next to it is the feels like temp, the next number is the dew point and the percentage next to that is the humidity.

I will be blocking the baby blanket, that I finished a couple of weeks ago and sharing a picture of it and a new baby sweater I started, in a few days. I also need to start the color work Christmas tree balls. I have put it off because I’m not a color work person and lol, it gives me a little anxiety. I know, once I start them, it will be fine. sigh

Stay warm everyone!!!

Snow Day!! 11-28-2025

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

We are having a snow storm, first big snow of the winter, and boy is it!! I woke up at 3:30 AM to get a shot of the snow and there was a deer there, so I captured that in my picture, so cute. The next picture is the storm alert, so we have about 10 to 12 more hrs to go of this snow storm, at least the wind isn’t terrible. The last picture I took a few hrs ago of the snowfall so far. I’d love snow more if it was warm :P. This storm is across many states, so if any of you out there are in this storm take care and stay warm. 🙂

*Update* as of 10:30pm we have 12 inches of snow, some towns got 14 inches. All said and done we ended up with about 14 inches. Is it spring yet?

Fall at the Farm and Flatbed Knitted Hats

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

My son has been busy knitting on his flatbed knitting machine. He is having so much fun creating these hats from his fingering alpaca yarn!

I love fall (except that it means winter is coming) for all the colors of the trees. These are two of the trees on my son’s farm. Maples, so pretty. I took these a couple of weeks ago, the leaves have all fallen now. So after Christmas I will be going, “Is it Spring yet?”

Halloween at the Farm, Alpaca spin Turned into Hat and New Hats for Warmth Start

/ LDSVenus / 10 Comments

This was the Halloween celebration at the farm this past Saturday :). The first two pictures are some of his decorations, then there are several pictures of the alpacas wearing costumes, lol, some of them had trouble leaving them on! You can see the male behind the fence with a bow tie and little Apollo also has a tie on, some of the females were wearing hats. Libby the llama said, nope! They will be decked out at Christmas too :).

The next to the last picture is some sport weight hand spun I turned into a hat for my friend that gave me the smaller wheel that I use at the farm during alpaca days to show spinning to the people who come out to enjoy the alpacas as a thank you. It’s a paid for pattern, Husband Request Hat on Ravelry. I changed it a little so I made it a little longer and knit 4 purl 2 so it’s a little more stretchy, but I wasn’t sure of his head measurements and I am not a fan of the hats that fit skin tight so I thought this was the best way to go. Hope it fits him :P.

The last picture is the new hat I’m working on with the Hats for Warmth project I work on for our local homeless shelter. This will be hat number 5 this year, one more after this and I will send them off to the shelter. I am using a #6 16″ circular needle and I Love This Yarn in the print color #red tweed. It’s not really a tweed, it’s a darker red with black speckles on it, LOL, but it is pretty. I am enjoying knitting it.

New Cria at the Farm!

/ LDSVenus / 10 Comments

We had a birth this morning! A little boy (we were hoping for a little girl) but he is so cute and will be a rose grey like his mom, he’s so little! My son is watching to make sure he could latch on to nurse and the little one did, the colostrum is important. He will be weighed this evening and they will pick out a name for him so he can be registered. I told my son he should name the little one Ozzy Osborn, but he said, he doesn’t look like an Ozzy, and I thought, what does an Ozzy alpaca look like? LOL. Anyway a name will be forthcoming. He’s doing well so far, he was about an hr old in the right bottom picture. My son put one of his whippet’s sweaters on him because it started raining, so he wouldn’t get cold. The mom wasn’t real happy but she allowed it.

Update for Tour de Fleece 2025 2nd Bobbin

/ LDSVenus / 10 Comments

This was days 11, 12 and 13. the middle picture is day 13 where I spun the last of the roving for this fiber and also the two bobbins or singles are finished. Tomorrow I will ply these two singles together to get a 2 ply yarn :), and wash it and let it dry, and I will begin on Sunday with my next spin.

Picture #1 (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them), I put my bulky flyer and bobbin on my Kromski Polonaise spinning wheel so I can make sure the bobbin doesn’t run out of space as I ply these 2 bobbins of singles. You can see the difference of the bulky bobbin in the first picture against the regular size bobbins in the last picture. If you look hard you can also see the flyer difference in the 1st picture versus the 2nd picture. My regular bobbins in the last picture are different weights, two of them are 57 grams, and one is 53 grams, I use a magic marker and put the weight of each bobbin on the end. I weigh them after spinning and subtract the weight of the bobbin to get the spun singles weight. The fiber on one weighed 48 grams and the other weighed 49 grams. Pretty close. If I have left over singles on one, which I imagine I will, I will Navajo ply it (aka Andean plying) or practice chain plying and have a tiny skein to remember my spin :). I will put a picture up of my finished skein on Tuesday, so you don’t miss my Monday Funny post :P. I will be gifting this skien to my ophthalmologist (eye doctor) on Wednesday.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the 70’s with very little humidity. Today was in the low 80’s but the dew pt was 71% and humidity 82% so it was a little muggy feeling. We have thunder storms coming in tomorrow through next Wed. Tuesday through Thursday will be in the lower 90’s, not sure how much the rain will affect the “feels like” temps, but I’m sure it will not be fun!

Stay safe and enjoy your gardening and/or crafting out there!

Monday Funny???

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Oh dear, I watch shark week to remember why I don’t swim in the ocean, now I have one more reason to not swim in the ocean, salt water crocs in the water at the beaches where it’s warm enough for them to survive, sigh. This one thinks he’s hidden in a wave, sorry dude that’s a fail, lol.