Our semi annual General Conference is this week end. It is so spiritually uplifting and peaceful. It was this morning from 11:00 am Central time until 1:00 pm and this after noon from 3:00 pm Central time to 5:00 pm and tomorrow same times. If you get a chance to view the talks, I invite you to come and enjoy.
I think I’ve said this before, I am a klutz. Long story short I was trying to adjust my floor fan and the cage around the fan blades came loose and slipped down and my little finger went through the cage, and the fan (thank goodness it was a plastic blade) sliced my finger by the nail bed to the top of the finger. Blessings, it didn’t go into the nail bed, it wasn’t a really horrible cut and only required 2 stitches. Hopefully this will be the last for a while, but being a klutz you never know.
I finished the hats to match the coats for two children of a friend of mine. I hope they will be well used this winter.
I have a sweater for a little one (about 2 months now) that I need to finish, and two new hats to start for some little family members. I will probably start a hat and then work on the sweater when I have the luxury of time that allows for concentration, and on the hats when I don’t. I also have to finish the spin I started at the Alpaca farm days, so it’s not like I don’t have anything to do :P.
Today I was asked to participate at my son’s Alpaca farm for Alpaca farm Days. Something the Alpaca farms do here this time of year every year. Do they do this all over the country?
It was fun, many more people than was expected came and enjoyed the Alpacas, and the Alpaca products my son and his spouse had for sale. They had a sock machine, a hat machine, and a drum carder out for people to see how they worked. They also had a screened table, which allows dirt and vm (vegetable matter) to fall to the ground, and show people how they skirt and pick through the fleece 2nds (the smaller less desirable parts of the fleece, tho they are still very soft they are shorter). They use the 2nds to make the felted dryer balls people love to use :), the 1sts are sent to a fiber mill to be washed and spun into yarn. A friend and I spent the day spinning on our spinning wheels and answering questions regarding spinning and using my blending board and carders. I look forward to doing this again next year. 🙂 Please enjoy the pictures above, oh the two Alpacas are not kissing lol, they are not as close to each other as it looks, but it made for a cute picture.
I remember where I was when this happened, do you?
As we remember the 18th year since this heinous attack was perpetrated on the citizens of the USA, may we take a moment to remember all those who died on this day 18 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.
I meant to add to my blog a few weeks ago, but I got pretty busy and then I caught a cold and a GI bug right after that. Neither were fun, still dealing with bronchitis.
On to nicer things :). I am about 3 rolags short of being finished with my 2nd bobbin (showing on the 1st picture) on the last spin I was working on for the TDF (Tour de Fleece). Yeah I know I’m late, but I’m gonna finish anyway :). Going to try to have it done by sometime next week. It is a fractal spin with the first bobbin being half light orange and half darker orange and the 2nd bobbin shorter bursts of color going from yellow to very light orange, rose, very light orange and back to yellow. That flows through out the bobbin. Not sure how that will play out when I ply them, but I guess we will see. 🙂
In the 2nd picture you see my new acquisitions :). I love buying stitch markers and progress keepers from Adore Knit on Etsy. Her stitch markers and progress keepers are awesome. I bought a snoopy with a pumpkin progress keeper with beautiful fall stitch markers and she put in an extra gift, an acorn progress keeper, so cute! I also purchased a spring set with a flower on the first stitch marker (makes it easy to know when you finish a round when you are knitting in the round) and an umbrella for the progress keeper (will be nice to remind me spring will come when the winter is lasting forever) and she gave me another little gift, a progress keeper with my initial on it. She spoils me :). If you are ever in need of set of stitch markers or progress keepers please go visit her Etsy shop, she is putting in markers for football season now, but she has a lot of different marker sets to choose from!
I am knitting on several different projects will try to get pictures of my progress and post sometime this next week.
Happy Birthday, ie: Independence Day to the country that I love, the United States of America. Long may our Flag wave! I hope you enjoy the following music.
I went ahead and made rolags today for my next spinning project. I made it from scraps that I had been given and tried to make the colors as aesthetic as possible together.
The first single will be the two shades of orange rolags in the back and the 2nd single will be a gradient of yellow (mixed with white), a really light orange,dusky rose, pink, then going backwards, dusky rose, really light orange and yellow (mixed with white), shown by the rolags in the front. Not sure how that mixture will work out, guess we shall see.
I’m thinking of calling this colorway Sherbert. That is what it looks like to me anyway. Dang, now I’m hungry for sherbert or ice cream!
I was up late last night blocking my Changing Staircases Shawl. Was very fun to knit, I will definitely knit it again! The pattern is easy, I just have one word of warning, pay attention to the beginning of the last row of each section so you don’t have to tink back to do the part you forgot :P. The link gives info on the pattern and yarn I used. I can hardly wait until Christmas to give this gift!
I also finished the Diagonal Garter Stitch Scarf I was knitting with my friend Kari (info for my yarn and needles in link.) She was killed in a one car accident last October, and I decided to finish mine in her memory. It’s an easy pattern, tho since I can’t remember where I got it and I can’t find it online, I can not share it. There are many similar patterns out there that you can search.
Now I can start the Little Lace Daisy Scarf (one of my own patterns) from the Teal merino that I hand spun. Been a nice vacation, one more week then back to work :P.
It’s either my photo skills or my camera (could be both), but my spinning pictures are really muted. In rl (real life) these are brighter. The fractal spin does mute things a little bit but the purple bobbin on the bottom was brighter purples and the aqua is a little darker (tho not dull) and has more blue hues scattered through out in it. I got 274 yards of yarn and it weighted 106 grams, that would make it a light sport weight I think. It was a fun spin and I will have to dig around for patterns that require that much yardage or less to make something nice. Maybe a cowl or if it’s enough yardage a hat and mitt set. I’m not a big fan of yarn chicken, so I will be looking at patterns. 🙂
I’m going to start the scarf for my friend from the teal yarn that I finished spinning just before this last spin. I think I’m going to knit my Little Lace Daisy Scarf pattern. But I will add a few more stitches to the edges to make it a little wider. I showed her the finished yarn and she loved the teal color :).
I also am going to work on finishing the Changing Staircases Shawl that I have been working on. I think I only have two more complete pattern sections (20 rows each) to be done. Then I can block it and store it, it’s a Christmas gift. Not waiting until closer to Christmas like I did last year, because if you remember “Murphy” moved in and I broke my hand last August and there was no Christmas knitting. “Murphy” isn’t allowed at my house anymore :P.
I will be planning my next spin, but I want to finish the shawl first and get started on the scarf, then I won’t feel so anxious. I generally do not have more than 2 to 3 projects going at any given time. One is always a mindless knit for stressed out and non thinking days (usually a dishcloth or diagonal scarf, both which are very mindless knits.) When I have more than that, I feel drawn in to many ways and anxious. When I get more comfortable with the heels and gussets on socks, I will add them to my mindless knits :). Besides I need a reason to test out my Flexi Flip needles (looks like they are on sale for 20% off at the moment.) Maybe they will still be on sale when I get paid!
LDSVenus-knits 