SNOW!! and Some Spinning

The snow pictures are in order, last night about 2 hrs after the snow started, it wasn’t sticking to the road yet *(actually I think this is the start of the last snow we had, but they look about the same so I mixed them up, and now I can’t find the picture I took lol, so oops). Then this morning just before sun up, and last tonight after sun down.  It snowed for about 24 hrs and we got about 7 inches tho at the airport they measured 13 inches, whoa. I’d say our Christmas snow arrived a little late :P. More snow storms coming this week but not sure how much snow they will bring, I’m sure they will add to the pile as our temps are going down :P. This one was a very big storm.

The last picture is the Pop Rox I am spinning. Had some eye surgery a few weeks ago and I go back to the doctor later this month for new glasses so I can see better.  All in all it was worth it. I can see the color on the roving and yarn so much better! I’m about 2/3rds done with this bobbin, then one more to spin before I ply. Trying to figure out in the mean time if I want to just ply regular or try the chain ply again so the colors stay together. I need to figure it out before I finish this single because if I chain ply I will just continue to spin on this bobbin until it’s full.

Hope everyone is safe and warm.

Forgot the cutest one! This is Everest from my son’s alpaca farm, he was out in the snow today and decided to come in the barn for a bite or two. They come in and out of the barn as they wish to get out of the wind or other weather. Note that the snow doesn’t melt on him, his fiber is very dense and water resistant. They are lovers of the cold, me? not so much!

OK, Catch Up Time Again, or Accountability Time, Which Ever :)

On Sunday we woke up to snow! Was only suppose to be about 1/2 inch to maybe 1 inch, however we got about 2 inches. At least here, in the midwest, the city street crews are on top of clearing the snow on the streets. There was some slush but as you can see it had already been plowed before 7:30 am. Looks so pretty for the first snow, but later as the cars splash dirty street water on the sides and it looks dirty until the next snow. It should all be melted off by later this week as we get into the upper 30’s.

Finished another hat, they go pretty fast as they are only a 2X2 ribbing knit about 9 3/4 inches long and then do the crown. I like them long so the bottom gives double coverage to the ears when folded up.

I did something I don’t do often, set Christmas stuff out before Dec. But I had already started listening to Christmas music, it brings such peace, so why not set up my Christmas decorations. My son’s mother in law and I exchange a gift each year at Thanksgiving (which we all celebrate together) and last year she got me that lovely Christmas scene that lights up and this year she gave me those huge gnomes, so cute. Last year I knit her headband from a purchased pattern that goes over the ears to keep them warm that had a dandelion design, I forgot to put a picture up, sigh. I didn’t get the cowl to match finished because I was having to design it myself (not something I do often, I’m not a mathematician, :P, so planing the placement is not terribly easy.) So I thought I had it planned out, but it was off, so frog part of it back to the top of the first design. Start again, nope, frog one more time to the 1st design again and played it by ear eyeballing it rather than counting stitches, and it’s ok now. I probably won’t write a pattern for it because I didn’t write anything down as I went but I used the same dandelion design from the headband. For the cowl itself without a pattern on it just cast on 104 and knit a 2×2 rib for top and bottom of the cowl for 1 & 1/2 inches. You can use any pattern on the cowl you like, but the 104 cast on, on worsted weight yarn, gave me a loose but not a super loose neck fit and I knit enough patterns and rounds vertically with the ribbing top and bottom to make it about 9 or 10 inches high, I’ll check it when I’m done and give better measurements.

You can see a row counter, on the cowl I’m knitting, I bought from Twice Sheared Sheep . They are pretty cool. She had a Thanksgiving gift of buy one get one for those row counters with both as mysteries so I bought another and got another one. One is a round one and the other another long one with a different needle size and different ending pieces, I really like them, I’ve enjoyed using it on the cowl to keep rows between the vertical patterns without having to go back and recount them, the end piece on it is a cute little dragonfly :). You should check them out.

The Color of Fall and an FO

These are all shots of the beautiful fall colors I was able to take this week. Well the 2nd picture I took last week and a week later I took a picture of the same trees (3rd picture) and you can see their color progress. Amazing how fast the leaf colors change and all the colors they make.

The last picture is the FO. This is the Classic Cables Hat and Mittens by Destiny Meyer pattern, (I only knit the hat) that I was getting ready to start, link to my post on this. It fit Ev, but because the size for this was for a woman’s medium and I was knitting this for a man I used the larger needle size that it mentioned in the needles section for a larger or slouchy hat and added an extra cable vertically to make it a little longer. Also if I make this for him again, I will also add about 1 & 1/2 inches to the cuff so it will sit well below his ears when it’s folded up, men have larger heads than women ;P, he said it was fine the way it was, but I like things to be better than fine :P. A link to her shop can be found here, this pattern is on sale on this page of her patterns, but I don’t know how long the sale lasts :).

Won a Spinning Box Gift!

A few weeks ago I entered in a giveaway from Camaj Fiber Arts for a spinning box. She prepares these and sells them once a month, they are a surprise box of fiber, and always worth it. I entered and she was giving away 3 and I thought well, maybe! I got an email a little over a week ago and I won one of them!!! This one was titled Silk Road from East to West. It’s all about silk, some gorgeous spinning fibers in it! The light colored package of roving is Opulence, 18 micron Merino and Polwarth and Red Eri Peace Silk combed top, and this is soft, soft, soft! The colorful package the same size is Merino and Mulberry silk combed top, and it is oh so soft! The smaller bag of colorful fiber is Soffsilk, a cloud of various colors of dyed mulberry silk. It will be nice for blending on my drum carder with other fibers for color and texture :). Then there is a silk handkerchief with some bleeding tissue paper to make a dyed silk hanky :), should be fun. The last thing is a sack of some Eri Peace Silk cocoons. I’ll have to check out more about degumming them, tho the paper said I could also dye them and string them for my Christmas tree and actually I have a small fiber optic tree so it might actually look very cool :P. This box arrived on Saturday and my birthday was yesterday, what a coincidence was that!!! What a wonderful birthday gift! I like buying fiber from this fiber arts online store, they have a great variety of fiber and fiber tools and some great prices :).

I’m enjoying this nice fall weather, it will be 60’s and 50’s all week, so much better than the 90’s into the 100’s of this past summer! Hope everyone is well and enjoying their day!

Newest Cria is Here :)

Kitchi (Native American name from the Algonquian tribe) it means brave. He was born a couple of days ago but my son and his spouse (who is also Native American) were busy with him, his mom is a first time mom and he had a small problem when he was born, his ankle is unstable and he couldn’t stand, so because he couldn’t stand to drink from mom, they bottle fed him some colostrum and continued bottle feeding him because they had him and mom separated from the herd in a barn in a stall, the rest were all close loose in the barn and could touch noses, but she was distressed because she was kinda sorta separated so they feed him through the night and the next day they put a splint on him while his ankle heals. He is now nursing from his mom.

The first picture is the clearest of him. His coloring is striking with the black head and his legs are also black but the rest of him is the cinnamon color, so pretty. The second picture is Finn (the cria born 2 weeks ago) checking him out now that Kit (his nick name) and his mom are no longer separated from the herd, Kit is laying down. If you click the picture it should enlarge and show the whole picture. I was going to put a video up of him walking around with his splint but I would have to upgrade my Word Press acct to do that and since this is the first and probably the only video I would post, I didn’t see the point :P. One more cria is due, should be here in Sept :).

Getting ready for another heat wave to start on Saturday through next Wed with some 96 degree days, not sure what the heat index will put the feels like temp at, sigh. Is it fall yet?

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the last vestiges of Summer.

New Cria on the Farm!

We had a new cria (baby alpacas are called a cria) born on the farm. Not named yet, but he looks like his dad and not his mom :P, I will get to see him tomorrow. Babies are always exciting, and there are 2 more due this month.