Life

Catching Up!

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

Before I start, I have deleted the last Monday Funny post. Tho’ those of us who have raised teenagers will understand the humor, I thought maybe because of the criminal climate of our world right now with children being human trafficked this meme might not be appropriate right now, please save the children! A new one will be up next Monday :).

I knit the last sweater I posted for a friend’s daughter who had a son, saw his picture, he’s a cutie. She was pleased with it and surprised me with some stitch markers, so cute, they will definitely be used! Thanks Anna!

The next picture is a bridal bouquet I made for my daughter after her attempt to make it. We bought the silk flowers and all the things needed to make it and she tried to make it. I looked at it and shook my head and took it apart and redid it, she looked relieved hahaha. I made the boutonnieres for the guys too. Crafting is not her thing, but she’s a great daughter :). She gets married later this month.

Now to the last two pictures. My son’s farm helper has gone off to college and my son and his spouse asked if I would be of a mind to step in until Dec when they close their store and visitors for the winter. I thought it over for a day, I rarely just jump in with both feet into anything, there are always things to consider. This involved my Saturdays, so could I move things around to make my Saturdays free and then there was getting up early (I’m a night owl lol)? I decided I could and told them I would be happy to help out. My son puts them in a small pasture up front, next to the barn, where visitors can come see and feed and touch those that allow it. The first Saturday was a short one because of the extreme heat we were having (115 with the heat index), when it gets to hot for the alpacas to be outside instead of in the barn with a fan going, everything shuts down, they come first. This last Saturday was a full day and tho there is plenty of shade, it was humid so my son put out the splash pad he has for the alpaca girls. They love it, it has a place where the water spurts out of the top of the circle and he makes the water go up to belly hight. Some lay in the water, other like to stand around with the water hitting their bellies to keep cool and putting their faces in the water, you can see that in the 4th picture. I got a sunburn, lol, my face and arms and the back of my neck (I have long hair but I braid it and pull it to the side and that causes my neck show). My face was a bright red along with the back of my neck. My arms weren’t so bad. Fortunately I have a large aloe vera plant and when I got home I picked off one of the larger leaves and got the gooey jell stuff out and put it on my face and back of my neck. It felt better and about an hr later I also put lavender on it (lavender in fractionated coconut oil base – if you are allergic to nuts test to see if you can use the coconut oil, in a roller ball bottle). I put the lavender on again before bed and on Sunday morning, afternoon and evening and again on Monday morning. All the burn has turned into tan and no peeling, whew. Aloe Vera and Lavender are amazing for skin, lavender also works to quell itchy bug bites and ouchie scrapes and minor cuts. I call it the itchy/ouchie solution, the kids never mind having it put on because it doesn’t sting on the ouchies either :). I have to say I’m exhausted being out in the sun all day, but I sleep well :P. I did buy a bottle of sun screen so I won’t be burned again.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the last of the summer before fall :).

Tour de Fleece Day 5 and New Tee!

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Fiber Love Diary, a spinner I follow on YouTube, has her new tee shirt out for the Tour de Fleece. I spun with her group last year and am again this year. She spins, dyes, knits, weaves, you name a fiber project she has probably done it. Very cute tee’s this year!

I know this says day 5 and when you see it, but it will be day 6 for the Tour de Fleece, but for the moment that is how it is. If I skip posting a day, it will be right :P. There is progress on my spin even tho I’m sure it doesn’t look like it, I’ll try to pick up the pace. Because it’s quite a bit thicker than I usually spin and I’m only about 1/2 way on the first 2 ozs (each bobbin will be 2 ozs), it makes me wonder if my bobbin will be big enough for the ply of 4 ozs, I’m thinking after plying and washing this might be a heavy worsted or a light bulky yarn. I am loving it tho, it’s a fun fiber to spin, the singles are beautiful, and I’m trying to think of all the things it could become. Depending on how many yards I end up with, maybe a hat or fingerless mitts. I don’t know what the South American wool is, maybe a combination of wools, but it isn’t scratchy, it’s skin soft :).

Flax Baby Sweater Done :)

/ LDSVenus / 10 Comments

I’ve been working on this Flax baby sweater for a while, have been a bit unmotivated for a bit with my knitting and spinning, but working on that. The baby is born and my friend sent me a picture, he’s cute as a button. He will enjoy this this fall and winter. 🙂

I’ve started another baby sweater for a baby that has already arrived as well, but it’s too hot for a sweater so I try not to feel too bad that it’s not very far along at the moment, but she will enjoy it this fall and winter as well. I’ll post more about the pattern and yarn and my start on another day.

On the 1st of July starts the Tour de Fleece :). I will try to spin a little bit everyday that the bikers from the Tour de France ride. But I’m not gonna beat myself up if I miss a day or two, but gonna work on it. I’ll post on Saturday with some pictures of fiber I am going to spin :).

Hope everyone is doing well!

Hummingbird Feeder – Birds? And Knitting Update.

/ LDSVenus / 7 Comments

Well not hummingbirds, but other birds seem to find it inviting even if they can’t eat from it, sigh. I think they are probably just waiting for my neighbor to take down her flowers and put up the bird feeder lol, so in the meantime they are just hanging out.

Update on my Flax baby sweater by Tin Can Knits. Just one more sleeve to go! At least the baby sweater sleeves don’t take as long as the adult sleeves! This will look better when it’s blocked. Hope my friend is surprised with this gift for her new grandson when I get this sent off to her :).

Hummingbird Feeder

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

I have been going to do this for 4 or 5 years. Last year I finally bought a feeder and some hummingbird food but didn’t get the hanging pole because it’s on my balcony and I needed to figure out how to attach it to my balcony railing and with the bird flu they were saying not to feed the birds, sigh, but I needed to figure out how to attach the pole anyway. Yeah took me a year lol. So here it is, and my neighbor’s flower pot hanging off her balcony makes a perfect background. It looks a little weird because I took it through my screen, oh well. I saw one hummingbird yesterday, so I hope more will come. The liquid is clear tho the bottle is red because they are attracted to red but I know we are not suppose to use red food coloring. I love Spring!!

Skirting Some Fleeces

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

Well the first picture isn’t a fleece :P. Try as I might each year to remember to get a photo of a Magnolia tree flowering, when I drive by there are cars behind me so I can’t stop to get a picture. I love Magnolias because they are generally the first to bloom before the rest of the trees are even budding their leaves, so they mean spring to me. However this year other trees bloomed or spouted leaves first, then yep we had two nights of freezing temps in a row. Guess the Magnolias aren’t fooled. 🙂

The second picture is a grey (kind of looks like a light black but I’m sure when it’s washed it will be a medium grey) Polypay fleece. I also have a white one to skirt also, which is picking out shorter pieces from the longer pieces (basically I’m separating the saddle fiber from the neck, belly and legs and second cuts fiber) and picking out as much of the vm (vegetable vegitation matter, I stand corrected :P) as I can, you can see a big piece of straw, and there are also lots more vm scattered in it, and lets not forget any sheep poop by the back end. I started skirting this a week ago but the weather wasn’t really warm enough and this table wasn’t quite doing the job because it has a bench that I had to bend over to reach the fleece and the wind was blowing more than I hoped, so that wasn’t doing it for me. So with less than a 1/3 done, I put it back in the bag and took it back in the house and will bring them both out when it warms up a bit and no wind (I don’t feel like chasing pieces of fleece all over, lol) so I can lay them out proper and skirt them. I don’t have to have them skirted and ready to ship until August, I just don’t want to do it in the heat of the summer. I’ve had these 3 years maybe 4 so the lanolin is pretty set into the fleeces, good luck to the mill that gets these beauties :P.

Hope everyone is having a good start to your spring and that you avoid the storms I am seeing coming on the weather reports.

New Knitting Jewelry :)

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

I treated myself to, what I have come to call my stitch markers and progress keeper, knitting jewelry :P. I order these from Adore Knit , she makes really cute stitch markers and progress keepers. I found some Snoopy things I didn’t have (big Peanuts fan) and she had some really nice tape measurers, I always misplace mine (even tho I should have one in all of my project bags). I really like these. I also splurged and bought a really cute knit/purl bracelet, you can see it on the back of and behind the dark tape measure, my photo skills lack some serious ability, but you can see them on her site, she shows them much better than I did. It is really pretty so now when I say knitting jewelry, it really is! She included a gift pin for my project bag and I had to show off the super cute netting bag with the hearts she put some of the stitch markers in. Thanks Steph!!

I was hoping for a little bit longer spring before summer temps came. We’ve been in the lower 80’s during the days and 60’s at night this week, tho the weather man says it should be back in the 50’s and 60’s during the days and 30’s and 40’s at night next week. The poor birds must be really mixed up!