Pattern

Knitting Accountability

/ LDSVenus / 5 Comments

I haven’t done this in a while so I thought I would catch up my blog on my knitting.

I have knit 2 charity hats and one in progress. When I get 4 or 5 done I will take them to the shelter and start on the next batch. They are a simple 2X2 rib stitch with a fold over brim for extra warmth on the ears. They are easy to make and one of my mindless knits when I don’t have the head space for more complicated things and need the peace myself, and they are helping others.

The next 2 pictures are of a test knit that I did. I took a picture of the front and back because the darker front didn’t show the pattern as well as the lighter back (the yarn, Loops and Threads Impressions, is a bulky, slightly fuzzy yarn that fades from dark to light and back again), you might want to keep that in mind if you buy this pattern and make it ;). This is a headband for those that don’t like to wear hats but their ears get cold. The pattern is called Dandelion Headband. It was a fun pattern with an interesting stitch to make the dandelion flowers. You can find the pattern on Ribblr, the designer is Cloud9 Atelier . Ribbler is free but you need to make a account to use it. This is a paid pattern that you can buy, but they also have some free patterns and they have a very interesting online user-active pattern format that I like and my free patterns are on there too. This was a fun knit. I will definitely knit it again.

The last picture is another Tin Can Knits Flax baby sweater, a free pattern, you can find the needle sizes I use here on earlier post. I made a change in yarn because I didn’t want to have to mess with the color management of stripes and having to weave in all those ends lol. I’m using Hobby Lobby’s, Yarn Bee, Warm & Cozy, it’s very soft and in this size (6 months to 1 year) one skein might be all I need, but I bought 2 just in case, no sense inviting “Murphy’s Law”, he’s not our friend. It is acrylic, nylon and polyester, medium weight – worsted). I haven’t made one of these baby sweaters in a little bit an forgot how enjoyable they are to knit (the baby sweaters anyway because they don’t take forever :P).

Hope everyone is enjoying the little bit of a warm up before winter finally gets here. Farmer’s Almanac (see picture above) says it will be a hibernation zone about mid Jan & snow filled this year for my area, how about your area? Wonder if it will be right this year?

FO! And the Hat I Will be Working on

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I finished the scarf I was making for a friend for Christmas, yeah it’s late, so what else is new :P. The color isn’t showing right on my screen, it’s actually a fawn color and not grey. This is my Little Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf that I corrected a line of the pattern and added two more rows to, it’s not a beginners pattern but it’s not hard, just pay attention to what row you are on. I knit this out of some of my hand spun cria (baby alpaca), that my daughter had given to me as a fleece and sent it off to a fiber mill to have processed into what they call bumps for spinning, which is similar to a batt of carded fiber. Soft stuff!

The next picture is of the hat I am finishing for my friend this is where she left off with her knitting. It is Quivet (muskox fiber, and is very soft stuff too, and very warm) and I am getting ready to figure out where she was with it and see if I can finish it for her.

Our temps are back up to normal, I always hate those arctic blasts, but we get them every year, and I’m sure we will get another one before the end of Feb. The days are teens and 20’s ambient temps, occasionally we get up to the mid 30’s and we think it’s spring (LOL), and the nights are single digits to below 0 ambient temps, but I’m not out at night so I keep warm at home :P. Hope everyone else is staying warm as well.

First Real Snow in 2021 and Late Christmas Gift and Fixing that Pattern.

/ LDSVenus

Our first real snow this winter season hit us yesterday. They predicted a trace to 2 inches, we got 2 1/2 inches of snow. Snowing more this evening they are predicting a trace to 2 inches again, it isn’t snow as hard as yesterday so I figure less than 1 inch. But they said a bigger storm is coming on Saturday, yea :/. They said we will be about 10 below zero on Saturday night and might hit 20 below zero (Fahrenheit) with wind chill, yea :/. We are bouncing around between upper 20s to lower teens (above 0) in the day. -20 F = -28.888 C. I’m not good at knowing this stuff, had to look it up :P. Suffice it to say the mid-west USA winter has begun and we will be seeing much lower temps and more snow as it progresses, sigh. Is it Spring yet?

The second picture is the scarf I have started out of my hand spun baby alpaca fiber, and it is now a late Christmas gift, but along with knitting it I am fixing one of the lines on my pattern, Little Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf. I will be uploading the fix in the next week so stay tuned for that, I will mention it on the pattern that it has been updated. The scarf doesn’t look like much right now, lace never does until it’s blocked, but it is a long skinny scarf and tho after blocking it will be a little longer and a little wider, tho not a ton, the lace however will look much better :p.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you much peace in the New Year.

CVM/Alpaca Spin, Hat Done and Scarf Started

/ LDSVenus

No excuse, but I have S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder, very appropriate initials :P) and in the winter I am less inclined to want to do things, so the fact that I have 1 full bobbin of the CVM/alpaca roving (I believe there is only 15% alpaca blended in ) done is a celebration! One more to go lol, then I can ply and have yarn! The CVM breed’s name refers to the Romney rams and Rambouillet ewes which were crossed to create it around 1915. The California Variegated Mutant (or CVM) is a rare sub-type of the Romeldale breed known for its unusual color, and is considered a derivative of the Romeldale. Even blended with probably about 15% alpaca, it’s a beautiful modeled light brown, tho on my screen it looks grey, it is a light brown. It will make a beautiful yarn.

On to the hat, well I finished the red/black hat I was working on but forgot to get a picture of it before I sent the package to the homeless shelter, my bad.

The second picture is the cria (baby alpaca) that I spun. I got it wound into a ball land am ready to knit my Little Lace Cat’s Paw Scarf. I’m going to have to make a correction as I knit and then fix it on my pattern page. It’s just one line I believe in the pattern. But I will notify you all when I get that page updated.

Wishing you all a blessed day!!!

An FO and And a WIP

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

I have finished the comfort shawl I was working on for a friend at church. It’s a free pattern and I have linked it to the Raverly page. It’s a nice mindless knit so you can think about why you’re knitting it, or if it’s not for someone else, you can think about whatever you want :P. I used 4 skeins of Lion Brand Home Spun yarn. It looks like it has grey in it, but that is lavender, again not a great camera or maybe it’s just me :P.

I have started another Flax Baby Sweater by Tin Can Knits , I really like knitting this sweater, it is in sizes 0 to 6XL. The color way I’m using is Teal Stripe and as usually I have to do a little color management on the sleeves. For future baby sweaters, since I am knitting so many of these :P, I will be using Yarn Bee Warm and Cozy that is kinda solid colors, but not quite, they have a slightly shaded feel to them so no color management.

Fall is here, we are still in the 60’s and 70’s (F) which is fine :), but the leaves are starting to change because we are into the 40’s at night off and on now. Only nice thing about fall is my electric bill goes down, lol. Gotta take your blessings where you can, and I wouldn’t mind fall as much but it means winter is right around the corner and I am not a winter kinda girl. 30, 40 and 50F below zero temps are not my cup of tea, but I have to admit, hot chocolate helps, but then chocolate helps most things, lol.

Knitting and Spinning Updates and a New Cria!

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In the first picture are some of the things I am actively working on, a little girl baby sweater (yes the Flax :)), it’s in the Yarn Bee Soft & Sleek in Coral colorway. The larger item is a garter stitch comfort shawl in Lion Brand Homespun in the Waterfall Cascade colorway. The last item is the hat I will be knitting for my family member out of the lavender hand-spun (wool with a little alpaca blended in) that is showing in the next picture. I haven’t started the hat (Snowtracks Cap by Timothy Peters) yet, but I did get it wound into a ball. I actually enjoy the hand winding process, I find it a mindless and peaceful experience, well except when it is tangled as I wind, then it’s just an experience :P.

The next picture is all the yarn I’ve spun this year, (well except the orange skein it was a fractal spin I did last year, it’s just pretty :P).

The next two pictures are the alpaca cria (baby alpaca) roving I am spinning on my Rick Reeves double drive wheel. The alpaca fiber is butter soft as it goes through my fingers, and oh my it almost spins itself!! This roving was from a cria fleece that my daughter bought me a few years back that I had sent off to a mill in the east to turn into roving and they did a tremendous job!!

The last picture is one of my son’s alpaca, Summit, and her new cria, who was born this last Thursday, isn’t he a cutie, he’s white just like his mom! His dad was a beautiful fawn color from another herd. They have one more cria to be born in the next two weeks and that will make 4 new babies this year.

Summer Sock Camp at the Ready!

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I decided to do the Summer Sock Camp with The Crazy Sock Lady. She has a podcast on youtube this is a link to her video about the Summer Sock Camp. Her channel is fun. I haven’t knit socks in over a year, maybe 2, and thought it would be fun to knit socks again. If you like to knit socks and are interested in being entered for some pretty nice prizes, go check her out. This goes on from June through August.

This is her vanilla sock pattern and she has a video on using 9″ circs for this. She also has videos for using two circs, the flex flips and magic loop techniques, top down and toe up. I prefer the 9″ circular needles and I like the bamboo because they are a bit more grabby and my yarn doesn’t slip off the tips. I have to go down an additional size so I use a 0 because I knit loosely anyway and knit even a little more loosely with the 9″ circulars. I chose her vanilla sock pattern (available in her Etsy for $2.00) because I am using Threads and Loops Perfect Pair sock yarn and I wasn’t sure a textured pattern would show well or maybe even be over the top with the color designs in this sock yarn. The Crazy Sock Lady (Kay Litton) has some truly beautiful sock patterns on Etsy. Hope to see you over there on her podcast :). Let the fun begin!

A FO!! One Down and Several to Go

/ LDSVenus

Well these have been on my needles for about 6 months, sheesh. The winter was hard on me this year, was hard to focus on things and get them done. These are the Te Ara Fingerless Mitts by Rachel Cooper, they are a free Ravelry download. I used left over yarn from the Daisy Rectangular Wedding Shawl I made and a size 3 9″ ChiaoGoo circular needle, which is a size smaller than called for because I knit a little looser with Combined Continental knitting. But because the yarn was a very lightweight fingering, not quite a lace weight, if I use this yarn for another pair I will go down one more size. They look small but they have a lot of stretch. I used a lavender acid dye, Jaquard, to achieve the color. I hope she will enjoy them this fall and winter :).

Working on the baby sweater now, my friend’s baby is due next month, then since I now have some brain to wrap around things I will work on a hat a friend sent me because I told her to send it to me and I would be happy to finish it for her. I will get to work with musk ox yarn!!! It’s very soft. I will have to look at the pattern and figure out where she left off.

Hope everyone is enjoying this very weird weather, better than snow and below zero weather for sure, but this hot and cold stuff is annoying. It was on the cool side for quite a while (not complaining, I can handle 50’s and 60’s, just means a long sleeve shirt and some people are wearing shorts in that weather here :P) but we have had a lot of rain and for the past several days it has been in the lower 80’s and the humidity is stifling!! I turned on my air conditioning. But Thursday another cold front is coming through and we will be back in the lower to middle 60’s and lower 70’s. LOL, and I can turn my air off again. I’ll just enjoy it, because before you know it summer will be here soon with 90’s and stifling humidity, life in the midwest.

Finishing Some and Casting on All the Things!

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

Spring has finally brought back my knitting and spinning mojo!

First my finished spinning project that has been on my wheel for about 10 months? I finished the wool/alpaca singles I was spinning and plyed them. Well you can’t really call it finished because now it will become something haha, I will be knitting that into a hat for a family member who moved to AZ and complained this past winter it was cold HAHAHAHA, I’m laughing because I live in the Midwest which is where she grew up too, Cold My Foot! sigh. I dyed the yarn lavender, and it will become the Snowtracks Cap by Timothy Peters, free download. My yarn is not dk but a light sport weight so I will knit the medium size instead of the small that I usually do for her. Hopefully it will fit :P.

2nd, Knitting, I am working on the Ara Fingerless Mitts, free Ravelry download. One is done except the thumb and I’m at the start of the design on the 2nd one. Should have those done this week, yeah!! They are only 3 1/2 months late :P. I am using left over yarn from the wedding shawl I knit last fall I am using a ChaoGoo size 3 9″ needle and I always have to go down a needle size because I knit a little loosely, the combination continental knitting style seems to do that, but because that yarn is a light fingering I would use a size 2 needle next time if I make them again.

Next I started another hat to donate to the homeless shelter this next fall. I like knitting them, they are a mindless comforting knit when I need to unwind and think about things, or just not think at all, so not only am I doing good I’m also finding comfort in them. I’m using I love this yarn and my new Knitters Pride Ginger Special interchangeable needle set, size 5 needle with a 16″ cord. These needles are so nice to knit with, not as grabby as bamboo but not as slippery as metal. I love these sets!

Next I’m also working on a long term project that I have had on my needles for a couple of years, eventually it will get done and I will probably give it away and then start another, it is just for something to knit when I need some mindless knitting that has pretty colors to pick my spirits up, is just a long skinny diagonal scarf. We all need those mindless knits. I’m using a bamboo size 5 needle 12″ and Yarn Bee, Glowing, in purple multi from Hobby Lobby.

Finally I have started another baby sweater using Hobby Lobby, Yarn Bee, Soft and Sleek, in Neutral Stripe and a Knitters Pride Karbonz size 5 needle 16″ for the neck and ChaoGoo size 5 needle 9″ for the cuffs and KnitPiks Radiant (wooden) needle size 7 16″ for the body and ChaoGoo Bamboo size 7 needle 9″ for the sleeves. After I get past the yoke the body and sleeves are mindless knitting too. There must be a theme here!

I generally do not have so many things going at once I usually find it stressful to have so many things on the back burner, but I just want to knit all the things!!

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful Spring, it’s been warm and cooler, warm and cooler, rainy and sunny etc, but it’s not COLD!! The birds are out and singing, lawn mowers are humming, the grass is green and leaves and flowers are budding and the Spring smells are amazing! Gotta love it!!

Hats for Warmth Project, Te Ara Fingerless Mitts and Other Things.

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

It’s toward the end of the month and I haven’t posted. After finishing the wedding shawl I took a break from knitting for a month and just lost my knitting mojo and didn’t even finish the Christmas gift I was working on for someone I knit a gift for every year. Then the day after Christmas I lost my dad, so last year, with the pandemic and 2 Derechos we had and my dad’s passing, was just not a very good year for motivation.

I have finished a hat for what I call my Hats for Warmth project, which are hats to give to the homeless shelter. And I did pick up the fingerless mitts I was working on for that Christmas gift. I can at least get those done before she doesn’t need them this year anymore :p. It is the Te Ara Fingerless Mitts pattern by Rachel C. and is a free pattern. I am using some left over fingering yarn from the wedding shawl and will dye it some shade of lavender and am using my ChiaoGoo 9″ size 3 needles, it calls for a 4 but I knit rather loosely and tend to have to go down a size to get any gauge close to correctly. I need to get another set of those in a size 2, I have 1’s and 0’s for socks but tend to use the 0’s for the socks :). The sizing on this pattern has a lot of negative ease and looks small but stretches out quite a bit so unless you have pretty large hands I suggest the small size in the pattern.

I am using my Mandalorian progress keeper Mythosaur (an extinct Manadorian dragon that they use to tame and ride or kill wild to prove themselves) and the frog stitch marker like the one The Child (Grogu aka baby Yoda) ate in the series, was some funny stuff :p. The progress keeper and stitch marker set makes me smile and has helped pulled me out of the loss of my knitting mojo. The Mythosaur was a gift from AdoreKnit on Etsy. I have just ordered a new set of her stitch markers with a Mud Horn (Din Jarin’s signet by killing that beast and it becomes a symbol of his clan of 2 given to him by the the Mandalorian Armorer ) and a stitch marker set with a Mandalorian figure progress keeper and and a bar of Beskar (metal that makes his armor) stitch marker. Can you tell I love the Mandalorian series? They are making Star Wars fun again :). AdoreKnit markers are so much fun to use and they are well made, if you haven’t checked out her store, you should go look at all the stitch markers and progress keepers she has and she even sews some bags :).

I picked up some more yarn for the hats and some baby sweaters at Hobby Lobby as it was their bi weekly 30% off yarn sale week :). I have also been working with a younger family member on sewing. I’m not a sewist, but I can do basic things and can kinda sorta follow a pattern. I bought her a decent sewing machine for Christmas and she was excited to start using it. So far we have just practiced threading it, winding the bobbin, and using the stitches with white thread on black cloth so she can see what she is doing and what the stitches it comes with looks like. She bought herself a pattern for a toy to sew, but of course it needed a furry fabric so I have convinced her to wait to make it until we practice on more stuff first. I thought maybe an easy quilt square she can frame to put up in her room or give as a framed gift. Something with straight stitches and pretty easy to sew but looks amazing when done for some self confidence before moving on to harder things :). I’ve always thought quilting looks like magic with cloth :).

Hoping for a better year and wishing the same for you all as well.