Spinning

3rd Comfort Shawl Done

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3rd Comfort Shawl started

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Yes, it’s the same picture because I finished it on my lunch hour at work and gave it to her so I didn’t get a finished picture, I know, I’m bad.  She was so surprised and held it close and said, it’s so warm.  I hope it will give her many days of warmth and comfort.

I’m starting another shawl, but this will be the one that I’m spinning the cria (baby alpaca) for a friend just because.  I have one skein and a spool on the wheel that I need to spin more onto and then ply it so that will give me 2 skeins.  I will need 3 maybe 4 skeins for this shawl.  It’s one I’ve done before, the Wisp shawl.  It’s light and very pretty.  I think light and airy for the warmth of the alpaca would be good, because alpaca is very warm.

I’ve been so moody this week, and then it hit me why, today would have been my youngest son’s birthday.  Happy Birthday son, I miss you.

I had to take Thor to the vet’s last week end.  He’s having some bowel issues and they put him on anti-biotics and a steroid.  She said if he’s better after the round of anti-biotics (the steroid is in the anti-biotic) then it was a helobactor infection and he should be fine, and that is my hope.  If not and it comes back  then it was an inflammation problem and the steroid was taking care it in the lower colon area, and she will try a different anti-biotic for the lower bowel and see if that takes care of it, and if not then she will have to do a biopsy to see what is going on.  Poor Thor was not a happy camper about getting his temperature taken (he had a sore bottom) – this was his first trip to the vet and I don’t think he likes vets now :P.  I’m glad I had a some savings, and it took it all.  This is why I don’t recommend ferrets to those who do not like to spend money at the vet’s office as the ferrets get older, because you will.  I have my own health check up’s coming soon and when all the free wellness checks that my health insurance takes care of for the year are done, I will be dropping my health insurance so that I can use the premiums I was paying for to take care of Thor.  He comes first.  Other than the free wellness checks (and they cover a lot of things), it was more of a catastrophic insurance plan, because it doesn’t pay for anything until I’ve spent $5,000 out of my own pocket, except for the wellness stuff.

Busy Month

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.What a busy month this has been.  Things are picking up at work and it has been pretty busy (tho’ my supervisor tells me it’s not that busy – I’ve seen the numbers and it has picked up, but yes it will get much busier :P).  This week will be the busiest of the month and will only get busier as the summer comes.   My weekends this month have been busy with church projects for service.  I went to the Temple the first Saturday of this month (it’s a 2 1/2 to 3 hr drive), cleaned the chapel the next Saturday and yesterday our Relief Society did a service project and made baby blankets for the neonatal preemie unit at our local hospital and made thank you and birthday cards for the local meals on wheels program.  Always feels good to do service, but makes the weekends go by way too fast :P.  Next Saturday I have a dear friend that is coming to town to visit me and to see her daughter graduate from high school, that does not seem possible – only yesterday her daughter was this little girl getting ready for kindergarten.

There are some people who ride the bus in the mornings that have varying degrees of Down’s syndrome.  They are going to their day hab programs or to the places that hire them to work a few hrs a day.  I notice that when other people get on the bus they usually sit farther back.  I don’t, I sit up front closer to them – I enjoy their playful light hearted chatter with each other and their friendliness.  They always have a smile and a hello and it’s a refreshing distraction before the stressful duties of my job.  I feel like they are the closest I will get to angels here on earth.

I continue to work on the comfort shawl, but have not had the time to work on it as much as I would like to, I was hoping to be done with it by now, but am just a little bit over 1/2 done.  I’ll give my self another couple of weeks before I start fussing at myself.  I do knit a few rows on the bus ride home and when I’m not to busy to take my lunch break, I knit then too, but that really is not nearly enough time to be spending on it.  I’d really like to be spinning on that cria alpaca, however I can’t justify my spinning until I get closer to finished with the shawl.  I’ll update my progress on the shawl next week, maybe setting a deadline will make me find the time to work on it.  sigh.

PIF IS HERE!!!!

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PIF!!!! (click picture to enlarge)

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I got home from work today and there was a box for me.  WOOHOO! it was the PIF (pay it forward) from my knitting/spinning  friend at LS Fiber Adventures.

Don’t you love getting unexpected packages?  It came at a perfect time as this has been a hard week.  I opened it up and there was all this loveliness!  She knitted me the most beautiful lace scarf with beautiful shades of turquoise (my favorite color!)  I’m sure she spun the yarn as well.  It will be well loved! 🙂  There is some beautiful Bluefaced Leicester roving to spin – I’ve never spun this kind of wool it will be a fun adventure and spinning hand painted multi color roving is way fun because you never know what you will end up with.  There is a CD with gospel music that will be a wonderful addition to my Sunday music, I love hymns and gospel music ;).  There was a fun pair of Easter socks (they will be very fun to wear!)  There are two very cute  journals, as a latter-day saint I do keep a journal, tho not as diligently as I should, this is a great reminder to keep up with it and when my present journal is full, these will take it’s place.  And last but hardly least there is some very yummy eatable goodies – wonderfully delicious wafers rolled around a vanilla creme 🙂 and Cadbury mini eggs.  I feel like it’s Christmas!!!

Winter Weather & Thor

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Christmas Tree 2010

.I put my tree up the first week-end after Thanksgiving.  It’s a lovely little fiber optic tree that I bought from someone at work about 4 years ago.  I love the color changes and that it’s small enough to fit in my apartment.  Brings back memories of my mom’s first favorite tree.  It was one of those silver aluminum trees that had the color wheel that you put close to it, and the sliver aluminum branches would pick up the changing colors.  Later in her life,  she had a beautifully flocked artificial tree that looked as real as any I’ve ever seen, and the skirt was a beautiful alpaca fleece, it even looked soft in the pictures.

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Evening of Snow Storm

 

Next Morning

Well, we had a blizzard yesterday evening and through the night.  However because the snow was heavy and wet it didn’t blow around in the up to 40 mile an hour winds, so we were spared that part of what most people experience in a blizzard.  This was our second snow of the season and the snows are coming late this year, tho I’m not complaining, we will have plenty yet to come.  We didn’t get very much, certainly not as much as those north of us. 

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Can I come out now?

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Thor is doing well and is such a joy in my life.  He has been such a blessing to me.  He only expects food, water and time with me.  Well, and an occasional treat that I can’t resist giving to him.  He’s getting older, he will be 5 next spring which is getting old for a ferret.  I’m blessed that he has been and continues to be healthy, but I know the time will come when his health fails, then he will need me to be a good mom taking care of all his medical needs, which I will do with as much love as he has given me. 

I’m still knitting on the comfort shawl, it’s about 3/4’s finished now.  I’m also finding time to work on spinning the cria fiber, I love the softness of it as I spin it.  I’ve found that working on the comfort shawl for someone else who lost a child and spinning that wonderfully soft fiber has been comforting to me this Christmas season as I find my self missing my youngest son so much.

Harry Potter and Other Things

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2nd Spool of Cria

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I’m finally spinning my 2nd spool of Alpaca Cria.  This is the softest stuff!!  It’s so wonderful to spin!!!  Knitting it will be wonderful too :).  This will be my 2nd skein of yarn and I might need one more, then I can make the shawl I have in mind for this wonderfully soft fiber.

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spinning BFL/Romney

I got a friend of mine at my church interested in spinning with a spindle I made her, and she has gone whole hog, buying whole fleeces and carding them herself.  I thought wow, I love to spin, but I’m not into getting a whole fleece, washing it, and carding it- yet! 🙂  She kindly gave me some of a BFL/Romney fleece (already carded of course) that she had purchased.  It’s a very springy and surprisingly soft fiber.  Not as soft as the Alpaca, but it will make a nice pair of socks or a scarf :).  She has 7 whole fleeces on order for next spring.  🙂

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I did go see Harry Potter 1 & 1/2 weeks ago.  It was wonderful, and well worth the 2 hr wait in line (yes my daughter and I were one of the first in line so we could get good seats.  Didn’t want a crick in my neck from having to sit way up front like I loved to do as a kid – can’t even imagine why I wanted to do that ;).  I think they chose a good place to break the movie and I’m anticipating the next and final installment of the movie series.  Nice thing is I don’t have to wait 2 years, it will be shown this coming June, so only a 7 month wait. 🙂  If you haven’t gone to see this yet, I encourage you to do so.  If you haven’t seen any of them yet, I suggest you rent them in order, and then go see this one (it won’t make a lot of sense unless you’ve seen the others, like starting a book near the end and then wondering what in the world it’s all about.)  Wonderful visual effects.

I will be a permanent employee as of 12/1.  I’m very excited and it relieves a lot of “uncertainty stress”.  I will still have to watch my finances until my son’s funeral is paid off, but it will be a permanent income source now instead of wondering how long will this one last and not losing pay on my paycheck for the holidays the company gives.

I Hope You Voted!!

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I hope you all got out today and voted.   I did.  My son and I tease that we cancel each other out.  But that is alright, it’s our civic duty to vote, what an awful state we would be in if we didn’t have that right and opportunity!!  Guess we will see in the morning who will be in control of the House and Senate and our state.

lsfiberadventure has posted a picture, of the PIF I sent, on her blog. 🙂  You can see it here.   PIF’s are fun to do, they take time and a little bit of money :P, but they are fun.  I think the most fun is waiting to see if they will like what you sent, and well, yes – the excitement of getting your own PIF package in the mail ;).

Scarf Finished

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click on picture for larger image

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This is the hand dyed (Wilton cake icing coloring – Purple), hand spun and hand knit scarf that I have just finished.  It was interesting to see the colors the food coloring broke into.  The last time I used the purple Wilton cake icing coloring, it turned out different shades of purple and no blue, you can see it here.  This time it had a beautiful pastel blue in there as well, see it here.  You just never know when you use the Wilton colors what you will get.

I wish it was longer, but I mis-judged the amount of fiber I dyed and because I can’t match the color, it is a bit shorter than I had intended to make it.  I’ll be more careful to weigh the roving before dying next time. 🙂

I originally had different plans for this scarf, but felt prompted as I began knitting it to give it to my neighbor who has been graciously giving me her Sunday paper every Sunday so I could look for work.  She’s a very nice lady and it will be a simple thank you gift.   Now I will have to chose a different fiber to spin on :).  Think I will begin spinning more of the cria (baby alpaca), it’s so soft and soooo relaxing to spin. 🙂

Knitting with My Handspun

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Spun Hand Dyed Superwash Merino on the Niddy Noddy

Skein of handspun, hand dyed merion superwash

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Well, on the left, you can see the Merino superwash roving, that I was spinning, wound on the niddy noddy.  It made a nice baby weight yarn.  I did have the wpi (wraps per inch) but forgot to write it down and so much has happened this week that I have forgotten what it was.  Some of it plyed all purple, some all blue and some heathered with both colors.

On the right is the final skein after it came off the niddy noddy, and below is the lace scarf I am working on with the skein.  🙂

Knitting a lace scarf from the hand spun

My computer is fixed (thanks to a very nice neighbor who had a boot disk and the operating system that I use.)  My 2nd hard drive was large enough to put my things on from my main hard drive so now it is just a matter of moving things back over to my newly reformated main hard drive.  So nice to have my computer back up and running!!  You don’t realize how much you depend on them until they are not available.

I started my new job on Tuesday.  It is very busy, but not stressful and I am doing things that I enjoy and working with people I worked with last year when I had a long term temp job at this place of business.  Things are a bit tight as I have been on unemployment for the last 3 weeks, but when the new month starts life will be back to more normal financially.  My job starts at 7:30 instead of 8am, so I will have to get up a little earlier sigh, but it’s just so nice to have a job that will become permanent in the next month or two. 

Yesterday was my youngest son’s birthday.   My daughter was going to come with me to the cemetery, but it was storming.  I went anyway because I can’t give him presents like I do my children who survived him, all I can give now is my time – so I did.  He would have been 29.

Are You Ready for Some Football? 2010

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Dallas Cowboys!!!

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Yep, it’s pre-season again!!!!  Dallas won their first game against the Bengals (16 to 7) and lost their 2nd game against the Raiders (17 to 9).  They lost against the Raiders in pre-season last year too. 😛  I didn’t get to see either game tho, I need the NFL channel ;).

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Well I’m doing this from my daughter’s computer because I did the last Micro Soft windows update and now my computer will not boot up. 😦   It won’t even get to the windows screen, it freezes before it gets that far.  So when I get some money saved up, I will take it to a computer place and have them get my data off of the hard drive, and reformat and add the OS back on and then restore my data.  Computers can be such a pain, but you almost can’t do anything without them anymore.

I hope everyone is surviving the heat.  We have been hot, hot, hot the last several days.  Suppose to cool back down starting tonight, thank goodness.  I have some pictures of the yarn I finished spinning, plying and am now knitting into a scarf. 🙂  But I will have to wait to do that until I get my computer fixed so I can upload the new pictures.  sigh

Oh yeah, I have a temp to perm job that is suppose to start next week either on Monday or Tuesday.  It’s at the bank I worked the long term temp for last year :).  I’ll be grateful not to have to keep changing jobs, which is sooo stressful.

CD Spindle

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Spinning with a CD Spindle

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I finally got the rubber grommets I needed to make a CD Spindle this past Saturday.  So I went to Lowe’s and picked up some dowels, which Lowes was nice enough to cut down for me, and some cup hooks.  My current employer told me I was welcome to use their older CDs if I would make sure that the information would not be usable – so I used sand paper and sanded the underside of the CD.   Free is always good :). 
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Another look at the yarn

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The ball of yarn is one that I did with the same “waste not want not thrum“.  It had a bit more turquoise in it than the rest of the thrum.  It was spun on my spinning wheel and I’m spinning some on the spindle now.  It has come out as a novelty yarn because of the bits of yarn that was mixed in.  It’s soft and a fun spin.  I’m spinning it to show a friend that is having a hard time getting even yarn, that thick and thin is ok :).