This was what I woke up to this on Friday Morning. It snowed all day Thursday and into the night but most of it melted off because we had been warmer days before and it didn’t stick to the roads, but we managed to keep about 1/4 an inch on the ground. We still have some on the ground but not even enough now to cover the grass. Enjoy the snow this winter if you usually get snow, suppose to be a warmer winter with the El Niño this year :).
This hit me as funny with all the outer space alien stuff having been on the news off and on.
And yeah, we were 90 degrees this last Saturday and Sunday 91, sigh. But it looks like fall weather will be here later this week.
Thought I had been zapped over to AZ but nope this is the midwest USA and it isn’t even 2 pm yet!
UPDATE: Ok, it’s 2:25 and it’s 99 degrees feels like 119. It will get hotter as the afternoon goes on, the excessive heat warning lasts until tomorrow at 8pm. It only got to about 96 feels like 112 yesterday.
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!
Trying to stay on task for my knitting accountability. I am ready to start on the sleeves of the Tin Can Knits Flax baby sweater, then to weave in ends, wash the sweater and then gift it ;). I’ll get one more picture when it’s done before I gift it. The 2nd picture is another Dandelion Headband. I should have taken the picture on a dark background but it’s already been gifted, so sorry :P. I think I am going to make her a cowl with this design for next year. I need to keep working on the hats for warmth project.
The last picture is the first ground cover snow we had a week or week & 1/2 ago. It didn’t stay long our weather was cold for about 3 or 4 days and then back into the middle to upper 30’s and 40’s. 🙂 I know it’s coming, but every day winter is not fully here yet is one less day of winter before Spring and one day less you have to hear me ask “Is it Spring yet?”
Hope everyone had a good time with family and friends and enjoyed some Thanksgiving dinner. Even the alpaca at my son’s farm got to have carrots for Thanksgiving (one of their favorite snacks) amazing how friendly they are when they know you are bringing them carrots, lol.
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?
I went to my son’s Alpaca Farm Days on Saturday and after Church on Sunday to spin while people came to see the alpaca and feed them carrots and pet a few of them. My son has 22 alpaca, 4 males and 18 females. He didn’t breed last year so no babies this year, but he has bred them this year so there should be babies (alpaca babies are called Cria) next year! Here are some pictures from the event, 2 pictures of those beautiful alpaca (I wanted to get a picture of the yoga with the alpaca but it was on Sunday morning and I was at Church). He had a skirting/sorting table set up with a fleece on it and he had a tumbler that he built and used to clean the fleeces before sending them off to the fiber mill so they don’t have so much work to do but I didn’t put the picture in (sorry), and he had his drum carder set up to show people how to make batts. The last picture is my Rick Reeves spinning wheel, that I brought to spin some alpaca with. I managed to get 1 bobbin done there and I have started the 2nd bobbin, hope to finish it this week and ply it so I can finish the 2nd bobbin on my Kromski Polonaise. I get anxious when I have too many things going at the same time, so one at a time to get it worked down!
I am going to finish the hat I am knitting (very close to done) and start a sweater to work on this weekend for General Conference week end (friend’s baby is coming in two months). Because it’s on the BYU channel on cable or on the BYU channel free to add on the Roku plug in on TV, and at http://www.churchofjesuschrist.org on line, Saturday from 11am to 1pm and 3pm to 5pm and the same times on Sunday, I can sit and enjoy the wonderfully spiritual talks that bring peace to my soul and knit at the same time, can’t get any better than that! Hope you can enjoy some peace in your day and watch a little bit of this wonderful General Conference time.
Please join me in prayers for less damage, injuries and loss of life as possible during the hurricane. I know there will be some of all of that and the devastation of any kind of loss is horrible, so I’m praying for the blessing of help from others, and peace and comfort as they deal with and rebuild what damage was done and that people not affected by this large hurricane will reach out with prayers and physical help to help them. I know the help was much appreciated a couple of years ago when we had that awful derecho.
This is my new spin. It will be a fractal. The full braid is a 2nd braid in that color I had just to show you the braid before I split it to spin. The braid I’m using (Targhee wool/Bamboo/Tussah silk) is split in half (back left), then the other half is split into thirds (back right stacked on top of each other). They are all spun end to end on their respective bobbin, that way the ones split into thirds will be shorter in color length, and will be plyed with the half on the first bobbin where the colors will be longer. It’s an interesting spin :). Some of the colors will end up plying with the same color and others will be mixed up and look like barber poles. I took a picture of the tag on the braid of fiber, it is a deep stash pull. The fiber dyer is still around you can find them at Brenda and Heather Yarns .
Starting Monday we will be in the 90’s every day except Wednesday and it will be 87. I try not to wish for Fall because that means Winter is coming and I know I will miss the warmth and sunshine, but sigh, what can you do. So glad for air conditioning because we are also very humid.
This was a long time coming, yea!!!! This was about 219 yards, 14 wpi, 89 grams, it looks like a light sport weight. I still have a little I need to ply off the bobbins as it was so much finished plyed yarn I couldn’t wouldn’t fit it all on the bobbin. I’m thinking about 11 to 15 more yards maybe, I’ll ply that off tonight and see, got close to having the 100 grams on there. Thinking I might need a bigger bobbin for plying :P.
I’m preparing my next spinning project to start tomorrow. It’s a deep stash beautiful pastel multi color braid that I’m thinking of doing a fractal out of. I’ll put a picture in and more info on the braid tomorrow after I’ve prepared it for the fractal spin :).
The temperature has been in the 80’s but the humidity has been uncomfortable, will be worse with 90’s in our near future, sigh. Stay cool out there!
I hope everyone has had a very Happy New Year. Mother Nature has given us entrance to the New Year with a snow storm. It started about 11 am and will continue until about midnight tonight. They said we should be getting between 4 to 7 inches. I’m leaning on the 7 inches. Feeling lucky it isn’t the up to 10 inches that those south of us are in for, lol. We will be somewhere around -28F in the morning with wind chill. I know this is just the beginning and that by the end of this month and beginning of Feb we will be hitting -40’sF with wind chills even to -50 with wind chill, is it Spring yet?
Everyone stay safe and warm. 🙂
LDSVenus-knits 