Happy Birthday Dad and FO Flax Sweater

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

My Dad

Happy Belated Birthday Dad.  I didn’t forget (hope you got your birthday card in time), I just haven’t been on line much this past week.  Hoping you had a very happy birthday!!!

 

Flax Sweater size 6 month to 1 year

Well, it is finished, you can read more about the yarn and needles in the previous post.  I will have to figure out what to do to keep the stitches that I am holding for the sleeves (the sweater is knit in one piece, love that!) to keep them from getting too tight while they sit there waiting their turn to be knit.  If anyone has more experience in how to keep hold stitches from getting too tight please let me know.  You can see the little line where I took them off the yarn that was holding them for later use.  I know my friend’s daughter won’t mind, she will just be tickled to get a hand knit sweater for her baby.  I was knitting the newborn to 6 month size but it turned out larger than I thought it would, 6 month to 1 year.  But babies grow fast and better to turn up the sleeve cuff and the baby be able to wear it all winter than not.  I think I will knit another one to match the hat I made for my friends little one. 🙂  FO for my non knitting friends is a knitting term that means finished object :).

Started another charity hat (my mindless knitting that also helps others).  I’ll post a picture of it, or my progress of it, in a few days.  I also need to get to work on the spinning I’m working on, which was going to be toward the wedding shawl I am going to knit for a family member.  I made this same family member a hat a couple of years ago and she lost the hat sometime this past summer (long story, wasn’t her fault honest), and she has requested, with a ton of apologies, another hat just like it, so the spin will now be for that.   So hat first then shawl.  There is always a never ending list of things to knit, and as long as they space themselves out it’s all good  :).

Flax Infant Sweater and SNOW

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

I am working on the Flax sweater for an infant for a friend (size 6 months to 1 year.)  The Flax pullover sweater is a free pattern by Tin Can Knits and it’s a really easy sweater to knit and goes from sizes newborn to 4XL.  I am at the bottom ribbing on the body, I will be starting the sleeves tomorrow :).  It’s done from the top down so there won’t be any sewing things together.  🙂  I am using I Love This Yarn by Hobby Lobby and size 5 (for the neck ribbing) 16″ circular Knitter’s Pride Karbonz needles (I am loving the Karbonz they are mostly carbon fiber with brass tips so they are not super slippery like metal needles, I am not a fan of reg metal needles tho sometimes that is what I have) and size 7 16″ Knit Picks Radiant Wooden circular needles for the body  (wood needles are always my first choice), and a size 7 9″ Circular Chiagoo bamboo circular needles for the sleeves and size 5 9″metal Chiagoo circular needles for the sleeve ribbing..  All are fixed needles and not interchangeable, the interchangeables of the needles I like are pretty expensive :P.

You can also see from the pictures that we have had our first and 2nd snow for this winter, sigh.  The first snow was 3 inches on Monday night and the 2nd one was 2 more inches last night.  Monday nights snow mostly melted on Tuesday because it got up to 40F.  Last nights snow is still on the ground because it only got up to 34F.  Poor trick or treaters, it’s in the upper 20’s right now and is suppose to be 20 over night :(.   I am not ready for winter, fall isn’t even over yet!!!

If you live somewhere where it’s already getting cold, stay warm!

Last 2 Promised Hats New Stitch Markers and a Birthday Gift

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

Ok, I lied, I said I was not going to buy any more new stitch markers or progress keepers for a while.  “But mom they followed me home can I keep them?”  Actually I replaced the Dallas Cowboys progress keeper and bought another set of the hearts stitch markers and progress keeper, because I love it so much, and yes I have one already, but I wanted to use it and couldn’t remember where I put the old one, they will both be well loved :).  I got these from AdoreKnit and she threw in a surprise, the fox progress keeper.  I mentioned I was looking for one as “hat jewelry” for a young family member I had just knit a hat for because she wanted a fox on it and I didn’t see one in her on line shop.  I was beyond ecstatic when I saw that in my order when it came in today!!  She really is such a sweet person, you should check out her shop.

The blue hat above is the hat for the younger of my family members, who was very excited to get the Dallas Cowboys color hat and star to adorn his hat.  The other hat showing was to be for his older sister but she really liked another hat I had knit earlier so the other one became hers and this one will go in the charity pile.  She was very excited to get the fox progress keeper to put on it, I will add that to the pictures when I remember to get a picture of it on the hat.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see “hat jewelry” become a thing for school age children. 🙂

Lastly, yeah I had a birthday this past week.  Celebrating the anniversary of my 29th birthday and that is all you are getting out of me :P.  I can’t be older than my dad who is 29 every year, can I?  I belong to a group who does Harry Potter knitting and my name was drawn on her quarterly prize drawing (which just happened to be on my birthday woot woot).  I got gifted a pattern of my choice, and what I chose was the Baa-ble Mittens and Cowl set , I already had the hat pattern, which is a free pattern, but the accessories were not. So for my birthday I was able to complete the set, how cool is that!!!  Hope everyone has a great week coming up.

General Conference Oct 2019

/ LDSVenus

Our semi annual General Conference is this week end.  It is so spiritually uplifting and peaceful.  It was this morning from 11:00 am Central time until 1:00 pm and this after noon from 3:00 pm Central time to 5:00 pm and tomorrow same times.  If you get a chance to view the talks, I invite you to come and enjoy.

Yesterday, Stitches on My Finger

/ LDSVenus / 3 Comments

Stitches in my fingerI think I’ve said this before, I am a klutz.  Long story short I was trying to adjust my floor fan and the cage around the fan blades came loose and slipped down and my little finger went through the cage, and the fan (thank goodness it was a plastic blade) sliced my finger by the nail bed to the top of the finger.  Blessings, it didn’t go into the nail bed, it wasn’t a really horrible cut and only required 2 stitches.  Hopefully this will be the last for a while, but being a klutz you never know.

Two Hats Done

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

I finished the hats to match the coats for two children of a friend of mine.  I hope they will be well used this winter.

I have a sweater for a little one (about 2 months now) that I need to finish, and two new hats to start for some little family members.  I will probably start a hat and then work on the sweater when I have the luxury of time that allows for concentration, and on the hats when I don’t.  I also have to finish the spin I started at the Alpaca farm days, so it’s not like I don’t have anything to do :P.

Fun Day at Alpaca Farm Days

/ LDSVenus

Today I was asked to participate at my son’s Alpaca farm for Alpaca farm Days.  Something the Alpaca farms do here this time of year every year.  Do they do this all over the country?

It was fun, many more people than was expected came and enjoyed the Alpacas, and the Alpaca products my son and his spouse had for sale.  They had a sock machine, a hat machine, and a drum carder out for people to see how they worked.  They also had a screened table, which allows dirt and vm (vegetable matter) to fall to the ground, and show people how they skirt and pick through the fleece 2nds (the smaller less desirable parts of the fleece, tho they are still very soft they are shorter).  They use the 2nds to make the felted dryer balls people love to use :), the 1sts are sent to a fiber mill to be washed and spun into yarn.  A friend and I spent the day spinning on our spinning wheels and answering questions regarding spinning and using my blending board and carders.  I look forward to doing this again next year. 🙂  Please enjoy the pictures above, oh the two Alpacas are not kissing lol, they are not as close to each other as it looks, but it made for a cute picture.

2 Projects Off My Needles & New Stitch Markers and Progress Keepers

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

little lace daisy scarf for Sue Well I tried to put these pictures together but it wanted to make the scarf so small you can’t see any detail.  So this is what I get, sigh.  These are the 2 projects I have gotten finished.  My  Little Lace Daisy Scarf and the basic ribbed hat (no pattern to share for that :(. )  The scarf is my own design, used hand spun, I hand dyed it and then knit it.  So almost start to finish, I didn’t start with raw fleece :P.  You can see the difference in color when I dyed the two skeins separately (they were spun separately).  I did the ends using the lighter skein and then transitioned as it were to the darker skein.  But at least it is the same on both sides.

 

Hats for the Homeless The other project was a hat for my hats for the homeless pile.  Just started that this year so I don’t have much done yet, but I guess every little bit helps.  Will have more by next fall.  The hat beside it is a new cast on for that pile. 🙂  I used I love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby.

 

 

I also bought some new stitch markers and progress keepers (last ones for a while).  They are for my Cowboys and Raiders football teams :P.  I got these from Adore Knit on Etsy.  She has really nice stitch markers and progress keepers, she also added a I love football progress keeper and a fall leaf, she is such a wonderful maker.  I also have a bag I made a couple of years ago for my Cowboys :).  I don’t have one for my Raiders, but when I get a chance I will probably make one for them too, to go with my new stitch markers and progress keeper.

I still have a baby sweater on my needles and a new basic rib hat, and a scarf that I am knitting with friend as a scarf along, but I feel less stressed already :P.

Remembering 9/11 in 2019

/ LDSVenus

9-11

I remember where I was when this happened, do you?

As we remember the 18th year since this heinous attack was perpetrated on the citizens of the USA, may we take a moment to remember all those who died on this day 18 years ago and thank those who helped in the aftermath. I would like to salute those heroes on flight 93, and all those who, on that day, willingly and unselfishly sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others. I also salute those in our armed services who have given their lives and those who continue to fight, selflessly putting their own lives in jeopardy to protect us and others from terrorism. They are all heroes to me and I will never forget.

Another Fractal Spin Done!

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

 

I wasn’t sure at all about the colors when I blended them on my blending board, just playing around with colors from a bag of various colored bits of roving that had been given to me.  The first bobbin (on the right) was 2 shades of orange (med orange and a light orange that looks yellow, but it’s not.)  The 2nd bobbin was a repeating range of complimentary colors to the oranges.  So I put together the colors I thought might blend together the best and there we have it, these were the rolags I made with the fiber.  I am very pleased with the final skein of yarn :).  My next spin will be some white roving (not sure what the sheep breed is, but it might be merino) and blend it on my blending board with an alpaca batt I have .  I will either kettle dye it or play around and try to make it a gradient when I am done spinning it .  It will probably be sometime next month before I start it, I have knitting I need to finish first.   I’m glad I got the blending board put together, it’s offered me a lot more creativity with colors and ability to bend different fibers together. 🙂

**Forgot to say this ended up being 368 yards and 90 grams, a good fingering weight. I’m thinking fingerless mitts :).