blanket

A Buck, Finally a Picture of that Blanket I finished, Some Pictures of Alpaca Stuff

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

I showed you a picture of a doe that was eating under a tree in the snow before and I took a picture of a Buck a couple of days ago eating under the same tree. They sure are pretty but pretty pesky here in town.

I finished the Look for Happiness Blanket by Fifty Four Ten Studio a few weeks ago and just haven’t gotten around to showing it, so here it is. I made the medium size for a lap blanket. I still need to wash and block it. Hope she will like it. It took me some time, but I found it a peaceful knit and enjoyed this pattern, so I didn’t hurry through it. :). Taking pictures at night sure doesn’t give true color, lol, this is actually a denim color so it’s a little darker and brighter than it shows up. Maybe someday I will master taking pictures for my blog, or not.

The next two pictures I took last week at the Farm’s annual open to the public Christmas celebration. I neglected to get pictures of the alpaca who were wearing candy cane horns, tho I have to admit most of them managed to get them off, lol. But there were cookies (an alpaca cookie I managed to snag). I accidentally broke it on the way home (breaking things seem to be my thing), but it still took a pretty picture and his reg farm hand drew a picture in the snow of an alpaca before people came out, I thought it was cute. Along with the cookies there was also hot chocolate for the people who came out. They also had Santa who asked all the kids what they wanted for Christmas and he gave them all a gift bag with alpaca goodies. Because it was cold we didn’t have a ton of people, but they had put together 50 gift bags for the kids and they were all claimed ;). I think everyone had fun. They are debating, for this next Saturday because of the Alberta clipper that is heading this way with very cold temps, on rather they will open, don’t want little ones getting frostbite. They would still keep the store open for people wanting to shop for Christmas. It will depend on if the clipper arrives on time or is slower moving. It is supposed to be -30 with the wind chills by Monday, winds from 30 to 50 miles per hr in some areas of IA, ugh.

These minus temps are our late Jan and early Feb temps, I can hardly wait to see what they will be in Jan and Feb :0. Even our mid winter thaw (warm up) is coming early, the week before Christmas, according to the weather man, sigh. We need it tho, in 2008 there was no mid winter thaw (we always get one, but not that year, it’s generally in Jan) so the snow on the ground did not melt and when it melted in the spring there was so much snow melting from the top of IA on down that the Cedar River flooded big time, over flowing 5 miles on each side of the river. Rail road cars had been put on the tracks that go over the bridges to try to keep the bridges from being washed away, but the flood was so high it took the rail road cars that had been filled with big rocks to weigh them down more, right off the bridge. A Dairy Queen that was a few blocks away from the river was flooded over the roof. So we need that mid winter thaw. Maybe it means spring will come sooner! I’ll just keep that thought.

Stay warm!!!

Update Look for Happiness Blanket

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I am almost ready to start the border, I decided I didn’t need more pattern rows as I think it is long enough :). Sorry for the lighting, we had drizzling rain off and on most of the day and no sunshine so nice pictures are a bit of a hit and miss. When I’m done I’ll wash and block it and take a better picture. :). I have also been working on the Hats for Warmth Project that I do to send hats to the local homeless shelter. Maybe next week I can start on those stranded knitting Christmas tree balls that I bought last year from Arne and Carlos’ website. I can watch their YouTube video for instructions on how to do it. Their Christmas Stockings and sock patterns are on sale at the moment. Closer to Christmas they might have their Christmas tree balls patterns on sale as well, they are really pretty :).

Knitting Update and an Agaparthus Plant

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Time for a knitting update. Picture one – (if you click on the picture it will enlarge) I have been working on my Hats for Warmth project so I will have hats for the homeless shelter this fall, gotta get a head start on it :P. The finished one is from I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby, color Deep Sea Diving/842. The one next to it is still from Hobby Lobby but it’s their Yarn ID, color Indigo, it looks like a denim. Really pretty. I am also using that same yarn and color for a new Look for Happiness Blanket. I really like the softness of this yarn. I love this pattern and find it extremely comforting and peaceful to knit. It is for a Christmas gift and since it’s the medium size instead of the baby size, it will take about 6 skeins, I decided I needed to start early, but to be honest, I don’t mind knitting on it all year long at all.

The 2nd picture is an Agaparthus plant. My son gave it to me about 5 or 6 years ago for Mother’s Day and it did well outside the first year and had so many blooms. It did not like it inside my house tho’ when winter came and I needed to bring it in, I do not have the full sun it needs inside my apt. I struggled to barely kept it alive and because it was so weak I was afraid to leave it outside in our sometimes windy and very hot summers , and then all of a sudden it’s come back to life and has a stalk that might actually bloom. When I know the warm is here to stay I will try to put it outside again and hope it will grow!! Time will tell.

Blanket FO, Hat Frogged and Hail!

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I finished the Look for Happiness baby blanket for an expectant mother in my church. :). Hope she likes it. It was a very enjoyable knit, not complicated, but enough “need to pay attention to one of the rows” to keep your interest. I found it a relaxing knit. 🙂

On March 19th we had a little hail storm. I thought it was just a really heavy rain, until I saw these (2nd picture) on my balcony!!

I had the hat finished that I was working on with this skein of yarn I (that I had finished spinning for the 2023 Tour de Fleece) but was not satisfied with the hat at all!! The yarn was too thick and the needles I had gone down a couple of sizes, trying to compensate for the yarn weight, were a size or two to small and made it too dense and it was still to big and the cables didn’t show well. So I frogged it, sorry I never did get a picture of it. The yarn is a light bulky (because it’s a tweed) and the pattern called for a dk weight. I have chosen another pattern but will probably still have to adjust it, or maybe just keep looking for a better pattern.

Hope everyone is safe with all the crazy weather, take care, be safe!

It’s Done! It’s Done! & Spring is almost here!!

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Afghan Done! (click on picture for larger image)

 

 .I finished my grand-daughter’s  afghan!!  It was taken from the Triple Chevron Lace shawl pattern at knitting on the net and adjusted to be an afghan.  She is pretty happy as you can see from the picture.  She was glad to finally have it after waiting for about a year :P.  She said it was very soft and way cool :).

She spent the day with me today because she was out of school and I wasn’t working today.  We walked about 1/2 mile to go to McDonalds for lunch (because my car is too scary to drive :P).  We also baked chocolate chip cookies.  Yummy :).  She helped me move my sewing machine and sewing table into the spare bedroom since my son decided to stay close to where his daughter is (he lives on the other side of the state from me).  So I now have my sewing/craft room, still have stuff to do to make it a functional room tho, but the important stuff is in there :).

I will now work on finishing spinning that hand dyed superwash merino roving, that had been calling to me and I’ve had to give the cold shoulder to until I finished the afghan.  Now I won’t ignore it anymore :).   There is a pattern for some slippers I’d like to knit up for my youngest grand-children, but I have to wait until I get the yarn for it.  I need acrylic yarn for them.  My daughter doesn’t appreciate specialized care for their things, because she works full time and says she doesn’t have the time to fuss over hand washing things they will abuse anyway :P.

Oh Yeah, I know it isn’t really spring yet, but it’s March and we have been in the 40’s here this week and I’m soooooo happy!!! So to me it is SPRING!!  Makes me want to go out and start a garden :).

I’m a Procrastinator

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There I’ve said it.  Yes I am a procrastinator.  It’s really hard to avoid recognizing that, but I try :P.  It’s so much easier to say, “I’m laid back”, “I like to go at my own pace”, but the ugly truth is I’m a procrastinator.  Sigh.

I’ve known it for a long time, but I avoided thinking about it.  However my youngest son is going to be going through a divorce and I told him I had two bedrooms and he was welcome to come stay with me to give him a chance to get back on his feet here.  It meant finishing getting what was left of those boxes still in that second bedroom somewhere else.  I have the room in closets and storage for the boxes, but I have put off doing something with those boxes saying I was going to go through them, until now I have to, I’ve only been in my apt for a year (did I mention I’m a procrastinator?), and I was eventually going to use that second bedroom for my sewing and craft room.  But I never got around to doing it, so now my son will be able to stay in it, and eventually when he’s situated and on his own again, I will have an empty room to put my sewing and craft things in, but then I’m a procrastinator ;P.

Ok, the above is also appropriate for the blanket I’m working on for my grand daughter, yes, I do work on it and I only have about 3 1/2 skeins to go, but I really should be finished by now.  I’ll stop letting things distract me this week and see just how far I can get, my grand daughter will be very happy, and probably very surprised if I actually get it finished, I mean I’ve only been working on it for about a year ;P.

Still looking for work, but at least that is one thing I am not procrastinating about, that’s one point for me anyway :).  My car let me know a few weeks ago that it would not be taking me anywhere anymore.  The steering rack has finally gotten so bad I’m afraid to drive it.  I can’t complain, I only paid $500 for it about 4 1/2 years ago, so with some pampering, I did get my money out of it. 🙂  You forget how dependent on a vehicle you are until you don’t have one.  I miss the independence that the car gave me, now I have to wait until someone can take me to grocery shop, or anywhere else I need to go.  I do take the bus sometimes, but it’s a half a day to take the bus to Walmart to do some shoping  and then wait for the bus to come back by and get home, which would have taken me about an hr to do before.   And I can’t carry too much because I have a 5 block walk from the bus stop coming home.  Sigh.  I also had a week job from the temp agency a couple of weeks ago and I took the bus to work every other day (my daughter took me the in between days) and my son picked me up, or I wouldn’t have been home until about 7 to 7:30 pm.  I had to get up pretty early to catch the bus and get to work an hr early because the next bus would have gotten me to work late.  Funny all the things we take for granted.  I’ll never take a car for granted again.

Happy New Year – 2010

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Granddaughter's Afghan/Blanket

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I hope this will be a wonderful New Year for all my friends and family.

Just to show that I really am working on this blanket I decided to put a picture of it’s progress.  It takes approximately 1 skein for each completed pattern (18 rows), yes I am on the 6th skein of yarn.  I have 5 more after this one so I am a little more than half way done.  To be honest I needed at least 3 more skiens, however I have not been successful in finding any.  That is what happens when you make something with discontinued yarn. 😛

I have about 1/2 of a spool to go on the spinning for the 2nd spool of Llama to be done and then I can ply.  You can guess which one will get done first ;P.  Sorry Jade.