Life

FO, The Winter Tree in Spring, and Hibiscus

/ LDSVenus / 6 Comments

I made two more dish cloths from the Hobby Lobby’s I Love this Yarn cotton. It’s a very soft cotton and I like it! These were a gift for a friend.

The 2nd picture is the Tree that I always show in the snow shots in the winter, so I thought I would show you it actually has a different life in the spring and summer :).

The 3rd picture is a braided Hibiscus tree. I love the flowers. It was a gift from my daughter for Mother’s Day, but she gave it to me early because she was afraid she would kill it before then, lol. I have small plants in my house but this is the first tree. I hope I don’t kill it either. I’ll set it outside for 6 hrs everyday when it warms up a bit and it’s not windy so it can get more sun than by my sliding glass door because it doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight, tho it said it liked indirect sunlight too, maybe it’s not too picky!

Storms here today, tho so far they haven’t been too bad. But more storms tomorrow and Sunday. We will see what happens, we could use the rain.

My Spring Knitting Box :)

/ LDSVenus / 11 Comments

This came from Twice Sheared Sheep. She has a Christmas Advent box, that can be signed up for, but I’m not sure when she will open it to be pre-ordered, they go fast. This box is part of 3 boxes of 2024, spring, summer and fall, and they have to be signed up for by sometime in Feb. Next year is the next time to sign up for them.

OK! In the first picture is everything that was in the box, then I took pictures to show them a little better. I didn’t show the bag in a separate picture because it showed up well in the main picture (sorry forgot to get a picture of the bell flower stitch markers and they are hard to see in the main picture, you can see them better in the 3rd picture). I was so excited to see these beautiful gifts. The 2nd and 3rd pictures are just more explanation of the items in the box. The yarn is beautiful and so is the round (rather than long) dried flower stitch counter/marker, and the stitch marker tin (it slides open) and the journal are so cool. I have a picture of the outside and inside of the journal, you can put so much information in it! I was so excited to see the blockers, I have wanted (but never justified the money because I’m cheap :P) some of these so I didn’t have to put the millions of straight pins in to block a shawl or scarf etc (yeah I will need another box or two of these). The stickers are cool as well. I hope there will be a tin separator in the next box for the tin, it makes an oblong X in the box to separate the different knitting stitch markers/progress keepers or you can not put one in and put small scissors and a needle in instead. One for each of the bags I use is my eventual plan, they come in a smaller size as well.

Had to take my car in this past Monday for an oil change and tune up. I make sure the oil is changed when it should be and do the tune up every year because it’s cheaper to do those things than to buy a new engine, tho those things aren’t cheap anymore either. I also had them check my battery strength and my brakes. They also checked all my fluid levels and said my battery and brakes were fine. I have a great mechanic and the business is always good to and honest with me, they never do extra stuff that didn’t need to be done. I’ve been going to them for about 13 years. I would have rather slept in but my car comes first, no car means no way to get around lol. I am still meeking (my way to say complaining) about losing an hr of sleep in the mornings, because going to bed early is not my natural time clock. I should be use to it about the time they change the clock back, sigh.

The Shepards Market and Some Loot!

/ LDSVenus / 3 Comments

The first picture is the “loot” I bought at the fiber show, I can’t believe I only bought one thing out of so many wonderful things there. This is some CVM, part of it was blended with some blue and light teal, the other part is the natural color roving. They came together for about 4 1/4 ozs. My plan is to blend it all together (slowly so I don’t get any neps in it.) CVM is very springy and tho not merino soft it is still next to the skin soft. I’ll post a picture after I blend it on my drum carder, hopefully I will do a good job and it will be beautiful :).

I started another dish cloth using the I Love This Yarn, cotton. First time using this cotton and so for I like it. I am knitting the In Thirds dishcloth it’s a free pattern on Ravelry and one of my favorites. I’m using my favorite needles for this, I’ve had them for years, it’s a nylon needle, size 5, I think the pattern calls for size 6 or 7, but I like the fabric I get using this. I don’t use them as dish clothes, I like to use them to put hot things on so I can handle them (like a bowl of hot soup I want to eat in my recliner while watching a favorite show. 😛

Have sure been enjoying the weather since the end of January, we got up to 80 this past Sunday but are in the 50’s and 40’s this week. We are in an El Niño weather pattern since last year, but starting in the fall the weather man says it turns into a La Niña, so will prepare for a colder snowier winter with coming winter, sigh.

Accountability Time, FO, WIP and Mail

/ LDSVenus / 15 Comments

I decided it’s time to do this. The dishcloth is one I have worked on for a while because it’s my mindless knit and I only work on it when I’m bored doing laundry at the laundromat or in a car doing some waiting. It’s the grandma’s favorite discloth pattern, you can find it on Ravelry. I use Sugar and Cream, Stripes, this color was Country Stripes and a size 5 needle. I knit a little looser than most so I generally go down one needle size but for this pattern I go down 2 sizes.

The next two pictures are wips (works in progress for my non knitter friends). The hat is one of the hats for warmth I do for the shelter. I like to use the Hobby Lobby yarn I Love This Yarn. It’s a worsted yarn and I like the stripes this makes on a hat. This color number 424 Green/Turquoise/Red. The diagonal scarf was a scarf-a-long I started with a good friend several years ago. She was killed in an auto accident and so I work this scarf off and on as my brain is ok with it. I’m on the 2nd skein, it’s also a mindless knit project. I don’t know where I got the pattern but it’s very easy. Because you do the increase and decrease on one row and just knit the next row, I put a progress keeper on the right side (increase/decrease row) so I remember to increase and decrease :P.

The next picture is a wip spinning project, this fiber is Pop Rox from Camaj Fiber Arts. Almost done with the first bobbin. I thought maybe I would spin all of it on one bobbin and then chain ply but I don’t think I will be able to get the other half on there. On the side of the bobbin, I laid out the rest of this half of the fiber for you to see, then I have another bobbins worth. So I will go ahead and make this a fractal spin, it’s going to my eye dr, who is a knitter, for her daughter a hat. 🙂

The next two pictures are things I bought for myself for Valentine’s day :P. The fiber was something that I didn’t need at all but when I saw it I thought oh my gosh look at those colors! I bought it from Fiber Love Diary I got the last one in this color, it’s a gray BFL base dyed over, color is called Dark Prism. I loved the jewel tones.

The next item was something I needed but had put off a long time getting because it not cheap for the bulky flyer and 2 extra bobbins (the flyer comes with one bobbin) and tax and shipping. I don’t really spin bulky yarn but I needed something that would hold more than 4 ozs for plying. 2 ozs on each bobbin (you can see my reg bobbin on my wheel in the 4th picture) when plied together is over full on the reg bobbin for anything over a fingering weight otherwise I’m stuck just spinning up to 4 ozs of fiber. I have also wanted a Wooly Winder, but could only get one, and I can get by without the Wooly Winder, it just makes things easier, but I needed a flyer with a bigger bobbin more, sigh. Next time :P. I forgot to say I bought the bulky flyer for my Kromski Polonaise at Yarn Barn in Kansas.

We are getting snow tonight, the weatherman said a trace to 2 inches but he was leaning toward the 2 inches, dang we just got all our snow from before melted. Oh well, it’s still winter, I’ll live, spring is almost here!!!

WIP Bulky Cabled Alpaca Hat

/ LDSVenus / 11 Comments

This WIP (work in progress, for my non knitting friends) hopefully soon will be an FO (finished object, again for my non knitting friends.). I started this a few weeks ago and the progress was not fun as I had eye surgery on both eyes 2 weeks apart about a month and 1/2 ago and seeing anything close was, well to blurry to see. I had an around the neck magnifying glass my daughter got for me but it made everything look 3D, lol. So I’d knit for a bit then put it down and the Ott light my son got me was awesome for light.  But last week I found a pair of my old glasses from 4 years ago and I can see through the midrange section to read!!  So I have started working on this hat again for my son-in-law, who gets to go out in this very cold weather to do farm chores with the alpaca. 

I had made him a hat some months earlier but it was a bit tight and even tho he said it a fine, it wasn’t fine to me, so this new one. The yarn is bulkier (yes the yarn is from their alpaca :)) and I went up a size needles so I wouldn’t have to adjust the stitch count, this should be correct, the pattern was written for a woman’s size and my son-in-law can’t wear that size very well.  Because the yarn is bulkier, I did not make this a fold up brim, it would just be too heavy. You see a new owl chain stitch counter on there. I had to order an XL one that had bigger rings for the bigger needles (size 11).  I love it, it keeps the count so I don’t have to go back and keep recounting as I get closer to the row for the cable, saves time and aggravation having to keep recounting. I get these from Twice Sheared Sheep . The link is to her best sellers so you can see some of the things she carries, but to see all her things just click the home link and then on the 3 horizontal bars on the top left of her home page. She has some for only up to 5 rows, and some that are in a circle if you don’t like the one going to 10 rows hanging down so far on your work. There is a little clip thing on it (you can see it on the 0 by the owl) and I suspect it is for counting crochet rows instead of using the rings that go on the knitting needle, but as a knitter I would use to put on the numbers to tell me how many times I’ve done the 10 rows in case I needed more than 10 rows so I wouldn’t lose count (think socks). Her things are pretty darn cool!

I go back next week for a vision check and to get updated glasses, so my sight should be adjusted back to normal, yea! 🙂

Hope everyone is staying warm, we had -30’s again last night and for tonight -20’s, but starting on Monday we get our midwinter thaw and will be in the 30’s woot woot!!!

SNOW!! and Some Spinning

/ LDSVenus / 11 Comments

The snow pictures are in order, last night about 2 hrs after the snow started, it wasn’t sticking to the road yet *(actually I think this is the start of the last snow we had, but they look about the same so I mixed them up, and now I can’t find the picture I took lol, so oops). Then this morning just before sun up, and last tonight after sun down.  It snowed for about 24 hrs and we got about 7 inches tho at the airport they measured 13 inches, whoa. I’d say our Christmas snow arrived a little late :P. More snow storms coming this week but not sure how much snow they will bring, I’m sure they will add to the pile as our temps are going down :P. This one was a very big storm.

The last picture is the Pop Rox I am spinning. Had some eye surgery a few weeks ago and I go back to the doctor later this month for new glasses so I can see better.  All in all it was worth it. I can see the color on the roving and yarn so much better! I’m about 2/3rds done with this bobbin, then one more to spin before I ply. Trying to figure out in the mean time if I want to just ply regular or try the chain ply again so the colors stay together. I need to figure it out before I finish this single because if I chain ply I will just continue to spin on this bobbin until it’s full.

Hope everyone is safe and warm.

Forgot the cutest one! This is Everest from my son’s alpaca farm, he was out in the snow today and decided to come in the barn for a bite or two. They come in and out of the barn as they wish to get out of the wind or other weather. Note that the snow doesn’t melt on him, his fiber is very dense and water resistant. They are lovers of the cold, me? not so much!

The Color of Fall and an FO

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

These are all shots of the beautiful fall colors I was able to take this week. Well the 2nd picture I took last week and a week later I took a picture of the same trees (3rd picture) and you can see their color progress. Amazing how fast the leaf colors change and all the colors they make.

The last picture is the FO. This is the Classic Cables Hat and Mittens by Destiny Meyer pattern, (I only knit the hat) that I was getting ready to start, link to my post on this. It fit Ev, but because the size for this was for a woman’s medium and I was knitting this for a man I used the larger needle size that it mentioned in the needles section for a larger or slouchy hat and added an extra cable vertically to make it a little longer. Also if I make this for him again, I will also add about 1 & 1/2 inches to the cuff so it will sit well below his ears when it’s folded up, men have larger heads than women ;P, he said it was fine the way it was, but I like things to be better than fine :P. A link to her shop can be found here, this pattern is on sale on this page of her patterns, but I don’t know how long the sale lasts :).

Won a Spinning Box Gift!

/ LDSVenus / 3 Comments

A few weeks ago I entered in a giveaway from Camaj Fiber Arts for a spinning box. She prepares these and sells them once a month, they are a surprise box of fiber, and always worth it. I entered and she was giving away 3 and I thought well, maybe! I got an email a little over a week ago and I won one of them!!! This one was titled Silk Road from East to West. It’s all about silk, some gorgeous spinning fibers in it! The light colored package of roving is Opulence, 18 micron Merino and Polwarth and Red Eri Peace Silk combed top, and this is soft, soft, soft! The colorful package the same size is Merino and Mulberry silk combed top, and it is oh so soft! The smaller bag of colorful fiber is Soffsilk, a cloud of various colors of dyed mulberry silk. It will be nice for blending on my drum carder with other fibers for color and texture :). Then there is a silk handkerchief with some bleeding tissue paper to make a dyed silk hanky :), should be fun. The last thing is a sack of some Eri Peace Silk cocoons. I’ll have to check out more about degumming them, tho the paper said I could also dye them and string them for my Christmas tree and actually I have a small fiber optic tree so it might actually look very cool :P. This box arrived on Saturday and my birthday was yesterday, what a coincidence was that!!! What a wonderful birthday gift! I like buying fiber from this fiber arts online store, they have a great variety of fiber and fiber tools and some great prices :).

I’m enjoying this nice fall weather, it will be 60’s and 50’s all week, so much better than the 90’s into the 100’s of this past summer! Hope everyone is well and enjoying their day!