Life

Skirting Some Fleeces

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

Well the first picture isn’t a fleece :P. Try as I might each year to remember to get a photo of a Magnolia tree flowering, when I drive by there are cars behind me so I can’t stop to get a picture. I love Magnolias because they are generally the first to bloom before the rest of the trees are even budding their leaves, so they mean spring to me. However this year other trees bloomed or spouted leaves first, then yep we had two nights of freezing temps in a row. Guess the Magnolias aren’t fooled. 🙂

The second picture is a grey (kind of looks like a light black but I’m sure when it’s washed it will be a medium grey) Polypay fleece. I also have a white one to skirt also, which is picking out shorter pieces from the longer pieces (basically I’m separating the saddle fiber from the neck, belly and legs and second cuts fiber) and picking out as much of the vm (vegetable vegitation matter, I stand corrected :P) as I can, you can see a big piece of straw, and there are also lots more vm scattered in it, and lets not forget any sheep poop by the back end. I started skirting this a week ago but the weather wasn’t really warm enough and this table wasn’t quite doing the job because it has a bench that I had to bend over to reach the fleece and the wind was blowing more than I hoped, so that wasn’t doing it for me. So with less than a 1/3 done, I put it back in the bag and took it back in the house and will bring them both out when it warms up a bit and no wind (I don’t feel like chasing pieces of fleece all over, lol) so I can lay them out proper and skirt them. I don’t have to have them skirted and ready to ship until August, I just don’t want to do it in the heat of the summer. I’ve had these 3 years maybe 4 so the lanolin is pretty set into the fleeces, good luck to the mill that gets these beauties :P.

Hope everyone is having a good start to your spring and that you avoid the storms I am seeing coming on the weather reports.

New Knitting Jewelry :)

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

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!

Frustration?

/ LDSVenus / 4 Comments

Upsetness must be going around this week.

I had an argument on Thursday with an automated answering machine from UPS. I just wanted to talk to a real person to explain to them that the 2 deliveries they made to me this week were delivered to the apt building across the street and is there someway they could let their drivers know that the back door of the building they are delivering to has the front of their building on the next street over (it’s a short block and takes up the whole short block) and could they mark this street as a problem because several other people in my apt are having the same problem.

I had this problem with the post office (who should know better, but to the defense of my reg postman it wasn’t him, it was the subs) and after losing 2 packages and almost a 3rd, explanation below, I went to the post office to complain because the person they were delivering to never returned it to me (just across the street mind you, but for the 1st two I didn’t know that at the time) and that person never sent the packages back and a friend let me know she sent me a package did I get it, and I had not and it was Sunday so not a normal day to deliver, but I had seen the postman make a Sunday delivery to the apt across the street, so I went over there to see if it was my package but there wasn’t one outside the door and people did not answer my knock so I put a note on their door to let them know the post office had delivered the package to them by mistake and would be picking it up the next day if they would leave it out side their door when they left for work it would be fine. I called the post office first thing on Monday and yep they picked it up and brought it to me, I figured fixing your mistake will help you remember the next time and things have been good since but the post office put a pink slip in the deliverer’s mail pick up box to remind them to check the address when delivering to our apt building. So when the notice came both times this week that the package had been delivered but there was no package at my door, I went across the street and yep it was in front of the apt door that mirrored my address, except for the street part, across the street and I rescued them.

I thought maybe it would be just that easy to fix with UPS too, serves me right for thinking, sigh. This helpful AI answering machine had no idea what I was trying to tell it and so I politely said customer service, but it wanted to know more so it would get me to the right place, but my problem wasn’t in it’s vocabulary. So it offered to send me to claims, nope I’m sure the claims answering machine would be just as unhelpful. So I hung up and tried again, not sure why I thought it would end up any better and it didn’t, I was finally so frustrated that I just kept yelling, customer service, customer service and it kept saying it didn’t understand what I wanted. So I just hung up. Just know UPS has no intention of letting you talk to a real person and if I ever get any more packages from UPS I’ll be ready to go across the street and rescue those too. I’ve calmed down, repented for that little burst of frustration and determined I wouldn’t let that machine upset me anymore, will try anyway ;).

FO and a Little Gift from a Friend :)

/ LDSVenus / 7 Comments

I finished the Flax baby sweater for a church friend. Her baby was about 2 weeks early and weighed a little over 6 lbs. The sweaters I knit in the 6 month to 1 years size, so about Feb he should be able to wear it if they roll the sleeves up a bit and it will fit him next fall into next winter. 🙂 I like to make them a little large so they can wear them longer than a couple of months because sweaters are a little more time consuming than a hat or booties.

The next picture is a gift I received from a friend, whom I help with her mail packages when they go on vacation in the summer. I love this, it is my favorite mug!!! Yes, it has hot chocolate with marshmallows in it, what else?

I’m dealing with getting well from a rather ugly cold, at least it’s a head cold and not a chest cold (which drags on for 6 to 8 weeks of coughing). People tell me everyone is getting this so I’ll be thankful it was enough time before Christmas that I can enjoy Christmas instead of staying home and being sick.

Looks like we might be minus temps at night next week with wind chills and a little snow but not much they said. Should just be glad we didn’t get all the lake effect feet of snow they got by the lakes a little farther east a week or two ago! Hope you all are staying well and warm!

RIP Sundance (alpaca) :(

/ LDSVenus / 3 Comments

This is Sundance, one of my son’s alpacas. The little one, with her head on Sundance’s back, is Star Sundance’s last cria (picture taken 2 years ago). My son and his spouse called the vet because she was not feeling well, the vet said it would be kinder to let her go, there wasn’t much he could do to help her and she was suffering, so they let the vet put her down. She was 17 and had lived a good life. My son and his spouse are very sad at her loss, they look at them as pets, I know Heavenly Father is taking good care of her, He loves all of his creations. She was in the first flock he bought when he started to raise alpaca. She was very sweet and had a wonderful fleece. If I am correct she was a show alpaca back in the day (most of those in his first flock were).

Give your pets an extra hug tonight.

Alpaca Farm Days 2022 Last Weekend and General Conference this Weekend

/ LDSVenus

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.

Honey Isn’t Necessarily Healthy and Update on TdF 2nd spin

/ LDSVenus

This 2 lb plastic (thank goodness) jar of honey caused me to be unable to spin for a bit, hopefully soon I can go back to spinning. You know the instant you do something and you know it won’t turn out right and you get that flash of what could happen and you quickly respond to it? Well yeah, that is what I did. I had set this jar of honey close to the edge of the counter and turned around and a pot holder I had in my hand caught it and off it went, my mind in that instant just saw honey all over the floor and so naturally I stuck my foot out to buffer the fall, Oh My, wrong choice, it hit the top of my foot and ouchie!! Went to get an x-ray a few days later when the bruise wasn’t looking better, but no fractured bones, just lots of soft tissue damage. Lesson learned, let the jar fall next time, it was plastic, it wouldn’t have broken. Our reactions are sometimes too fast for our own good, but then again most of the time that’s a good thing.

Next picture; Before I hurt my foot, this is as far as I got almost 3 weeks ago on the spin of my 2nd Tour de Fleece skein, almost done with the 1st bobbin. Hopefully will finish that soon and I can begin the 2nd bobbin.

I have been working on my Hats for Warmth project (because I can sit with my feet up and not feel guilty :P), but I need to speed that up, fall is almost here and winter will soon follow!!!

Hope you all are working on things you love and that I haven’t cursed you with “Murphy” by talking about it, tho if he could find another person to irritate I can’t say I would mind a bit, tho I hope it’s not you :P.

2022 Tour de Fleece Starting 2nd Spin

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

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.