Stitch Markers

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.

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!!!

More Snow and Mandalorian Stitch Markers and Progress Keepers

/ LDSVenus

As you can see we had another snow storm this past Thursday, also notice how bare it is without the trees that were taken out with the Derecho we had last year in August, the yards look so sad :(. We got about 5 or 6 inches so I have to ask, is it Spring yet? It snowed again today for a bit, about 1 inch and we are due more snow tomorrow, but what makes it not nice is our temps have finally dipped into sub zero weather. It’s -13F right now with wind chills, ambient is 6 degrees. Tonight without wind chills it will be -17F and -34F with wind chills. ugh. I know the ground hog said 6 more weeks, but that doesn’t really apply to IA :P, we may get snow storms into April.

I got the new Mandalorian stitch markers and progress keepers I purchased and couldn’t be more happy!! Those of you familiar with the Mandalorian series on Disney+ will know exactly what these are (if you don’t my previous post explains them)!!! She even threw in a Grogu, aka baby Yoda, progress keeper, so cute!! I also bought a valentine Snoopy progress keeper with a heart stitch maker, I love Snoopy and these are perfect. I got all these from AdoreKnit on Etsy, I love her stitch markers and progress keepers, she has soooo many to choose from and you can choose the whole set or just the stitch markers or just the progress keeper! I want to start a new project so I can use one of these, but UFO’s (Unfinished Objects for my non knitting friends) first, sigh, I don’t like to have more than 2 reg UFO’s and one mindless UFO on the needles.

Hope everyone is fairing well during this winter season. Take care of yourself and try to do something you enjoy everyday that makes you smile, and do something kind for someone else that brings a smile to their face, winters are hard on everyone, well except maybe Santa :P.

Hats for Warmth Project, Te Ara Fingerless Mitts and Other Things.

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

It’s toward the end of the month and I haven’t posted. After finishing the wedding shawl I took a break from knitting for a month and just lost my knitting mojo and didn’t even finish the Christmas gift I was working on for someone I knit a gift for every year. Then the day after Christmas I lost my dad, so last year, with the pandemic and 2 Derechos we had and my dad’s passing, was just not a very good year for motivation.

I have finished a hat for what I call my Hats for Warmth project, which are hats to give to the homeless shelter. And I did pick up the fingerless mitts I was working on for that Christmas gift. I can at least get those done before she doesn’t need them this year anymore :p. It is the Te Ara Fingerless Mitts pattern by Rachel C. and is a free pattern. I am using some left over fingering yarn from the wedding shawl and will dye it some shade of lavender and am using my ChiaoGoo 9″ size 3 needles, it calls for a 4 but I knit rather loosely and tend to have to go down a size to get any gauge close to correctly. I need to get another set of those in a size 2, I have 1’s and 0’s for socks but tend to use the 0’s for the socks :). The sizing on this pattern has a lot of negative ease and looks small but stretches out quite a bit so unless you have pretty large hands I suggest the small size in the pattern.

I am using my Mandalorian progress keeper Mythosaur (an extinct Manadorian dragon that they use to tame and ride or kill wild to prove themselves) and the frog stitch marker like the one The Child (Grogu aka baby Yoda) ate in the series, was some funny stuff :p. The progress keeper and stitch marker set makes me smile and has helped pulled me out of the loss of my knitting mojo. The Mythosaur was a gift from AdoreKnit on Etsy. I have just ordered a new set of her stitch markers with a Mud Horn (Din Jarin’s signet by killing that beast and it becomes a symbol of his clan of 2 given to him by the the Mandalorian Armorer ) and a stitch marker set with a Mandalorian figure progress keeper and and a bar of Beskar (metal that makes his armor) stitch marker. Can you tell I love the Mandalorian series? They are making Star Wars fun again :). AdoreKnit markers are so much fun to use and they are well made, if you haven’t checked out her store, you should go look at all the stitch markers and progress keepers she has and she even sews some bags :).

I picked up some more yarn for the hats and some baby sweaters at Hobby Lobby as it was their bi weekly 30% off yarn sale week :). I have also been working with a younger family member on sewing. I’m not a sewist, but I can do basic things and can kinda sorta follow a pattern. I bought her a decent sewing machine for Christmas and she was excited to start using it. So far we have just practiced threading it, winding the bobbin, and using the stitches with white thread on black cloth so she can see what she is doing and what the stitches it comes with looks like. She bought herself a pattern for a toy to sew, but of course it needed a furry fabric so I have convinced her to wait to make it until we practice on more stuff first. I thought maybe an easy quilt square she can frame to put up in her room or give as a framed gift. Something with straight stitches and pretty easy to sew but looks amazing when done for some self confidence before moving on to harder things :). I’ve always thought quilting looks like magic with cloth :).

Hoping for a better year and wishing the same for you all as well.

New Stitch Markers and Progress Keeper, Spring But Not, Fiber Festival and that Dang Virus.

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

I have been enamored with The Mandalorian from the Disney Star Wars series.  I have finished all the season “chapters” as they are called and await this fall when the new new season comes out.  Ugh only one season a year.  But while I wait, I bought a Mandalorian stitch markers set with a Yoda progress keeper.  I got them from Adoreknit and as usual they are wonderful.  She even gave me an extra progress keeper that has the Mandaloian helmet in color and a stitch marker holder to keep them safe.  She is a great maker!

It’s Spring here but not, I have seen a few Robins, no pictures yet, might not happen this year, go into that later.  I have seen the Geese coming back, but because I live in the mid-west, Mother Nature said it’s not Spring until she says so and she sent us more snow last Saturday.  It was raining today.  Spring will be here sooner than later tho :).

The Saturday before last I went to a fairly local fiber fair with my son and his spouse.  Picture shows part of their set up and I have a picture of my son using his new sock knitting machine.  He loves it and makes a pair of socks pretty quickly :).  They had me bring my more portable Rick Reeves spinning wheel and spin while I was there.  Almost finished with bobbin number 1 of the Alpaca/wool blend I was spinning at the Mall fair in Dec (yeah I’m a slow poke sometimes) then I will spin another bobbin and ply a skein of yarn :).  It was a fun day.  This wheel spins very well and I’m enjoying the experience on a double drive wheel.

I did get another charity hat done, but haven’t gotten around to getting a picture yet.  Caught another cold about 3 weeks ago (does that make 4 or 5 this winter?) and just dealing with some bronchitis now.  It’s not as bad as usual but I haven’t felt like doing a lot.  I’m doing my best to stay inside because of that dang virus going around (that is why I don’t have any first Robin pictures, but I’ll keep trying), tho once in a while I remember something I forgot at the grocery store, I try not to go, but you know how it is :P.  I was able to start and finish all of the 2 seasons of Lost in Space.  It was pretty good but oh my gosh the new season doesn’t start until next year!  All these one season a year shows will make our heads explode!  In the mean time I’ll just re-watch Merlin, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and the Star Trek series, at least they are all finished and aren’t going anywhere.  I do enjoy a good marathon from time to time :).

Everyone stay safe.

Happy Valentines Day!

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

For Valentines Day I bought myself some new stitch markers and Progress keepers from AdoreKnit , she has some pretty cute stitch markers and progress keepers and she even threw in a tape measure!  My next purchase will be CharmingMinisShop who does hand crafted polymer clay progress keepers, they are beautiful.

The second picture is a newly finished charity hat and the skein on the left is for the new charity hat that I have just cast on.  The color is pretty, I’ll try to get a picture posted in the next week or so.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day, even if you are single, treat yourself to something special, you are worth it, honest!!

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.

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

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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.

2nd Bobbin for Last TDF & New Stitch Markers

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I meant to add to my blog a few weeks ago, but I got pretty busy and then I caught a cold and a GI bug right after that.  Neither were fun, still dealing with bronchitis.

On to nicer things :).  I am about 3 rolags short of being finished with my 2nd bobbin (showing on the 1st picture) on the last spin I was working on for the TDF (Tour de Fleece).  Yeah I know I’m late, but I’m gonna finish anyway :).  Going to try to have it done by sometime next week.  It is a fractal spin with the first bobbin being half light orange and half darker orange and the 2nd bobbin shorter bursts of color going from yellow to very light orange, rose, very light orange and back to yellow.  That flows through out the bobbin.  Not sure how that will play out when I ply them, but I guess we will see. 🙂

In the 2nd picture you see my new acquisitions :).  I love buying stitch markers and progress keepers from Adore Knit on Etsy.  Her stitch markers and progress keepers are awesome.  I bought a snoopy with a pumpkin progress keeper with beautiful fall stitch markers and she put in an extra gift, an acorn progress keeper, so cute!  I also purchased a spring set with a flower on the first stitch marker (makes it easy to know when you finish a round when you are knitting in the round) and an umbrella for the progress keeper (will be nice to remind me spring will come when the winter is lasting forever) and she gave me another little gift, a progress keeper with my initial on it.  She spoils me :).  If you are ever in need of set of stitch markers or progress keepers please go visit her Etsy shop, she is putting in markers for football season now, but she has a lot of different marker sets to choose from!

I am knitting on several different projects will try to get pictures of my progress and post sometime this next week.

Spinning on the Kromski Polonaise and a New Project.

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With the help of the Kromski Raverly group and a local friend, I was able to get the Polonaise configured to be a scotch tension drive, thankfully it comes with both options :).  The pictures do not do it justice, it is a dark mahogany color but looks like a walnut color in the pictures.  It is portrayed a little better in the picture of the singles I am spinning tho’ it still does not show the dark mahogany color as it is, it is really beautiful.  It spins like a dream and I am enjoying spinning on it immensely.  The fiber is some super wash merino that I had dyed some time back when I spun a skein for a friend.  I am spinning this skein to make a scarf or cowl (we need those here in the winter :P) for Marge’s sister (also a friend).  Something for her to think about her sister when she wears it.

Changing Staircases  I also cast on a new project.  Was going to make this last year for Christmas for a family member but I fell and broke my hand so that didn’t happen.  Not taking any chances this year, if I procrastinate, “Murphy” will come to visit again and he is not allowed in my home :P.  This is the Changing Staircases shawl by Trysten Molina of Dragon Hoard Designs.  I am using Stroll Tweed Sock Labs yarn by Knit Picks in the Teal Tweed colorway.  It’s really pretty and has a generous 462 yards.  Because I am a loose knitter I am using a size 4 instead of a size 5 circular needle.  Tho’ it looks difficult, this pattern is very easy and easily memorized :).  Not sure if you can see it very clearly but I am using a beautiful bronze heart progress keeper made by Stephanie of the Knitting Samurai podcast, from her Adore Knits Etsy shop.

I am loving Spring but could do without all the rain, but at least it’s not snow :P.