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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!!!

Our 2nd Snow of Winter 2023-2024

/ LDSVenus / 8 Comments

This was what I woke up to this on Friday Morning. It snowed all day Thursday and into the night but most of it melted off because we had been warmer days before and it didn’t stick to the roads, but we managed to keep about 1/4 an inch on the ground. We still have some on the ground but not even enough now to cover the grass. Enjoy the snow this winter if you usually get snow, suppose to be a warmer winter with the El Niño this year :).

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!

Knitting Accountability

/ LDSVenus / 5 Comments

I haven’t done this in a while so I thought I would catch up my blog on my knitting.

I have knit 2 charity hats and one in progress. When I get 4 or 5 done I will take them to the shelter and start on the next batch. They are a simple 2X2 rib stitch with a fold over brim for extra warmth on the ears. They are easy to make and one of my mindless knits when I don’t have the head space for more complicated things and need the peace myself, and they are helping others.

The next 2 pictures are of a test knit that I did. I took a picture of the front and back because the darker front didn’t show the pattern as well as the lighter back (the yarn, Loops and Threads Impressions, is a bulky, slightly fuzzy yarn that fades from dark to light and back again), you might want to keep that in mind if you buy this pattern and make it ;). This is a headband for those that don’t like to wear hats but their ears get cold. The pattern is called Dandelion Headband. It was a fun pattern with an interesting stitch to make the dandelion flowers. You can find the pattern on Ribblr, the designer is Cloud9 Atelier . Ribbler is free but you need to make a account to use it. This is a paid pattern that you can buy, but they also have some free patterns and they have a very interesting online user-active pattern format that I like and my free patterns are on there too. This was a fun knit. I will definitely knit it again.

The last picture is another Tin Can Knits Flax baby sweater, a free pattern, you can find the needle sizes I use here on earlier post. I made a change in yarn because I didn’t want to have to mess with the color management of stripes and having to weave in all those ends lol. I’m using Hobby Lobby’s, Yarn Bee, Warm & Cozy, it’s very soft and in this size (6 months to 1 year) one skein might be all I need, but I bought 2 just in case, no sense inviting “Murphy’s Law”, he’s not our friend. It is acrylic, nylon and polyester, medium weight – worsted). I haven’t made one of these baby sweaters in a little bit an forgot how enjoyable they are to knit (the baby sweaters anyway because they don’t take forever :P).

Hope everyone is enjoying the little bit of a warm up before winter finally gets here. Farmer’s Almanac (see picture above) says it will be a hibernation zone about mid Jan & snow filled this year for my area, how about your area? Wonder if it will be right this year?

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.

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.

2022 Tour de Fleece, First Skein Done!

/ LDSVenus / 2 Comments

This was a long time coming, yea!!!! This was about 219 yards, 14 wpi, 89 grams, it looks like a light sport weight. I still have a little I need to ply off the bobbins as it was so much finished plyed yarn I couldn’t wouldn’t fit it all on the bobbin. I’m thinking about 11 to 15 more yards maybe, I’ll ply that off tonight and see, got close to having the 100 grams on there. Thinking I might need a bigger bobbin for plying :P.

I’m preparing my next spinning project to start tomorrow. It’s a deep stash beautiful pastel multi color braid that I’m thinking of doing a fractal out of. I’ll put a picture in and more info on the braid tomorrow after I’ve prepared it for the fractal spin :).

The temperature has been in the 80’s but the humidity has been uncomfortable, will be worse with 90’s in our near future, sigh. Stay cool out there!

Tour de Fleece 2022

/ LDSVenus / 1 Comment

Another year spinning with the Tour de Fleece while the Tour de France bicycle race is going on :). These are two pictures that show my progress. This is CVM (California Variegated Mutant) sheep fleece blended with about 15% alpaca. The mutant tag has to do with the fleece coloring. I already had the 1st bobbin spun and had started on the 2nd bobbin and they just sat there for months while I waited for my knitting/spinning mojo to come back, this event is helping to spark that :). I think I have about 1/2 oz of fiber left to spin then I can ply it and presto, yarn. 🙂 This skein is a surprise gift for someone who made me a gift last year. Hoping she will enjoy her little surprise. 🙂

My life has been pretty busy and there aren’t enough hrs in the day to try to squeeze in enough sleep, but that’s entirely my fault, if I would go to bed earlier it wouldn’t be a problem, but sorry night owl here and I’d rather be doing other things except when it’s time to get up hahaha.

Our temps have been very warm and humid :(. I did get to spin on my balcony this last week, that day was so beautiful outside and that is something I enjoy doing. I usually try to do that in the spring before the flies and mosquitoes and other biting bugs are out but this last spring was a lot of overcast and rain, not conducive for the care of my spinning wheel. But at least I got one day in so far this year. In case sometime during my years of blogging I have forgotten to mention, I wish I could give the man that invented refrigerated air a hug, it’s so amazing!

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying whatever weather you have in your area.