Winter 2012

I got busy this month and decided to pull out my old Brother KH588 knitting machine  with the KR586 ribber. I wanted to learn how to circular knit on the flat bed. After many attempts I managed to make a large tube which is going to be used as a baby sack.

Baby sack

 

 

January 10, 2012

This is the only way to live, highs today were 53 degrees, clear sky and no wind.  I can’t believe our weather this year, normally it’s close to zero with about two feet of snow if not more.  I’m afraid when our good luck runs out mother nature is really going to get even.

Winter in Iowa

 

Pixie-doodles first Christmas

This is why we downsized our tree and have pet safe ornaments!!!

Glove update

Progress of the Sanquhar gloves is slow but coming along, to date I’m about half way through.  This is the Duke pattern and so far I’m enjoying the pattern. To stop the cuff edge from rolling I started with a  knit braid instead of just a couple rows of purling.  If I’m going to knit I want it to be pretty.  This is also my first attempt at knitting in letters and numbers, don’t think I did too bad of a job. 

I don’t think I’ll have them done for Christmas.

November 2011

So far this month I’ve started another pair of Sanquhar gloves in the Duke pattern, using a blend of chocolate alpaca blended with black  mohair for the dark and icelandic sandy colored wool for the light.  My DH had a possible TIA this past week, the tests didn’t show any evidence of a stroke but his words are still a little jumbled, but returning pretty well.  Our newest member of the house decided that she would like to learn to spin.

I think her feet needs to grow a little bit.

New Family Member

We went to the Cat Fanciers Cat show yesterday, needless to say we came home with a new kitten.  She is a Pixie-Bob, supposedly this is a breed that was developed from crossing a bobtail with a domestic cat.  There is no DNA to confirm this crossing,  so I think they are mutated domestics that were developed into cats that appear to look like bobcats.  Just my opinion.  We have just been calling her Pixie because she responds to the name. So I guess it will be Pixie.  She is 5 months old, already been spayed with all of her baby shots and dewormed. We got her from Red Rock Pixie Bobs, couldn’t pass her up. She is really a sweet kitten, the girls Dotty and Emma don’t seem to think so, they will get over it.

Pixie

 Without the flash:

Leafy Beauty

Last Saturday we went with my girlfriend up to Lansing, IA to look at the leaves.  They were really pretty from Guttenburg to Marquette, then they started to fade and lose their color the closer to Lansing we got.  We stopped in Harper’s Ferry to stretch our legs a little bit and to just enjoy the day.  Then we went on to Pike’s Peak State Park outside of McGregor, IA; it was just beautiful overlooking the Mississippi river.  We made it up to Lansing and had a good good lunch at Milty’s, then went over to Horsefall’s to do some shopping.  They are mechandise liquidators and I think they had just about everything under the sun for sale. Here are a few pictures from our day trip. All in all we had a great day.

The following picture was taken at Harper’s Ferry roadside park.

The next few pictures are from Pike’s Peak overlooking the Mississippi, the day was picture perfect.

Fall 2011

Fall is here whether we want it or not.  Last weekend we went out to the Llama Futurity Show, it’s an event that is held out at Kirkwood Community College for llama breeders and enthusiests.  We like to go out just to look at the llamas and watch them prance and show off their stuff, they definitly know when to turn on the charm.  Vicky Gobel from “Bear Hollow Farm” was there with her beautiful yarns and knitted things, along with some raw fleeces from her animals. I picked up a raw black llama fleece, it is really nice.   

 

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival 2011

This was the fifth year that we had attended the festival, we only stayed for the Friday show though, needed to get home inorder to get rested up for the new week. It takes us five and a half hours to get there and none of us really travel well.  I had a chance to visit with some of the vendors this year, which is something that I hadn’t been able to do in the past because we have usually gone on Saturdays and they are sooo busy.  I have some pictures of the three of the vendors that I had a chance to visit with.

Sharon Lawson with her husband have a fiber processing business in Wapello, IA. I got some of her beautiful blended merino rovings.  She does all kinds of fibers from the merinos to exotics, including dehairing.

100% Merino with blended colors

100% Merino

Black Merino with silk noils blended in.

East Friesian Cross Dairy Sheep

Deb Bender from “East Friesian Cross Dairy Sheep” had some very lovely fleeces.  This is fleece is an  E.Friesian X Polypay.  I couldn’t wait to get it washed up and ready for spinning.  It will make great socks and other outer wear clothing.  I love the natural varigation in color with this fleece.

Raw fleece

Staple length

 

Washed and out to dry.

 I had the opportunity  to visit with Tracy Schuh from “Interlacements Yarns” at the motel we were both staying at.  Wish I have of signed up for her dye class, maybe next time.  I stopped by her table and picked up some dyed roving pieces, she was busy with her classes so I got a  picture of  a couple of her helpers. 

Interlacement Yarns

 

So beautiful, I have no sense of color at all and I am in awe of anyone that does.

 All the people pictured here gave me their verbal approval to be shown in this blog and I’m so happy they did.  All in all we had a lot fun.

Thrum Knitting

I finished a pair of thrum knit mittens,  these are my very first pair of mittens ever. I thought they turned out pretty good.  I really didn’t have a pattern, so I kind of made it up as I went using several different mitten patterns as reference.