Progress is Good

 A good but all around tiring day.  I had knitting guild this morning.  Followed by lunch with John.  Followed by a long nap.  Followed by lots of small cleaning tasks which lead to some great progress.  

I raffled off my last spare yarn swift at knitting guild. Now it just the Shepard’s Woodworking squirrel cage for me.  That makes me very happy.  That cleans out a bit more room.  I am finding that taking many smaller steps in cleaning and decluttering are leading to bigger strides.  

Which has lead me to break down bigger tasks in my head.  I will have to see if this works out.  

Happy 2023

 I would like to start out by saying that I have not bought any new crafting supplies this year.  Today would have been a perfect day for on line shopping. I was having  a bad body day because of my stupid flare up.  I am not the biggest fan of arthritis.  I usually shop to make myself feel better.  No shopping was done. 

Instead I napped. Did two 20 minute cleaning sessions. I also found the time to work on three different projects. I did not complete anything. If I have the energy tomorrow, I will warp a loom for a scarf so that I don’t have to figure out where to store the yarn, this might involve more than 1 scarf.  I always have bags of hand made items for children that leave the house every so often.  I just love the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank. They find homes for everything that I make. 

Use more stuff up is going to be my motto for the year.  Also as I complete more projects, if I am not in love with the project bag it will be filled with yarn and given to other knitters at our monthly Old Pueblo Knitting Guild meetings.  If you live or visit Southern Arizona, this would be a great reason to join.  

Getting Scrapy

 I am currently working on another Stash Dive Scarf by Summer Lee Designs. It is not exactly as written.  I have gathered all my small skeins of sock yarn and cotton yarn.  As you can see by the second picture there are a lot of the smaller skeins.  The first picture the very colorful scarf so far. I am trying to do my best to make a fun and colorful scarf.  This scarf is going to be between 5 and 6 feet long so it is definitely going to a 7th or 8th grader. With all my recent destashing I now have room in my closet to store it until next fall.  

I also think that I over did it a little on my errands.  I was only out for 1 1/2 hours.  I did 4 errands today.  On the 3rd errand I found kids fall socks on sale for 70% off. This was my *Ganga of the day.  So I went back and grabbed a shopping cart and pick out a whole bunch of socks for the clothing bank I support. Yes, I filled up half a huge bag.  My hope is that the kids who get them, like them.  I then came home and slept for 2 hours.  I still managed to get 1 out of 2 loads of laundry folded, but not all at once. I also managed to mis match the colors on 2 pairs of socks, oh well. No harm no foul.  I still have to put the clothes hanging in the garage away too.  

*Ganga is Tucson speak for a great deal.  

Faster

I had a very bad night last night   My joints were stiff and my normally soft bed felt like I was lying on cement. I am not sure why my body perceives the bed as being hard when I am sore.  I am sure if I Google it the will be a perfectly acceptable answer. I just don’t want to know know.  I doubt it will make any difference.   Just like I don’t want to know why some flare ups last a week and other are a few months long. 

 Today I managed to shave 3 minutes off my walking time around the block. A 19 minute mile.  I don’t expect progress like this everyday. I really wanted to take a nap but walked instead. Then I came home and took a nap.  I also got 32 minutes on the elliptical after dinner.  I have not gained any weight since November but I feel more puffy.  I need to work on that.  

I also managed to make a small dent in the current skein of yarn on the baby blanket. I think because it has a little more weight to it, it is not curling up.  The knitting is going faster.  

My Ramblings

 I finally felt well enough to get some work done around the house today.  I did 3 loads of hand wash and 1 regular load.  I also caught up on a little bit of folding.  I found an hour to block the new pattern.  Found an hour to work on a present.  Spent a couple of hours sleeping after a walk. It felt good. I have not walked this far in a while. It still leaves me a bit winded.  Maybe we will have an answer soon. Placed an on line order and got most of it put away   

I did not catch up on paper work including typing the new pattern.  Well there is always tomorrow.  But for now I will call it a day. 

My New Golding Drop Spindle

 Today I did manage to get to 2 different grocery stores, the post office, fill up my car before and put the groceries away  before my breakfast caffeine wore off.  I garage door broke when I came home.  Last time this happened there were spider webs in the tracks. So I vacuumed the tracks to try again. Still no luck.  The service man comes on Wednesday.  

After starting the laundry I decided to close my eyes for 5 minutes, you all know where this is going. So 2 hours later I woke up freezing.  I started the tea maker. Hung up some wet laundry and put a little bit in the dryer.  Started the next loads. Had my hot tea and apple, that did the trick.  It’s weird that sometimes I don’t feel hun, but get really cold when I need to eat.  

I did a little bit of knitting. I really wanted to try out my newly refurbished Golding Drop Spindle. Tom Golding did a fantastic job at a reasonable price.  The turn around was much quicker than I thought it would be.  I just happened to have some silk on the table that I had been meaning to put away. So I started spinning the silk instead of putting it away.  The spin was awesome.  As you can see by the picture below that I was able to spin a very fine thread.  I can always spin silk finer on a drop spindle.  I think that I will spin some more to go with some sock yarn and make a shawl.  

I was too tired to list and of my spindle herd on Ravelry. 

A Low Energy Day

 Today I had more plans than energy.  So after an early morning run to get groceries, putting together dinner and putting the rest of the food away it was nap time.  I was really to tired to even eat lunch before my nap.  So the rest of the day I did small chores in little sprints.

On the good news side, I finished the first 3 sections of my new pattern.  Now that I don’t have to do the math for every row, it should go much faster.  Yes it’s one of those geometric patterns that I like to walk, talk and knit at the same time it’s easier that way.  

Just Another Summer Day At Home.

 My hand is a little better, but still wonky. I did manage to knit a little on U.S. size 11 knitting needles.  There is a scarf that I am knitting out of hand spun for a holiday present.  The rest of the day was taken up by chores, napping, carding batts, finishing a book and starting another book. We did get to talk to our darling daughter and she and her husband are doing well. Work is keeping them busy. 

It was a record breaking month for the monsoon rains in Tucson for July.  At least it has not rained for a few days.  The roof seems to be drying out a little.  John is busy interviewing roofers.  

The COVID19 rate is up in the county.  So for the most part even though I am vaccinated I will wear a mask in public.  Because the virus is more active in the afternoon, I need to finish my errands by noon.   I think I am going back to parking lot pick up for most groceries.  I am trying to make the best of things and may finish deep cleaning the house.  I moved another tub of yarn off the stacks in the garage and onto the shelf’s.  Progress by inches.  

One Blanket Down

 I finally finished knitting one blanket. It will get washed and blocked tomorrow.  I am a third of the way through the next blanket in the basket. I have 2 inches to finish knitting on the first strip. Then I will start the next strip. This is the first of two blankets with 3 different size 8 inch blocks.  Yes, I have another one of those too. We as knitters either have to standardize what an 8 inch block actually is or all use the same rulers. My take on an 8 inch block is 8 inches wide by 8 inches in length. On the next 2 blankets I have six different sized  8 inch blocks.  So I will be knitting a lot of strips. Sewing them together.  Then adding Crocheted boarders.  

I also started spring cleaning today.  I started in the kitchen.  I cleaned for 1 1/2 hours and napped for 3 hours.  I am sincerely hoping that this is still the surgery recovery process. If it’s not I might have to admit that I am not 30 anymore.  

I need to get a good nights sleep.  Tomorrow we will be hunting down tree killing mistletoe and removing it.  Since we have a dumpster bag we will also get some junk out of the garage. The word of the day tomorrow is Zenning.  

An Extraordinary Day

 Today was an ordinary yet extraordinary day. It might not seem much to most people, to me it is a huge step. My body has been going through a lot of changes since the last retooling. Today was the first day in decades that I didn’t need any aspirin or Tylenol. For that I am extremely grateful. 

I did get some knitting done. We started cleaning out the fridge, tomorrow the new one is coming.  Not a moment too soon in my humble opinion.  The last repair is already starting to fail.  I know this because our frost free fridge is starting to frost up again.  We are getting the same fridge but a five year newer model.  

I had a very tired day so napping took priority over laundry. Tomorrow will be better   

I am exhausted so it is time to call it a night.  

Sheri’s Big Adventure

I had a wonderful adventure today  First I headed to the Post Office to drop a letter off  Then I headed south on Oracle to the Flowing Well School District to drop off things for the clothing bank.

 I landed up weaving 5 scarfs for the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank District.  Since I did not see a chance in he double toothpicks of selling the inventory of scarf’s I had selling at the art gallery (they were returned do to lack of business), I took those and added them to the donation.  Plus a few pairs of socks.  A few more presents or warm clothing for the kids. That is my holiday present to myself. 

After the clothing bank drop off I went to see the construction on the I-10.  Not much work going on.  I think I wanted to just drive my car on the freeway.  My car has almost 1,700 miles on it.  Yes, it sucked to replace my car right before COVID19.  It was a necessary step as I did not need a car that was wheelchair accessible. Don’t get me wrong the van was perfect when I needed it.  So yes it was time to replace it.  John and I were thinking other than not living in California, someone might confuse me with the little old lady from Pasadena with as much as I drive lately.  

Then there was the grocery delivery. That usually is the highlight of our week.  That was so much activity that a 2 hour nap was necessary. After all that I was too tired to do much even spinning.

Still Sick

I am still battling the head cold when the  arthritis decided to make things interesting by flaring up late last night.  So I walked 3/4’s of a mile while waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  In between naps today I cleaned out most of the pantry and dumped the expired food. I did not do much cooking in Eric’s last months.  It seems that food expiration dates are getting shorter. Either that or we did way too much take out during that time frame.

I spent a lot of the day napping and did not make my step goal again. Sigh. I did more sleeping than knitting too.  I hope I sleep well tonight and feel better tomorrow.

A Score

John and I went to Bookman’s today. We traded some of my Zenning  to replace 3 coffee cups that were stolen a while back. This was a hard to find item because they were from my first set of dishes I ever bought way back in the late 1970’s and were removed from the Cornelle line in the mid 1990’s.  I had given up ever replacing them.

We also scored 5 pairs of socks for the clothing bank.  Before bed tonight I refilled the Bookman’s bag.  Truth be told I only zenned for 5 minutes today. I am totally exhausted. My arthritis has kicked in with vengeance like I have not seen in a while. So a 2 1/2 hour nap instead of knitting was needed. I am also going to turn in early tonight. Tomorrow is going to be better.

Bits and Pieces

I came up short on steps by 2020 steps. I think I will let it go today. My nap was more important than walking.

I started my sister-in-laws shawl. I finished the warping and got the first 5 inches woven.  The picture is earlier in the weave before the color change.  I am using the 24”wide loom which is harder to weave on than the 15 inch wide loom.

Yucky Flare Up

Nothing but 5 loads of laundry and 2 hours of deep cleaning got done today.  I have almost another foot of knitting books for Bookman’s and a pile of craft magazines for my knitting friends.  My hands were to sore and tired to knit.  I did spend a lot of time napping. This flare up has knocked me out.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Sharing

Eric shared his cold with me. Do I spent the day napping and knitting.  I did not have the patience to weave in the ends so technically no hats were finished today.  I was too tired to do anything else today.

Tagged

I finally got the bag of hand knit items tagged today. It just took taking the tags, a pen and the knitted objects out of the house. So tomorrow I will divide the items for my two charity projects, the Flowing Wells Clothing Bank and the annual fall sale for the Taglit program. Before I take the hats and scarfs in To the clothing bank I promise to take a picture. As of today I have about 6 dozen hats and 1 dozen scarfs. My friend Eva knit a whole tote bag of sweaters for the kids too. Eva is just so talented. I will take and post pictures of her hand knit sweaters too.

My body is doing better than yesterday after the dentist, although I still did take a 1 1/2 hour nap before I picked up Eric. I also managed to get to the grocery store and finish 2 hats. The hat I started after dinner is only 60% done, it's not getting finished tonight. I think a good nights sleep is in order instead.

It's Been Awhile

I have been busy deep cleaning and taking care of the guys. We have also had a nice visit from Teri and Tej. Eric had also received a very bad batch of vitamin D,  that was contaminated with bacteria. So tomorrow we will start another round of antibiotics to make sure it has cleared his system. Did I mention that the contaminated vitamin D has already caused one round on pneumonia.

So what did I do when both guys cleared the house today? Since I have a fundraiser coming up in October, all bets would be on , making some jewelry. Maybe tagging and pricing some finished pieces. Maybe even warping a loom or putting together the new loom. If you choose any of the above you would have been wrong. I was too tired to do any of it. Instead I took a 3 1/2 hour nap. It in no way makes up for all the lost sleep over the past month but I do feel better.

My Body Won Today.

I have been super busy around here and putting in very long work days. Today my body said it had had enough and instituted mandatory naps three times today. I even slept through a round of Eric thumping a few feet away and I did not hear a thing. I do have to admit that after a lot of rest I do feel better. That being said my to do list for today might take me a few days longer to complete.

Even though I only put in about 30 minutes of deep cleaning, de-cluttering and de-stashing I was able to fill a box and a half of things to be re-homed. I have completely de-cluttered the top of the fabric storage cabinet. So even though the sewing room did not get finished today,  visible progress has been made.

I have also made progress on my first ever sweater. I started it about 10 years ago. Lost a bunch of weight and sizes so it did not fit when I pulled it out 6 months ago to finish, so I tinked it. I re-started it yesterday 2 sizes smaller and have made slow but steady progress. Pictures to come later.

Deep Cleaning

My deep cleaning by the numbers today:

1 car load to taken Goodwill, thanks to John.

2 boxes ready to be re-homed tommrow. 1 box is full of art supplies. 1 box is full of carrier and gift bags and cfl light bulbs.

3 trips to the recycle bin. My recycle bin is now half full and it will not be collected until next Monday.

Countless projects were put together to be finished soon. I need to finish the deep cleaning of the craft room and its closet. I did manage to get about 3 cubic feet of closet back.

I also managed to get 2 loads of laundry finished. I also found time for a long nap.