Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Knitting Needles

The thought occurred to me tonight that I have a lot and I do mean a lot of different knitting needles in different shapes and sizes. Then why is it that I never have the size I need when I want it. Which of course leads to buying more knitting needles.

Am I just like all the knitters with a lot of UFOs. I see something that I just have to make and if I have the yarn in the house it is on the needles very quickly. Not that it will necessarily get finished very quickly. Hence the plethora of UFOs.

I have started carrying a big bag with a lot of my UFOs in it to knitting with the hopes that someday they will get finished before they: A: Go out of style. B: I have forgotten or lost the pattern. C: I run out of yarn and it is no longer available so I have to tink it.  I think I need to make a giant effort this year to finish UFOs including Teri's never ending blanket, hey I have gotten a few more squares done so far this week and any progress is good progress. Right?

So join me in the month of February in finishing as many UFOs as we can. Lets try to really see how many knitting needles we all have. Then just maybe we can get some more yarn. I know the yarn diet thing right, well in my case maybe I can get all the yarn into the house if I just knit enough.

Friday, January 27, 2012

My Idea of Heaven

Today was a simply awesome day filled with knitting, spinning ( on the wheel no less ), fun,exercise, friends and food. Who could really ask for anything more.

Today started off with knitting with friends. I am almost finished with the top down shawl in Blond Chicken's (aka Tara) hand spun yarn. Every one was working on awesome project ranging from doll clothes to cowls and even some sweaters and blankets. We even managed to get a new knitter started today, Carolyn supplied the know how while Liz provided the yarn and needles. That was a great job on stash busting Liz, very creative too.

Then it was off to lunch. Which was kinda of funny most of us could not remember what we ordered and the servers did not know what some of the dishes were. Well you just had to be there to enjoy the moment.

Then it was off to home and a bit of exercise with John. Followed by my best spinning on the wheel since my hand surgery. I had my pod cranked up and was singing in the key of off while I spun. This made me extremely happy, because I had vision's of having to find a new home for the wheel and I really like her.

After I got Eric off the bus we had some time together. Eric even managed to get John to watch Barney. I spent some time working on a commission. Then it was off to Cafe Ole for Talipia taco's for dinner. You know your are eating healthy in a Mexican restaurant when the wait staff says you did a good job of picking the healthy food off the menu. By the way if you have never had grilled Talipia taco's, you must try them with out the cheese and sauce for the best taste experience ever.

Before I forget, I have finished and started another square on Teri's blanket. Well its getting late and I want to try to get to the opening at 505 Miracle Mile tomorrow to see what they have done with Tucson's newest artist venue.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

A Day Off

Eric went to school today. So I got a day off. The only problem was that I was so tired I could hardly move or keep my eyes open. So I decided to put my eye drops in count to 500 and get moving. Well I don't think I made it to 500 , but I did manage to wake up before noon. I think my body plead exhaustion. Then made the nap time decision.

After a light lunch of figs and goat cheese. I poured a cup of Roobios tea and headed ot the door to the Withers Ranch. Kathy was kind enough to teach me how to use my carder. With a lot of Kathy's help we made a 1 ounce batt. I am going to miss my time with Kathy. She is such a bright and artistic woman. All I have to say is that you folks in Maryland are getting a treasure. So please learn from her and support her artistic endivers.

I still had time to run to the Pharmacy. And Trader Joes. I even had enough energy to make a red pot soup for dinner. This is the first cooked from scratch dinners since my hand surgery. The good news is that we have enough for at least another meal.

Well I think that it is time to call it a night.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Nap Time

Today was an official nap time at the house today. Eric and I got some much needed rest. I also got a surprising amount of cleaning done today. 4 bags of trash out and 1 bin of recycling went out the door. It does not seem possible to me the confirmed pack rat, but the more I throw the more I find to throw. Also it takes less time to find things and to clean.

I also found some time to work on 2 different blankets.

Well even though it's only 9:30pm. I am really tired and am calling it a night.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Never Ending Day

Since I have be up since 6:30A.m. yesterday morning. Yes Eric is sick yet again. I will blog when I am not so gosh darn tired.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Not the Blog I Planned

I am sitting in Eric's room writing this blog post on my pod. This is not the post I had planned on for tonight. I was going to write about the birthday cake and show a picture. I can't down load pictures from the computer to my pod with any scence of ease. So as I watch the Good Night Show with Nina and Star I will write this blog post.

Today was not the most productive day in the history of mankind, but I got enough done. I seem to be less productive when I am tired and spend long hours on the phone. I can say with certainty that half the bills were paid. The ones that require hand written checks will ne done tommrow. I arranged a fiber swap and got it packaged to go to the post office. 2 more squares were finished on Teri's never ending blanket. I also worked on the dreaded end of year paperwork.

As we were getting Eric ready for bed John and I decieded that he did not look well. Eric has done a lot of startling tonight, but his stats look good. I think I will decided in about an hour on how long I will stay up with him tonight. I wonder what effect a late night will have on my earlier migraine. On the bright side if it does come back I can have more aspirin.

Friday, January 20, 2012

This and That

My day started off very slowly, if it went any slower I would have had to crawl back into bed. There was a great upside of running so late today thought. I got to talk to Teri. She was driving in San Fransisco when her GPS died. So she called me in Tucson for directions. With the help of Google Maps we managed to get her directions to where she was going. Thank you so much to the great people at Google Maps. I hope she was able to find a place to charge her GPS for the way home.

I managed to get to knitting very late but I still got to do some catching up with everyone. I guess I did not say much about my hand to anyone before the surgery and everyone assumed incorrectly that Eric was sick. They were surprised when I told them that I had hand surgery. They were also surprised that I was knitting again.

My hand is recovering slower than I like. I am just impatient in that way. It still gets painful when I knit for more than a few rows. This will make tomorrow all the more interesting. I have a birthday cake to make for a party that we are going to. I think with help baking the cake and making the icing will be fairly easy. What I am worried about is the decorating part. I usually do it left handed. I know I can manage a decent frosting job with my right hand. But I don't have the very fine motor skills necessary in my right hand to an adequate job of controlling the pastry bag.

My plan of action will be to take some pain reliever about an hour before I start the decorating and not do any knitting or spinning until after the cake is decorated. I think this will be very hard for me.  The cake is for a man so I don't have to worry about doing any lace or lattice work on the cake which should make it easier. I am planning to do a reverse C shell boarder to hide any boo-boos. Other than Happy Birthday I don't have a plan for the cake design yet. I am making peanut butter frosting and I am not quite sure what color it will come out, so I am playing it by ear. I will take a picture of it when I am done.

Well I think it is time to call it a night.