More Deep Cleaning

Today I spent the day deep cleaning again. Eric's closet made the to do list today and all the clothes that were too small we added to the Goodwill pile. Books and magazines also made it to the top of the to do list. I filled up the center of the van again. Most was only one layer, but there were some areas where it was 2 layers deep. John was kind enough to make a trip to Goodwill for me. I am needless to say exhausted. I really don't recommend this type of cleaning with a headache though, it will not make it any better.

The next thing on my agenda will be finding uses for all the regained space. This should be the easy part.

Failed

Clothes shopping was a failure yesterday. If the top fit, it was see through. If the tops was not right and the fit or look was awkward it was not see through. Come on clothing manufactures most women I know hate see through clothes. If we wanted that much transparency in our wardrobes we would walk around in a bikini year round. Get it right.

Cleaning

Teri and I finished organizing the fiber by breed. Teri found out that there are a lot of different breeds of sheep. I think everyone learned more about sheep and breeds at dinner than they wanted to.  The fiber is now neatly stored. The only mistake that I made was not labeling the big bags. Oh, well that can happen at a later date. We also went on a deep cleaning spree. The end of the hallway is knee deep in charity for Goodwill. I think it will take me a couple of hours to make a list of everything. I think we are going to try to fill the van.

We also found time to go see the new Star Wars Movie, The Last Jedi.  No spoilers here, just go see it on the big screen. 

Intervention

My family is trying a Lola of Lion Brand Yarn intervention of my fiber stash. So I am going through every bag of fluff to see what I really don’t want to spin. Basicly it amounts to anything with bamboo blended in and some of the fiber that I bought as a novice that I don’t want to spin any more.

So I am taking the time to organize it by fiber. I have more alpaca fiber than I thought I had. I also have a bunch of small amounts of diffrent breeds of sheep to see how they spin. I found some unprocessed fiber that I thought that I would have time to wash and prepare. Now I think that I will send it off to a fiber mill that will do a small batch. The short fibers went into the dog pillow box, I have no time to mess with short fibers.

Some was bought when I thought that I. Ould help pay for Teri’s grad school. I needed to spend a lot more time at art and fiber shows than I had being a full time care giver for Eric. I will still spin it up and see if my Local Yarn Shop will take it on consignment. If not, I expext to give hand spun yarn to friends who knit and chrochet for future gift.

So all in all I rally don’t think I have a fiber problem. Rather, I have a distrubition problem.

Family Time

The whole family is under one roof. I am having a great time. I may be to busy to post for a week or so. So please take the time to enjoy your families too.

Shawl's

I seem to make fewer shawls for myself than some of my friends. I was thinking about this today as I reorganized my shawls and scarfs. I have the first shawl I knit for myself about 17 years ago, I still use it a lot. I bought some high quality mohair yarn from Kathy Withers of Withers Wool she also has an etsy shop at this link . Kathy used to be local and I loved going to her farm when it was in Tucson. I was like a candy store for me. Kathy has moved to the east coast and still offers classes.

All my shawls seem to be made from high quality yarn straight from the farm or my local yarn shop. There seems to be a direct correlation of the quality of yarn with how long the hand knit or hand woven item lasts. So even though it is more expensive it is worth spending the extra money for high quality yarn. After all how often can you say my hand knit item is 17 years old when you use cheep, low quality yarn?

So if you are planning to make something for yourself or a family member Please remember to buy your yarn directly from the farm or you local yarn store. They have a vested interest in the outcome of your project. These are also small businesses that deserve your business.

*These are my own opinions and I have not received any compensation from anyone or any business.

More Deep Cleaning

Believe it or not I spent 5 hours cleaning this morning. I have to say that this was fueled by 3 cups of tea and trying to get one last good load off to Goodwill this year. I also have to give credit to my new arthritis medicine. Not to say that I was not sore by lunch time, but I had to work very hard to get sore.

Eric's aide Nikki wanted to learn how to make my style of bed quilt for her boys, so we collaborated on a second big quilt for Eric today.  We are telling Eric that this is his holiday gift from Nikki. I must say that I am really liking the cotton batting. It is easy on my hands and sews up like a dream.

I also think that I have way too many projects in progress. Although now that I am feeling better they are getting finished at a faster pace. I also found my watch at the bottom of you guessed it a knitting bag. It is time to see if I can finish one more project tonight and give John the computer chair so he can change colors on the printer.

Triple Chocolate Haystacks

I had enough energy to make my triple chocolate haystacks for tomorrow's party. The chocolate mixture came out very smooth. John was nice enough to clean up the double boiler. I was surprised that John knew what a hot water bath was. It must be because he likes to watch Chef  Gordon Ramsay on the Food Network. I also made fresh bread for dinner.

Now if we could just get Eric to sleep through the night.

Blankets and Watches

It is no secret that the kids are getting blankets this year. So Eric’s twin size quilt is almost done. Teri’ queen size blanket is hand knit on U.S. size seven knitting needles in a modular pattern. I have about 2 1/2 rows of modular knitting plus the I-cord boarder. I am really stumped on what to make Tej. I am also wondering since Teri’s blanket is so big if they could share the blanket. So many things to think about while I am waiting for Eric to fall asleep.

I am sad that my new watch died after less than a week. I have to return it and pick out another watch. I would not have to do this if my 10 year old watch did not sprout legs and walk away. So much bother.

Early December

Eric is just getting over the cold that he has had since last Thursday. John and I are very tired and trying to get too many things done at once. Can someone invent a 48 hour day for me please?

Holiday presents are going slower than I would like. I wanted to be done with a few more than none by this point. It did not help that my body needed rest today. Hopefully I will make progress tomorrow.

Deep cleaning has kicked up to high gear again. It's not like I have the time, but with itemized deductions disappearing next year it has to be done by December 31st. We filled the recycle bin to the point that it needed to be stuffed down yesterday. So that is some slow progress.  All the quilting batts have left the house and freed up some much needed room. Fifty percent of that is filled already. I also need to clean up a desk to turn it into an electronic work station for John. You did not think that I was going to play with the electronics did you? The electronic equipment has started to arrive. So I guess that I am way behind on that too.. I wonder how many drawers will need to be emptied?

Well tomorrow is almost here so it is time to call it a day.

Cyber Monday

Dear Marketing Executive,

I had really planned on shopping this Cyber Monday. I had a list of things I was going to buy. The perks for the most part were very nice. The prices were reasonable. Not having to brave the crowded malls or stores was a plus.

Here is were my plans to shop went by the wayside.  It was simply an overload of emails sent to my in box. Some of you got the jump on Friday reminding me of your sales on Monday. Then there were two to three emails from the same companies on Saturday and Sunday. Today though takes the cake. Some of you sent me emails hourly starting at midnight. This came across in two ways. First, is that you were desperate for sales and this left me wondering if: A. You had enough stock on hand. B. Could your shipping department handle what you wanted to sell. C. Could your servers handle the mess you were creating. D. Are you filing bankruptcy on Tuesday morning and not planning on sending anything out? Second it came across as annoying, Do you know how many emails I got today? I have no idea either because as soon as I deleted one email from you another popped up. My tablet inbox was full all day, it holds just about 200 emails and they were ALL from today. There were too many to open let alone read.  I spent the time I would have been shopping at your site deleting emails from you and your fellow marketing executive's so I could see if something I needed to respond to came through. 

If you were using snail mail you would have sent me only one or two adverts period. Maybe that would be an idea for next year. Remember sometimes "Less is more", less emails gives me more time to read the emails and shop.

A Blanket and Zenning

Today I started a new blanket for Eric. All I have left to do is pin and quilt it tomorrow. It was nice to get a blanket started this year. I used two twin sheets to make the blanket. It really feels good to have enough energy to get projects completed. Finished projects equal less clutter. 

I have decided to switch from polyester batting, the only batting that was available when I started quilting so last century to cotton batting. The polyester batting is a little rough on my hands and I can not pin or use the sewing machine with gloves on. I have ordered the two cotton batts that I need to finish two more blankets this year. The remaining polyester batting will be give to friends. This has freed a lot of space for yarn storage. This will let me get a bit more organized.  

Thanksgiving Dinner

After more than a few years, I actually have Thanksgiving Dinner for 2 down pat. The secret is to make fewer side dishes. Today I made 1/2 of a turkey breast, stuffing, cranberry sauce and green beans. We skipped the candied sweet potatoes , rolls and the second vegetable. We used luncheon plates instead of dinner plates and dinner was perfect. We were comfortable after dinner and not in a food coma. I think that this is my new game plan.

Did I mention that I was the one to spill cranberry sauce on the pale green damask table cloth. I sprayed it with Tide stain remover to pre treat and washed it as soon as the table was cleared. I would like to say thank you to the people at Procter and Gamble for making Tide. The cranberry sauce stain came out in the wash. The paper napkin that I forgot to take off the tablecloth did not fare as well.

I have got to make a list of fiber and art projects that need to be finished before the end of the year. It occurred to me today that the holidays are really here. I have enough projects to keep me busy until mid December. So if I am not on Facebook or Twitter I will be sewing, knitting, quilting and making jewelry for presents. I think I might just try to wrap things as I go. At least my sewing machine just had a tune up.

Well it's time to get back to some knitting. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

About 70%

I am starting to feel a little better today. I am not as tired or sore as I have been. I managed to get through 80% of my very, very short to do list today. This might be a good thing. I have a half sheet cake for Eric's day program in my fridge right now, not to mention the fruit and vegetable platters. It use to be so much easier to throw an impromptu party so last century. I did not have to worry about covering every one's food preferences or special diets. In fact I have 1/6 of my fridge is  filled with food for this party for Eric, his friends and the programs advocates, that Eric can not eat. This just seems a little weird to me. I am doing this for Eric, because Eric likes a good party even though he can't eat the food. He just likes being with his friends and partying. Although for a good party you must have food.  So I am bringing the food.

Now that I went totally off track the remaining 20% of my to do list was shopping for Thanksgiving dinner.  I will have room in the fridge once the cake has made it's way to the party. That will get done tomorrow, the day before Thanksgiving. The day I really hate to be in the grocery store. Such has been my life this year.

My energy ran out around 5 pm. I was even too tired to knit tonight. So I just sat back and relaxed. I also found a little energy for round 2 of Eric's birthday week. He loved the dinosaur sheet set that Teri and Tej bought for him. I need to wash them so that they can go on his bed this weekend. I also managed to find 2 DVDs that Eric does not have, plus they are birthday themed, Eric just loves them. Now if I could just get Eric to go to sleep.

Knitting

I had a very good day in my personal knitting. I knit 8 more rows of my sweater. The rows are long enough that this took 1 1/2 hours to do. This was also less than an inch of knitting. Then I finished one hat, then started and got halfway through another hat. This I am very happy about.

The part that I am not so happy about was a talk from a local yarn shop owner, whom shall remain nameless. What I took away from her talk other than she did not know the subject matter as well as she should have. Was a lack of understanding of what it takes to design, knit, and write up a pattern, get test knitters and find a model. For me this takes a minimum of 2 weeks, but most of the time 4 weeks of all my "FREE TIME" and then some.  For her to stand in front of a room full of knitters and say that unless you were a major player your patterns should be free is beyond believable.  Does this mean that she is going to give the yarn in her store away free?  I personally don't think that she will, so why should my friends and I give our work away for free? If she asked most of us I am sure that we could cut her a deal like the book publishers. Hey, wait we already do that.  Also for goodness sake if you are giving a presentation with pictures in a lecture hall please don't hold up your laptop to a room full of people and expect the people in back to be able to see. Be professional and ask for a projector.

Please note that these are my impressions of the talk. Also if you are a regular reader you know that the majority of my knitting goes to the fall fundraiser at Eric's day program at the Tucson JCC and the Flowing Wells District Clothing Bank. So I do get offended when a for profit business asks knitwear designers to give away our work for free so that they can sell yarn. I know that we all will design an easy pattern for a favorite shop to help sell a certain yarn, but that is a shop where we are allowed to come in and create or just sit around a table and knit with friends.

My rant is over. Goodnight and sweet dreams.

A Lucky Day

Today we got the letter from our insurance company saying that Eric’s formula will be covered for another year. This is the first year in a long time that we did not have to spend months fighting this. We are not sure how this happened, but we would like the trend to continue.

Gloves

Today I went shopping for gloves. It was a total washout. The cashmere gloves at one store were 90% acyclic. The super wool gloves were 50% acyclic. The rest were plain ugly or solid acyclic. I guess I will be finding time to pick a pattern and knit some gloves for myself.

The take away from this is to check my gloves for holes in August when they first hit the stores in Tucson. Not like this week when I found holes in the 2 pairs of cashmere gloves that I bought five or six years ago.

Crazy Busy

I have been crazy busy for the last few days. I had a full day on Thursday. With an appointment to start the day. Followed by rushing to arrive on time to teach a drop spindle class, the student set the time and did not show. To top that off I dropped my coriander drop spindle from too high and the wrong angle, needless to say it is now in 3 pieces. John will try to fix it for me, we just have to find out what adhesive to use. Wish us luck on that one. 

When I got home I went to say hi to Eric and his teeth were chattering and he had that look about him. I was praying that he was not overly tired or getting sick. Shortly after we finished dinner the wild eyrping started. I was a long night. I only stopped doing laundry when I ran out of baskets for the clean clothes. Somewhere around the house I know that I will find those baskets. I finished 4 more loads of laundry today. Just don't tell Eric that I am almost caught up. 

Eric woke up smiling so we started him on Peidlyte and he is now back on formula. Now instead of sleeping he wants to play. I decided to tink a project that I was 25% done with, but not happy with. I was a little too tired to knit today, although I did have big plans to work on a blanket and a sweater. I had also wanted to warp a loom, I was also too tired for that. So now that Eric is quiet, I will head to bed. 

Finally

I finally felt well enough to make dinner tonight. A wonderful chicken pecan salad and fresh ginger bread. John brought home fresh frech bread. I would have added a picture but apperently blogo has not updated to IOS 11 and everything is not functioal in the app.

Eric thought it was funny that I said we were going to Trader Joes just for dinner things. Well I guess he was right, I got a few extra things. Although I did stop at 1 basket of groceries.

An Afternoon Out

John and I had an afternoon off. We went and saw the play Rent. I was not overly impressed with this play. Maybe it would have had a greater impact 20 years ago, but it seemed a bit old and tired today. The cast could also work on enunciation so we could understand all that they were saying. Maybe if the audience would have been a bit more polite and not clapped before songs started and continuing at least a verse in the song or the cast members waited until the clapping was done so that first timers could enjoy the music too. Also if you are going to sing with the cast at full voice, please, please, please not be in the key of off. Also as a parent I was dismayed at the lack of judgment of some parents. I personally did not think that this play was suitable for the under 12 year old crowd, no matter how cute the outfits the kids were wearing.

Afterward we went out to dinner and enjoyed patio dining. I just love our 2 weeks of fall weather. I am also 6 inches into the scrappy hat ( this is to read all the blue and green small balls of yarn in my knitting bag) that I started this morning. I will try to finish it tomorrow.

Halloween

Halloween has to be my favorite night of the year. I love seeing all the kids in costumes. We have also had a record number of trick or treater's even though it was a school night. 

 I did something different this year and placed the non food items and the candy in the same dish. I think this worked better because the kids did not have to ask for the other bowl. They were not made to feel different.  I went through 2 packages of pencils, which surprised us. I went through about a gallon of small toys too. I also used a basket with handles and that seemed to work better than the big yellow Tupperware bowl. 

All in all it was a great night.

Haircuts

We have decided that we will no longer give Eric advance warning for haircuts. He does any number of the following things and more to avoid haircuts. Stays up all night so we will be too tired to go.  Makes mountains of laundry that make the laundry room hard to ignore. Yes, when the laundry room hits knee deep, I will stop to do laundry. Yes Eric has been known to fill the laundry room knee high by himself over night, as he did last night.  Also by looking or acting sick until it is too late to head out for a haircut. That is the bad thing when he knows his schedule so well.

So besides laundry today, I zenned another drawer in my dresser. This leaves 1 empty dresser drawer.  Decided that yarn for a fussy blanket would go into hats instead.  We definitely do not need another fussy blanket around here. The yarn still needs to be wound into cakes. Worked on a knitting UFO. Organized my shirts by type, I am thinking that cardigan sets will be a separate group. Last but not least found more than a few hours to relax and nap.

Instead of heading to Goodwill as planned for today, John and I kept adding things to go to our ever growing pile of donations. I hope to have that out of the house this week.

Lost

I seem to have developed a bad habit of losing things that go on my left wrist. 6 weeks ago it was my watch, I have still not found it. Today It was my favorite 17 inch leather ruler that double wrapped around my wrist from i Love Handles. It was so nice to always have a ruler close by. That never got lost until today. I hope that I can find a replacement very soon. My poor left wrist feels naked.

Maybe if I just spend more time slowing down and centering myself.  I would not be losing things right and left. No pun intended. Now back to Eric. 

Busy

After a very successful fundraiser for Eric’s day program I am still trying to get Eric to go to sleep before tommrow. I was at the JCC from 7 am to 4 pm. It’s been a long day. 11:30 pm is to late for such a long day, but John was on Eric duty last night so it is my turn. Wish me luck. I may go for the caffine if it is a very long night.

Feeling Under Siege

After being awake since Sunday morning, Eric is finally asleep. This has been a rough cold on all of us. My first hope now is that he does not get a secondary infection from this cold. I also hope that John and I did not catch this cold. As usual it takes Eric about 1 day to recover for every day that he has been sick. So I think that I will keep him home for the rest of the week. I have help for the next two days so that I can play catch up.

Believe it or not laundry is one of those things. Eric managed to hit all of my PJ's So my clothes are on the list to wash. Yes I managed to wash Eric's clothes, towels and sheets so far this week, these clothes are less fussy then my clothes as they can be left in the dryer once they are finished. Almost all of John's and mine need to be hung wet to dry.

On the knitting front I went a little wacky and started knitting a scarf for the fundraiser with a combination of art yarn and sock yarn. Since both yarns have been discontinued it will be a one of a kind scarf. I will show pictures when it is finished. Now I just have to motivate myself that it is really time to weave in the ends of the hat and scarf that I managed to finish even with Eric sick.

2,444

This is what 2,444 rows looks like. There are 3 hats, 7 scarfs, 2 shawls, 2 cowls and 5 kitchen things. These will all be at the Taglit fundraiser.

The other score for the day Arthritis 1 Sheri 0. John an A+ for a great dinner. Last but not least I think Eric is doing better..

Eric is Sick Again

The cold symptoms started last night. Eric has the Cold Du Jour.  Eric is miserable The three of us are not very happy with this cold. We know that is just a matter of time before John and I get sick. We are not fully back to our version of normal from this summer.  What we don't understand is why people continue to go about their daily activities  when they are sick, knowing that they are spreading the cold. 

John and I continue to prepare for the Taglit Fall Fundraiser in between taking care of Eric. I managed to assemble 10 pairs of earrings today. John has the 3-D printer running at a good clip. He is making some really cool things. We are both very happy that other artists have agreed to let us use their designs for the fundraiser. It is not a hard sell when we tell them that 100% of the sale price will go to Eric's Adult Day Program. We are both very grateful for the community support for this fundraiser year after year. 

I am really hoping that Eric has a good night tonight but I am not very hopeful at this point. I hope that Eric makes less laundry tonight then last night.  Eric managed to fill the washing machine to capacity today. Wish us luck and if you don't see us for a few days you will know the reason why. 

Yarn Creep

Today I spent part of the day cleaning up the yarn creep in the living room.  I know yarn creep what's that all about. I used about 90 skeins of yarn knitting hats and scarf's this summer. I should not have one basket and two totes full of yarn left to knit hats with. This is the yarn that does not fit in the hat yarn roll away.  The only solution I can come up with is to knit more hats and scarfs. Did I mention I found a tote bag 3/4 full with yarn for hats too. No, it was not in the living room. I think that I will sort it out after the fundraiser for Taglit on October 26th.

I have been doing a lot of knitting besides hats too. So tonight I think that it is time to find non-hat projects to fill my UFO basket. I am getting a lot of projects that have been put on the back burner for whatever reason finished. A huge thank you to Vicky Konecky at Grandma's Spinning Wheel, here in Tucson for the push. I am sure that John appreciates it as much as I do.

I have been so busy finishing things that I have not posted pictures in a while. I only say this because I have a full tote bag of finished objects that was under a corner table. I just did not notice how full the bag was getting. I should check that out more often. So I will take pictures tomorrow.

The New Curtains Failed

The new curtains were much to sheer to make them useful. They are now in the Goodwill box. I washed the old curtains with the intent of sending them to Goodwill. So I did not follow the line dry directions and they shrunk 4 inches in length when they were put through the dryer, when I only needed them to shrink 2 inches. The old curtains are back up dispite being 2 inches too short. Guess what John and I will be doing when we can find time to go shopping?

I did not finish my chores today do to waking up with a migraine this morning. It was dark sunglasses for most of the day. I am on the tired side so it is time to call it a day.

No Presser Foot 18

The day started out very slowly due to a headache. I trudged through the laundry and finished all 4 loads today. After dinner things started clicking. I hemmed and hung the new bed room curtains. Reapired the lace work on a jacket. Then I went to the next repair job and came to a sudden stop. I do not have the number 18 presser foot for my sewing machine. Thank goodness for Amazon, the repair will be made later this week when the presser foot will arrive.

I am hoping that tomorrow will be better.

Things Always Catch Up

Things always catch up with me. Take sleep for instance. This summer when the guys were not feeling well I often had to get by on 4 to 6 hours of sleep a night. Now that the guys are feeling better and I am not running on adrenaline my body seems to want to sleep 14 to 16 hours a day. No matter how hard I try to get things done sleep is winning. I am sure that John can come up with some Scientific principle to cover this phenomenon. I had paperwork to do after my errand today. The paperwork is still there.

Me I just want to have the energy to play with fiber and beads after I get my chores done. I want to have the energy to warp the looms to weave. To sit and spin, especially since John has made me some new drop spindles. Instead I am taking daily naps and I am tired the rest of the day.

Scarfs and hats

Every year I get asked the same question. What does ?, the number of hats I knit over the summer look like. Well this is what 6 dozen + 7 hats (79) and 14 scarfs look like. This is a 2 seat couch. The volume fills 2 very large carrier bags. In addition to what I knit this summer my friend Eva knit 6 sweaters and Rita crocheted 1 hat, so I will have 3 large carrier bags to bring to the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank this week. It is packed and ready to go..my work is the top photo with Eva and Rita sharing the bottom photo. Sorry for the sideways photos, the lighting was better that way.

By the way I still have 2 hats on my knitting needles right now, 1 is plant fiber and the other is animal fiber, but no bunny.

Bunny 1 Sheri 0

The bunny won today. Eric's day program has a bunny. I am allergic to the bunny. After 10 minutes in the room with the bunny and my day was shot. So that is how the bunny won the day. In other words nothing got done. I am so far behind right now.

Sleep

This weekend was spent catching up on sleep. With at least 12 hours of sleep on both Saturday and Sunday.  I can say that my body feels a little better. The house looks a little worse. I am behind on laundry and changing out linens, there is always tomorrow for that.

Eric had a very late night asthma episode, so I am trying to relax so I can get to sleep. I think it would help a lot if Eric decided that it was sleep time instead of play time. This always happens when his treatment happens after 10:30 pm. Timing is everything in life. 

John spent the weekend designing 2 new drop spindles for me. I know, who would have thought that he would ever design and 3-D print drop spindles for me. He is now enabling my fiber addiction. I will have two new spindles to play with. Tomorrow I need to find time to do an alpha test on the first model.  I wonder how thin I will be able to spin the yarn, the spindle is very light.  Since the spindle design is his, all I will be able to post is the finished yarn for now.

Thursday

Eric is feeling better and is back on formula. I am tired and out of sync. No knitting projects finished today. I am calling it an early night.

76

Hat number 76 since June 1st came off the knitting needles today. Hats number 77 & 78 were cast on and started. Eric has the cold du jour and it was a very long night and day. Not much was done besides laundry and taking care of Eric was accomplished today. My grand plans for a to do list went in to the blender.