Any week that starts with me going to Mayo then adding 4 activities from Wednesday through Friday will end with me in a couch potato mode. Don’t worry, it is highly recommended by one of my doctors. My feet are up as recommended.
For those of you keeping track of the race between myself and the snail. Today the snail went flying past me shortly before breakfast. At the rate I am going today the snail will win the day.
Is it time for the second nap of the day yet?
I have finally finished enough UFO’s to go stash diving for charity Scarfs for my favorite kids clothing bank. So I picked out some very colorful yarn from Bear and Bee Yarn Company in from Canada. I had bought 3 skeins intending to knit them right away before I got sick in 2023. I wanted something bright and cheerful to knit. I forgot just how soft and squishy the worsted weight super wash merino was.
I put the first skein on the squirrel cage to wind the first skein earlier today. I started knitting a new scarf tonight while talking to my daughter. I am 6 inches into the scarf am I am in love with the feel of the yarn. I am a very tactical person and this yarn just hit the “ it’s a joy to knit with” spot. Unfortunately for me this is the Zoom scarf so it stays by the computer to be worked on only when I am at the computer.
I do know one thing for certain. The child or teenager who gets this scarf is going to love wearing it as much as I am going to enjoy knitting it. Luckily for me I still have 2 more skeins to go. Luckily for you there are sales on roving, t shirts, yarn and stitch markers going on as of February 20, 2026. I do not know how long the sale will be going on. There is also a wide array of fresh from the dye pots yarn and t-shirts too. The new colors look lovely. If you have the ability to help out our friends from Canada please buy a skein or more. Share this post with your friends. I know the expletive deleted from Washington D.C. have not been kind to our gentle neighbors to the north. Below is a before the scarf is knit photo. Just yarn in the skein’s.
After months of planning down to the littlest possible detail, I can say that the Old Pueblo Knitting Guilds annual luncheon and fashion show went off without a hitch. We even exceeded last year’s luncheon of total people in attendance. The last time that happened was the last fashion show that I planned over a decade ago. I am extremely happy and tired. I will ask that the basic plan for people be added to the guild’s documentation page so that the wheel does not have to be reinvented ever again. I came home and took a nap.
I my humble opinion, the trick to handling a successful event is to break the event down to the smallest possible detail. So most people will not have more than 30 minutes of work before they can go and join their friends. Then when planning for the event figure out how many people you will need to cover all the jobs. Put one person in charge of each task and add 10% or 1 extra person for each task, which ever is greater. That way when people drop out for family or health reasons you will have most jobs covered and have to find fewer last minute replacements.
Also today I had to actually pull yarn from my shelf to start a new scarf. What that means is that I have finished a lot of projects. Now all I have to do is keep knitting until it’s time for charity work drop off in November or December. Unless the pile to go over to the clothing bank fills the allocated space. Then it heads out of the door earlier. I personally don’t think that I will get a 20 gallon bag filled that fast this year.
I wanted to make a scarf out of this yarn. I tried 2 different patterns. They were just not looking good. The yarn wanted to be a shawl for summer. I guess it’s a shawl for summer. The shawl even at this early stage looks a lot better than either scarf. Also if the iPad wants to take the photo sideways, who am I to argue with new technology when I specialize in very old technology. We are talking about ice age technology in some cases.
This afternoon I hit the magical 4th skein of yarn in the 4 color fade shawl. I did not even notice when I went over the Russian join. Which was very surprising to me. We were returning from a day trip to Scottsdale. Of course John was driving, I would never knit while driving. It just feels so unsafe, like a very distracted driver. I was exhausted when it was time to add the join. I always add the Russian join a few yards before I need to. I like the yarn to rest and settle into place. We were going down I-10 going the speed limit of 75 mph. We were on a straight stretch of freeway. I got my tool kit out and managed to make a pretty decent join considering I was not at a table. This is definitely not a beginner move.
Each row is now taking about 30 minutes to complete. The shawl bottom is in excess of 50 inches. The only question I have is will it be ready by Thursday for the Old Pueblo Knitting Guild Fashion Show. Now I did tell my husband that I would model it even if it was not finished. Even if I had the yarn on my spinner yarn holder, minus the bottom of the butler part of course. If you want a yarn spinner like mine, Grandma’s Spinning Wheel in Tucson carries them. I think I will have about 2 to 3 hours to knit tomorrow, which should be another 4 to 6 rows. I am so bad at the math figuring out how far the yarn will actually go that I will be playing yarn chicken with this shawl.
You will notice that I keep my Lantern Moon tightening tool and dropped stitch tool in the center of my yarn spinner. This is so that they are always ready when I need them. You can also see all the colors of the fade.
Several years ago my favorite purse had a run in with a black gel pen and lost. This is what the stain looked like after a full bottle of ink remover and multiple washing by hand. I even scrubbed the detergent into the spot. As you can see the stain got smaller but did not go away completely.
So I thought about it for a while. Pins just did not seem big enough or practical for the bottom of my purse. So I thought about making a design with buttons. Then I came across a button someone had sent me a few years back saying that I would come up with the perfect use for such an odd shaped button made of stone. I have forgotten the name of the rock.
The button was just the right shape to cover the remainder of the ink stain. The light color of the stone matches the material in the main part of the purse perfectly.
My finished repair looks good and saved my favorite purse. I wish I would have thought of the button solution before I spent the day scrubbing the stain out. Or better yet a few years ago. The only thing I would have done differently is to use a small embroidery hoop to hold all of the layers of material even. That way the material would not have bunched up inside on the purse lining. By the way I will no longer put gel pens in my purse.
I did house work, laundry and paperwork. I managed to get 2 loads of laundry completed from start to finish all by myself, my taller half was at work. I actually got my heart rate up enough to get 20 minutes of exercise without leaving the house. I fell asleep after all that work. Forgetting that I had a teleconference call. Oops.
Then I decided instead of playing games on my tablet, I would knit and binge watch some television. After dinner I continued to binge watch television and knit until my thumb was sore. Then it was rubbing Tiger Balm on the thumb until it stopped hurting. While binge watching television until bedtime.
By the way I got two days worth of knitting done on my 4 color fade shawl completed this afternoon and evening. All by skipping games on my pad. I think now that I am doing a tiny bit better, maybe this should be my new routine. It might help with my stash reduction efforts. Of course on top of the three days that I continue my cardio rehab routine at the gym.
