More Searching Through My Yarn Stash

 Over the weekend I was asked to knit a couple of shawls for a fundraiser by a friend.  So this morning I went through 4 out of 5ish shelves filled with yarn kitted up for shawls. I know I should really go through the rest of the shelves.  In my defense I have already filled a weekender bag full of shawl kits.  

I am also really afraid that I will find more than my 2 newly found UFO’s for me.  I was really thinking that I had whittled down my current batch of UFO’s to less then 10.  I really do not want to find more.  I swear UFO’s hide everywhere not wanting to be found. I wonder if the yarn just does not want to be seen in public.

I will start with some of the bulkier yarn as those shawls will go relatively quickly. Then I will work my way down to the lighter weight yarns. If I happen to make more than two for the fundraiser, so be it.

Now I have to go bring my squirrel cage back to the knitting room so I can skein up the first shawl.  

Below are the kits I pulled out for charity knitting projects.   

Time to Finish My Shawl

 The tinking is finally done.  It looks like I will have 3 or 4 rows to knit before I do my bind off.  The pattern is Grandma’s Summer Shawl available on Ravelry or your local yarn store.  The yarn is by the French dyer la Bien Aimee in Paris. The yarn is a DK four skein gradient in super wash Merino. I am using a U.S. 5 or a 3.75mm ChiaGoo SWIVEL Interchangeable needles. Near the end you will need to attach a 50 inch and an 8 inch cord together. It is quite wide at the bottom.  

The shawl is no longer a problem project. The shawl is now just a regular UFO.  Today I knit 2 additional rows and still not have passed the tinking mark in the final skein of the shawl.  I might be off on my final estimate of how many rows that I need to knit before I cast off. 

Below is a picture of a form problem project.  I brought it to Bruggers Bagles to work on it with friends. 

A Book Review

 I managed to snag a First Edition of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. It is a fabulous book.  The paper is a very good quality which made it much easier for this dyslexic to read.  Thank you so much for the high quality of the paper, it matches the quality of the book.  

For people who know me well, this will come as a huge shock.  It usually takes me a minimum of a few months to read a book from cover to cover.  I read Automatic Noodle in less than a week from the time the book arrived at my house. The writing is excellent. The plight of the robots pulled me in.  The biang biang noodles sounded so intriguing that I want to try a new food. I wonder if I can find them in Tucson? 

The story takes place in a fictional post war San Francisco. It documents how the robots manage to overcome adversity to build a new life and family. There are perils along the way. Along with flashbacks of the past.  This is a good summer read.  I highly recommend this book.  

I bought Automatic Noodle from bookstore.org.  I paid for the book myself.  I have not received compensation to write this quick review. If you do click on a link in this blog post, I will receive credit for the click.

The Problem with Autoimmune Disorders

 There is one more thing that nobody tells you about autoimmune disorders is that I can be rolling along with my life and bam the next thing I know is that my body has decided to stop working as needed.  There is no rhyme or reason as to when this happens.  The autoimmune disorder does not care if I have plans for the day. That there are projects that I want to complete.  There are chores that need to be completed. 

I never know in advance what is going to stop working with me. How long this personal body problem will last.  How much it will hurt. If I have a full calendar.  

Will this wake me up in the middle of the night. It is now 1:00 am.  I am waiting for the aspirin to kick in so the pain will go away. So I can get to sleep. Never mind that I need more sleep with a flare up to heal the flare up, my body does not care. This time it he flare up hit my hands and knees. So no knitting for at least a couple of days. The combination is never the same. No this does not make my life interesting. I get very frustrated with my Sjogren’s. Every autoimmune disease presents itself differently with flare ups. Depending on the severity of the flare up Sjogren’s presents it self differently with each flare up.  This also makes it very difficult to get the right diagnosis and treatment.  

I missed the last Sjogren’s walk because of non autoimmune body issues.  Yes, I have to deal with other body issues besides Sjogren’s.  So, I did not do my annual fundraiser for Sjogren’s.  I know that there are a lot of different disease related fundraisers, because let’s face it, there are a lot of different diseases that need to be researched.  In the United States, government funding for disease research is at an all time low.  I won’t get political or name names here, but we all know who to thank for that. 

So during this time of high anxiety, high inflation including food, gasoline and other costs, I would consider it to be a blessing if you would make a donation to the Sjorgren’s Foundation or any other health organization that includes your family members or friends.  We are all in this together.  

Thank you for reading my middle of the night rant and research funding request.  This was typed using only my pointer finger, well because my hands are being quite cranky right now. 

My Must Have Tool for Tinking and Repair Work

 When I have repair work or a massive tinking project, like 80% of the cast-off row on a shawl. See the picture below.  I have one go-to knitting accessory. My Lantern Moon Repair Hook.  The Lantern Moon Repair Hook is small and easy to use.  The Repair Hook is a U.S. 3 / 3.25mm crochet hook, that is 3 inches/8 mm long.  Sized just right to fit in the palm of my hand. No more using full-sized crochet hooks for very delicate repairs or tinking back onto the knitting needle. 

*Now for the full disclosure. I bought my first Repair Hook and loved it. So I decided to buy a second Repair Hook just in case I lost the first Repair Hook. Also, the opinions in this blog are entirely my own. I am also not receiving any compensation from Lantern Moon. If, however, you choose to click on a link or ad, I will receive compensation based on the number of click-throughs and page views.  

!! More Socks !!

 I had enough spoons to go to knitting and almost finished a hat. I am currently working on the crown.  Then it was home to rest.  After a quick lunch, I went to Bookman’s to trade in some books. They had enough knitting books so those came home with me. They did take 2 other books.   With the trade I got today and the trade credit in my wallet, I was able to trade for 5 more pairs of socks for the Flowing Wells Clothing Bank.  I cannot supply everything the children need but at least I can make a small dent in some of the items that they need. 

Now it’s time to brew a cuppa of passion fruit tea.  I am also going to watch some Masterpiece Theater and knit.  I hope to make some headway on a summer shawl for myself.  I only have one shawl for summer since I lost so much weight. I would rather have to knit more shawls than carry around extra weight.

Fiber Arts Projects

 I finished  4 fiber arts projects this week.  It must mean on some level that I am starting to feel better.  

2 stranded knitting on U.S. size 15 needles.  

I finished the red hat on Thursday.

                                                          I finished the purple hat on Tuesday.

                                        I finished the combination Tunisian and regular crochet scarf tonight.