My First Spin

Today I did my first spin post hand surgery. I will generously call it an art yarn. This is a blend of wool, silk, add ins and buffalo. This is also a thick and thin yarn. I  think this will remain a single ply. I think it will be most suitable for weaving.  It might be a few months before my spinning will get beyond the art yarn stage.   So it is now time to start stash diving to find the arty type of fluff.  

Not a UFO Anymore

It took a long time to finish the 75 rows of this cowl that I knit for my self.  I finished knitting it while Teri was in law school.  I just finished sewing on 3 buttons today.  Yes, sewing on buttons is not a fun activity for me. The most important thing though, is that I have one less UFO* in the house.

*UFO stands for unfinished object.  

Some Progress

This is my first finished knitting project since my hand surgery.  It took 2 weeks. I feel like a beginning knitter. 150 rows on size 19 knitting needles. This will go to the Flowing Wells Clothing Bank. 

The next scarf I will see if my hand is ready for size 17 knitting needle.  The knitting needles are all the U.S. sizes.  

Why Mom's Run Away from Home.

I really think prestigious online  news outlets like The Onion, have really missed the mark on this one.  The real reason that we are seeing an increase of all mommies running away from home.  

First and foremost are the long work hours. After working most of the day and then staying up most of the night we really want some time off. Trying to stay awake the next day to take care of and entertain a sick or cranky child is no piece of cake. Speaking of cake, I will take some vegan or parve cup cakes.  I really think that the cats have made decisive strides here. By finding a warm, quite and out of the way place to curl up and sleep. A nice sunny and quite place sounds good right now. Do you think anyone  will find me curled up behind the couch?

Which brings up the issue of pay. Have you ever tried to buy a new dress with sticky, peanut butter and jelly hugs. Our kids really have to come up with a more universally accepted payroll system.  We want wardrobes comparable to what other women in the work place get to wear on a daily basis. Have you ever noticed that really tired mommies wear pj's well after noon? Now if we can make rules about little sticky hands not being allowed to muck up the new wardrobe. 

This also brings up all the activities that the kids just have to do.  I am not feeling really positive about 7 year olds padding their college applications by making us drive them from one activity to the next.  Do they think we are also chauffeurs? Take soccer for instance.  The sport has become so popular that practices are ending after my bed time.  Can't I just give you a ball to kick around the back yard?  After all just how many of you will actually break even on this sport by getting actual money for college?  You can't expect to make me sit with some of those parents that yell at everyone.  Who knows,  they might think that they are the Knitting Police too.  And the music lesson.  Instead of practicing in the house take your practice outside and let the entire neighborhood enjoy the strides that you are making, so that they can see their tax dollars at work. 

Yes, I know that I am using a lot of run on sentences. For the Spelling and Grammer Police out there you are grounded until further notice.  xoxo Your Mommie on the run.  

Healing

I find it amazing that something as simple as putting away groceries is enough to send shooting pain through my hand.  So a portion of today's shopping is still sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be put away. Tomorrow will be soon enough. 

I am also really grateful for being ambidextrous especially at meal times. I normally eat and do a lot of things with my left hand.  When the pain gets to bad I just change hands to my right hand.  I just have to keep a mindful eye on my left hand and give it the time it needs to heal.  I am having trouble with this because I really hate going in slow speed.  I just need to find more patience right now.  

When Yarn is Knotty

Today I decided to finish winding yarn to set up kits for weaving.  This is what I have to wind on the first skein after 90 minutes.  So I put it aside and started winding a second skein. Yes, there were also to many knots to use the ball winder. Forty five minutes into that skein I am finally out of the knots. I am hoping it gets better from here. 

Tonight I will tag hats so I can get 3 bags of hats to the Flowing Wells Clothing bank next week.  Hopefully I can soon start knitting hats again. I am still working on getting my hand working at optimal effency or at least not hurt so much when I use it.  

The Snail is Winning

My hand has good days and bad days. Sometimes like tonight, it just wants to stop working in the middle of a task, like making dinner. I have to say that John had perfect timing tonight. He drove up just as my hand gave out when I was 3/4 of the way through cutting up the chicken. He not only finished cutting up the chicken and getting it in the oven, but did the whole preparation on the green beans too. Then cleaned up after dinner.

I am still a bit frustrated at the rate I can work on projects too. Take the Tunisian scarf that I have been working on for one and a half weeks, really a week and a half and I am still not done. I also have one scarf on US size 19 knitting needles, that is going even slower, I am lucky to get between 50 and 100 individual stitches done about every third day. This translates into no more then 10 rows every few days. I am really glad that I have no commissions right now or I would be up the creek without a paddle. My plan for tomorrow is to finish packing projects to get them ready to go and then try the sewing machine, I may have more luck there.

My hand really hates it when Eric is sick. The longer hours seem to make my hand stiffer and more sore.  Talk about 50 steps back in a single day. What I find really odd though is that the more I use my hand the more stiff and sore that it becomes. What about the old adage use it or lose it? Does this lose meaning with hand surgery? I know it has only been a few weeks, but last time I had hand surgery, I did not need physical therapy and I was knitting the same night. Yes, I know I sound like an impatient 10 year old right now.

I know it is late, but as soon as I can put Eric's swim stuff into the dryer and hand his swim suit I will call it a day.

More Hand Stuff

Ok, I know that in some things that I am the most impatient person in the world. I could give any 10 year old kid a run for their money. Take my hand for instance. The stitches have completely healed and my hand should be 100% in my humble opinion. I am so wrong about this. Everything below the surface takes longer to heal than the stitches. So these are my new temporary rules to live by.

1. No folding laundry, seriously my hand throbbed for 8 hours after folding one load. The therapist took that off my plate for now.

2. If it hurts stop, do not continue. Whatever it is.

3. No putting my hand in odd positions to accomplish anything.

4. Do my therapy 3 times a day.  I now have 3 exercises, one involves knitting           needles....Really....

5. Reintroduce my hands to textures, it's part of the healing processes. Sounds           odd to me, but I will try it.

6. Take things slowly, things should get better in time. This is the hard one for          me.

7. Make time for rest breaks, although it is just my left hand that has to heal.             Apparently the whole body goes through the healing transition. I really don't         get this concept. But I will do my best to follow the rules.

So it is time to rest before Eric gets home.

Happy

Eric's day program finally had enough staff so that he could go to program today.  I skipped my to do list and took a nap.  July left me exhausted between the guys getting sick, surgery and Eric home for 3 weeks, all I can really say is that I could not keep up.  I fell behind and will take some time to play catch up on everything from paperwork, chores and sleep. 

Eric had a great time with his friends today.  So all is well.  I even get to start therapy on my hand this week. I think that I will call it a night.  

Fun

Today John was gracious enough to take care of Eric while I took 2 classes. The first was Tunisian  crochet which I can do almost all right handed. It is very fun to do. I think it is geared towards someone with a large yarn stash like mine. The second was triangular weaving, a bit more challenging for me. My hand gave up 3 rows before the end of the piece and the instructor had to finish my piece for me so that some one else could use the loom. I think I like the ridge heddle loom and the coaster loom better for me. It is time to give my hand a rest. Besides that my one fingered typing is just awful, just ask my spell check. 

A First Post Surgery

Today I knit for the first time post surgery.  I wanted to finish the scarf but stopped before my hand got tired. Yes,I am using size 19 knitting needles. That's the smallest knitting needle that I can hold. This will be a charity scarf. 

More Progress

This afternoon I finished 1 more coaster and started another coaster. I was able to spin about a half of an ounce of wool tonight. I am really happy with that progress.  So tomorrow I plan on plying a little bit of yarn to get a 2 ply yarn. I am very happy with my slow progress.  

Eric had a bit of a tough start to the night. I just have to wait until the washer is done before I can go to bed. I have a full load for the dryer. 

The Search is On

I am not always as organized as I would like to be. Sometimes that leads to cleaning sprees like today. I misplaced my copy of Mollie Makes Magazine Issue 58, 2015. So I started out looking in the most obvious places. No luck. Then I went through all my knitting bags that I could find. No luck there either. Then it was off to the craft room. I tore everything apart. As I was putting things back I did some organizing and tossing. I also decided that it was not worth repairing some items so they got tossed too. 

The end result is that I still can not find my copy of Mollie Makes. There is less clutter in the house. My crafts are more organized. I put some of my yarn into the Old Pueblo Knitters yarn stash. Which means more things out of the house. The recycle bin is over halfway filled, I also filled one bag for the trash bin. I found some weaving warp in the wrong place. So the warp yarn went with the other warp yarn and more yarn was put into the drawer and out of bags. I also found the Valentine gifts that I got for the kids while Teri was still in college. I hid the gifts so well it took me a long time to find them. Ooops! I did not even remember that I misplaced them. Luckily it was not chocolate. 

I know that I will find the copy of the magazine when I have given up looking for it. Just like the Valentine gifts. In the meantime I will keep looking, organizing, cleaning and tossing. Also I am not sure why the majority of the post is not like the first line. Sorry. 

A Bump in the Road

Today started out well. I got a lot done. This built my confidence in my hand. That disappeared when I was almost finished making the corn bread for dinner. I had to get John to help me get the batter into the pan. Then get the pan in and out of the oven.  

I was going to warp the loom after dinner but decided that it was better to let my hand rest. Boredom is the worst part of recovery.  I am just so use to knitting after dinner.  I can only play so many games.  Well tomorrow is another day.