My Fall Obsession

Pomegranates are in season. Nothing beats a freshly cracked open pomegranate for a snack. I got these large ones at Costco today. Thanks to my friend Shanna I can now open and empty one this size in about 10 minutes. Now to finish my snack so I can weave a little on my freshly warped loom.  before bed time.

Feeling Sad

After the events of this weekend I am feeling really sad. I know that as a country we can do better than this.  Unless you are of Native American ancestry or part of the First People of Canada ancestry you have no right to complain that some one is an immigrant or that their parents immigrated to this country legally or illegally. You must learn your history or be prepared to repeat it.

We are a country of laws that include the right to worship in the manner of of our parents and grandparents.  It is beyond obscene that someone should be murdered as they pray.  It seems to be happening to much in to many churches, synagogues and mosques across this land.

At this point in time I will kindly ask that if you do not love this country that so many have given the ultimate sacrifice, so that we may enjoy the freedom to worship, meet, shop, and live where we choose. By all means please leave this country.  To quote an often used phrase of the 1960’s “America love it or leave it. “ my friends and family wish to live in peace and welcome anyone who shares our values.  Peace and prosperity are wonderful things.

Errands

After a very frustrating morning dealing with the company that was supposed to get parts to repair Eric’s bath chair, I gave up and ordered a new one through Amazon.  I can’t believe that this branch of Corman Inc told me that they were not sure how to go about getting competitive bids from different sources. Uh, you had FOUR whole months to figure this out.  The real kicker here is that all the Leckey bath chairs and parts come from one company and they have distributors in different countries that use the same price sheet. By the way if you do need a bath chair or a bath chair with a trolley I would personally recommend using Leckey. The first one Eric had lasted about a decade.  I am sure we could have just replaced the cover and been fine, but it was easier to order the whole chair.

I finally had some time to catch up on errands today. Between using coupons and rebates I managed to save well over $100.00. This does not even include the Ganga price on John’s cereal even without using a coupon.  It was a just restock the shelves shopping therapy after dealing with the durable medical equipment company. Triscuts, Chex, goat cheese and John’s popsicle were the highlight of the trip.

I tried a new method for washing wool that one of my students recently recommended.  It was so easy and worked so well that I will do a photo tutorial on it.

Wow Just Wow

I was never fond of this Lion Brand Wool Ombré, it never knit up as well as I liked. I decided to try weaving it into a scarf. All I can say is wow. I think this is just meant for weaving scarfs. It’s just perfect. Not muddy like in hand knit hats and scarfs. Just clear, clean and crisp. Well you know where the rest of this ombré yarn in my stash is going.

More Zenning

today I recycled four years worth of old Arthritis Today Magazines.  It is much easier to google what I want then trying to remember which year and issue the information I need is in.  This cleared off eight inches of bookcase space.  All totaled eight bags of recycling, eight inches of magazines and one bag of trash left the house today.

After being up most of the night with Eric and a broken kangaroo Joey pump, I had no energy for anything but getting Eric's pump replaced after the cleaning spree.  On the other hand Eric was feeling better and wanted some quality mommy time.  So needless to say I am really exhausted at this point in time.  I hope that everyone sleeps tonight.

This out of sync post is why I should not blog when exhausted.

Impressive

Eric made an impressive 5 loads of laundry today. There was one swimming day load, two eyrpy loads and two regular loads. This of course does not include the laundry from other family members or all the fiber stuff that needs to be washed.  So the weekend forecast is laundry as far as the eye can see. I would like to thank the good folks at Proctor and Gamble for making the Tide laundry detergents that work so well on what ever Eric throws my way.

If I have time I will warp the loom and weave a scarf and repeat.  As long as I am home, I might as well use up as much of my yarn stash as possible.  I wonder how many projects I can finish this weekend? I will let everyone know later.  I will also do some knitting.

Well it’s nap time.

Finally Finished

Teri’s Blanket is finally finished. It was started as her dad drove her to grad school in the fall of 2009. It was supposed to be finished by December of 2009. Oops fast forward until today. It is finally finished. The only thing that I would have changed would be to use larger knitting needles. U.S. size 7 knitting needles were a bit small for a queen size blanket. The bowl is all the ends that I cut off tonight.

I also knit 12,755 rows so the row counter for the million row challenge on Raverly took a big jump tonight.

Knitting Math

If a project is 15 squares wide and 17 squares long with 5 rounds of boarders, with 2 or more ends to weave in per block. There are also 12 ends to weave in on the boarder.  How many ends are there to weave in?

My current answer has to be 1 million.

If you come up with a different answer let me know. I have been weaving in ends for about 2 weeks now. I have spent over 10 hours this week alone weaving in ends. I see no end in sight. 

My deadline is Thanksgiving. I am sorry the Thanksgiving holiday may have to be delayed.

New Design Posted Today.

Check out my new pattern on Ravelry and Love Knitting.  Its called Felted Hot Pad. It’s a very practical home accessory for the kitchen. It is a fast and easy gift to make. Did I mention that is uses U.S. size 17 knitting needles, that is 12 mm to the rest of the world.  I designed it when I was very tired after Eric was sick again this week.  It is a beginner knitting pattern.  A more experienced knitter could possibly knit 2 in one day.  If you have not done so check out my other patterns. All patterns will be listed under Sheri Karobonik Designs.

The Hot Pad on the left is after felting.

How to Spend a Day Off

Today I took a day off and spent it weaving in the ends of Teri’s blanket. I think that I am halfway through weaving in the ends.  Tomorrow I will put the back side up and figure out how to fold the blanket to get the most productive use of my time.

A Rough Week or 2

I feel that I have lost the battle with my body.  Eric has been sick twice in the past 2 weeks.  There have been too many long days and nights that I would have handled with ease a few decades ago.  I am really trying to take care of myself.  I have been tempted to get some soda, but instead on the long nights I try to have a very small snack every few hours. This seems to be working.

This does not mean that my body does not ache all over.  I can tell you with precise detail which are my weakest tendons and joints. I am still trying to keep up my various therapy for the joints.  This just leaves me exhausted.

I am almost finished with a new knitting pattern. The pattern is written and the sample is knit but not yet felted. I have knit it 6 times to make sure it is correct technically.  I was just too tired to finish up the felting and taking the pictures.  This is a beginning pattern and will make a great holiday gift. I will let you know when it is released and where to get it.

Shh Don’t Tell Eric

It is more rare than a blue moon. I can’t even remember the last time that it happened. The odds are very much against this ever happening in any given year. What is this you are wondering. I will tell you only if you promise not to tell Eric. You must really promise and pinkie swear that you will not tell him.

OK, now that we have gotten that out of the way. I will tell you. It is a completely empty laundry room. Not one piece of dirty laundry in any basket. The picture below is the current state of my laundry room. I am not sure that this is cause for a world wide celebration, but around here that makes me very happy. I would also like to add thank goodness that the laundry line is in the garage or my freshly washed load of dress clothes would be soaking wet. It started raining not more than an hour after I hung all the dress clothes to dry.

Now I am off to sit with Eric to watch children’s programs and weave in more ends on Teri’s blanket. 

Victoria S95

I finally got box two today.   It has the backpack bag for the wheel and the art flyer.

Eric is feeling better but is still not sleeping through the night.  I am getting very tired.  For dinner tonight I wanted to skip dinner and just sleep.   And life goes on.  

My Victoria S95

My Victoria S95 got its first spin tonight. I had enough parts to make it work, but as of this writing I am still missing box 2 out of 3 boxes. I figured that after a 4 month wait that I might get all the pieces of the wheel together. However the Louet N.A. Dealership is not know for their promptness or customer service. It is a good thing for them that Louet in Holland makes one of the best wheels in the world. I do have an S15, which was discontinued a long time ago but is still a dream to work with even though I am it’s third owner. It was my first spinning wheel.

But, I digressed. The Victoria S95 is a dream to spin on. It is small enough to take anywhere to spin with. It is so quite that John did not hear me spinning less than 6 feet away. There was almost no learning curve with this wheel, 10 minutes tops. There was a very smooth peddling and spinning motion. The picture below is my first hours spinning. The only thing left yo figure out is the color that I am going to use to moderate the colors in the roving for plying. I will have to check my stash for solids other than white.

Not related to Spinning, Eric is feeling better.  One more day home than he is good to go back to program on Thursday.  I plan on catching up on sleep tonight.  I am also on the last round of the broader on Teri’s Blanket. Then I will have to weave in all the ends.  

Life in the Blender Again

I am sitting with Eric while we do a trial run on pedilyte.  The kangaroo Joey is set to 5 ml per hour. For those you who do not live in the ml universe, that is 1 teaspoon per hour.  Yes, Eric is sick again. I swear that if I had a nickel for every time some said that their kids had allergies and Eric got sick, I could make a hefty donation to fight hunger here in Tucson.  With any luck I might just make it to bed by midnight.  I also feel that it falls on deaf ears when I ask people to stay home when they or their kids are sick.

In other news, Teri’s Blanket is on the last round of the boarder. Then I get to weave in two ends per block.  Then I will wash it.  I don’t think that I will block it since it is 100% organic cotton.  The final picture and row count should be some time this week.  It will have over 12,000 rows for the one million row challenge on Ravelry.