Stress Cleaning

 I spent a couple of hours stress cleaning and made a lot of progress.  I was starting to relax when we figured out the reason the ice maker was not working was the the refrigerator had died.  After throwing out a lot of partly defrosted or totally defrosted food I was again stressed out but too tired to clean.  If it can’t be fixed we might have to actually go into a store to get a new one.  

Keeping Busy

 Today I kept busy.  As of 7 p.m. I walked 12,500 steps or 5.2 miles.  I also attacked a few of the shelves in the sewing room.  I did not take a before pictures but the messy top shelf of the rack is what it looked like.  The picture is what some of the work today. A lot of skeins and kits were organized.  I also work on the closet organizing   I also filled 1 1/2 boxes with yarn, fiber and weaving supplies.  I am hoping that the friend who took the box last week will take these also.  

I spent part of the afternoon spinning.  First some pencil roving. Then some alpaca with silk.  I can say that I did keep myself to busy to think.  I am exhausted an so I am hoping to sleep tonight.  Then more tomorrow.  

Grief and Loss

 This week is going to be hard.  It’s been a year and 1 day since we lost Eric.  Today is the one year anniversary of his funeral.  In five days it would have been his 31st birthday.  Although we tended to celebrate Eric’s birthday all month long and when ever we went somewhere special.  I am not sure how the week will go, but my goal is to try to stay in the now and not eat my way through my grief.  I also plan on a lot of walking. So far so good on the eating and walking front.  

Since stress makes my arthritis worse and I still have 6 weeks before I can try knitting again.  I know that I can spin and weave but I might not have any creative mojo this week. I just might go on a cleaning and de stashing spree.  So a few people might just get some calls to pick up some crafting supplies.  I am sure that you won’t mind. I just don’t know about you’re families will like it  

If you are so inclined to remember Eric a donation in his memory would be most appreciated.  The first that I would like to suggest is www.ML4.org as they are continuing to do research on this disease that turned my family upside down.  ML4 was Eric’s primary diagnosis. The second  is your local community food bank, like all kids with ML4 Eric loved to eat.  Eric also loved making donation runs around Thanksgiving every year.  We would fill up the van with a donation that Eric would hand off while I slipped in a check.  He was delighted when the volunteers remembered his name and that he like to hand them the food. 

I will miss his smile this week and his delight in having the birthday guy sing happy birthday. Eric might be gone physically, but he is not forgotten. I love him to the moon and back. 

Yarn Away

 Today was a relatively good day.  I was feeling good after the aspirin and nap.  I was preparing to yarn bomb a friend.  I started out with a mid sized carrier bag and filled it. Then went and got another And filled it too. So I grabbed a paper grocery bag and filled it too. By then I was half way finished and had 2 empty storage tub’s.  So I dumped the three bags in and continue my yarn de stashing .  By the time I was through I was sure my friend would be mad for giving her so much yarn at once. I had filled a 60 quart tub full of knitting and weaving yarn. Much to my surprise she and her niece were very happy. When they picked it up I wished them a very happy knitting and weaving time.  John is also very happy too.

With the progression of the arthritis in my hands and all the hand surgeries my burn through rate of yarn is way down. Long gone are the days that I could knit through 45 quarts of yarn in a month. Let alone 13 ponchos in a month.  With that in mind I am starting to curate my fiber stash and make sure I really want and love the yarn.  To day was a first cut. I still have 6 more weeks of no knitting.  I am pretty sure it will not be a hat a day speed when I restart my knitting. So to that end I will be working on gasp, some projects for me. I have some sweaters, shawls, tops, and socks in line.  I am not sure how much more weight I will lose, but since it has been a steady 10 pounds a year I think I will be able to wear the clothing for a while or at least be able to take it in,  

This will be a huge change from the last 20 years of knitting where 95% or more in any given year was for charity.  I will still do charity knitting and weaving, but it will not be my main focus for a while. This has been a year of many changes and my life has been turned upside down and inside out all at the same time. In a couple of days it will have been a whole year since we lost Eric. I feel blessed that we had him for so many years. It does not seem possible that a year has passed. The world is a little less gentle since he left.  Then just as we were feeling almost normal COVID19 hit.  That turned our world upside down again.  I am not sure what life has in store for me, but a little guilt free me time is in order even if we are stuck at home for the foreseeable future.  

Oops

 Oops I did it again.  The election drove me crazy. So I cleaned beyond what my body could handle.  I also started, wove and finished 4 scarfs in 4 days.  Not to mention the regular house hold chores. So I am beyond exhausted.  I have spent the day resting and sleeping.   With just a little bit of cooking thrown in.  Yesterday I got my sourdough bread starter.  So today I have my sourdough starter going.   Sourdough pizza crust and sourdough pancake sponge started.  I will also try my hand at low sugar sweet rolls using the pizza crust recipe tomorrow.  

The big news though is that we got a nice winter storm and got 1/4 inch of slow rain.  There was almost no run off so I hope the plants are happy.  

Green bowl sourdough pancakes, clear glass bowl sourdough starter, front bowl pizza crust.  

This and That

 Did you ever have one of those days when your busy all day long and at the end of the day feeling like nothing got done.  I felt that way today, but I finished weaving a scarf. Organized the craft room and found I needed 2 less jumbo tote bags to store yarn in.  I guess I did use more yarn than I thought, but with over 100 completed projects this year, I should not be surprised.  The down side to organizing the craft room is I have all these knitting projects that I wanted to knit but must wait until January.  The down side of a better functioning hand is letting it heal after surgery  

Also on the list was washing and twacking yarn. The to wash basket is almost empty.  I spent about an hour detangling a skein of yarn. By the way I found the skein while cleaning the craft room.  I tinked a knitting project and decided the yarn would be a better warp.  I put away knitting needles. I still have not found the missing spindle.  Maybe the next round of cleaning. So for the next dozen or so scarf’s there will be very colorful warp.   Below is the scarf that I did the finishing work on today.  It is already in the bag to leave the house.  

Finding Calm

 I have finally found some calm in my life. This current political cycle has been brutal and combined with COVID19, it has been too much for me. Since I can’t knit until next year I have started weaving again . So far I have finished one scarf . Have one scarf drying and  awaiting finishing work and one scarf on the loom.  Once I fill up the bag that I started, I will drop them off at the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank.  I am sure that they can find homes for every scarf I weave.  

When my hands got tired, I organized my warp  bowl. I have a lot of odds and ends so I will be making some very colorful scarfs. I also filled up my weaving basket with more yarn.  I don’t know if this will make a dent in my stash the 102 knitting and weaving projects I have completed so far this year lead me to believe that I might make a dent by the end of 2021. Just don’t hold me to that. I don’t feel that 102 projects made much of a dent so far in 2020. I want to see more empty bins and everything in less space. 

Getting Crafty

 Despite a very bad body day I did manage to almost get caught up on folding laundry. Honestly I can not figure out how 2 people make so much laundry. We make almost half of the laundry that Eric made. I then spent some time weaving while giving a knitting lesson. The lesson was over face time not ideal in my humble opinion. By the way the Childs sized scarf is ready to hit the hot water.  I did not spin today, maybe tomorrow. 

Not Recommended

 Tonight I tripped on one of my spinning wheels and banged up my left hand.  I hit the woolly winder pretty hard. I was just trying to get a few shuttle’s for the loom.  I have them tucked in a back corner. I am doing a random pattern scarf to empty the shuttle’s. This will go to the kids clothing bank when finished. A few hours later except for the small bruise my hand looks and feels fine.  

I will check out the spinning wheel tomorrow.