This and That

 Ok, so I got a little tired of the whining that people could not have holiday foods because of me in my house. So I went to Whole Foods and got a bunch of vegan holiday treats.  I don’t plan on eating any of it.  Instead I got myself a nice piece of soft goat cheese with lavender.  It was wonderful with my big thick salt free crackers.  I paired it with a serving of dates which are a low glycemic food.  It was much more satisfying than their sweet treats.  So I won the treat wars.  

I did manage to get caught up on folding laundry if you don’t count the load that went into the dryer at bed time.  

I am feeling a lot stressed out by the newest variant of COVID19, Omnisomething.  Right now I feel as if it is never going to end snd I will be spending my retirement years at home.  No traveling. No knitting or spinning with friends.  Just the next 20 years stuck at home.  I am sure I can not convince the anti vax morons just to get their dammed shots.  I think getting the vaccines and protecting yourself, families  and community is a very intelligent thing to do.  I just can’t fix stupid so I am stuck at home. 

Happy Holidays

 A good day was had by all. I enjoyed some nice girl talk and knitting outside this afternoon.   

A Redesign?

 A friend gave me a possible solution for the too big tank top that is not a tank top.  I will have to get my quilting safety pins out tomorrow.  

A Tank Top? Well Maybe?

 This is the result of dropping a few sizes between the start and finish of a knitting project and a poorly sized pattern.  I only lost 4 inches around my rib cage.  If you use the right computer program or use the right charts in a design books the calculations will be done for you.  No need to randomly do it by hand anymore. It is a simple pattern by Bernat called the Garter Stitch Tank Top.  Even if I had not lost 2 sizes the finished object ie the tank top would still not look like a tank top. Please note in the picture that I am wearing a real tank top under the sweater. You might notice a slight difference.  After trying it on, the picture is below you can see that it does not resemble a tank top, but rather a sweater with capped sleeves.  

After I finished the knitting the pattern and tried it on today I realized that the pattern was photoshopped.  Plus it was tucked back around the waist to make it fit the very slender model.  Now I have no problem with slender models.  After all knitters come in all shapes and sizes.  What I do have a problem with is deception in pictures representing the finished hand made item.  When I think of a tank top, capped sleeves are not what I have in mind.  When it is a simple pattern without shaping, I don’t expect the picture to show shaping in the waist.  When I spend as money on yarn to knit 1 tank top as I do to buy 4 or 5 from tank tops from Chico’s or J.Jill, I expect the finished top to fit the description.  When I spent hours knitting a tank top I expect it to look like a tank top.  

My recommendations would include the narrowing of the shoulder as the sizes get larger.  Being a larger size does not mean that we are built like professional football players like linebackers.  Never ever photoshop a pattern picture to alter the finished look of knit wear.  I have no problem with photoshopping  it the background or lighting.  Show the finished knit wear in all sizes.  For goodness sake eliminate the many colors in the pattern instructions, it does not work well for low vision or older eyes.  Also speaking of low vision or older eyes nothing below a 14 pica please.  We don’t want to waste money on photocopy blow ups or pull out a magnifying glass just to read the pattern. 

Please note my picture was photoshopped to trim out some of the background. The picture of the sweater was not retouched.  

If any of this is not clear to the people at Bernat Yarns, please email me and we can talk about this at length.  Thanks for listening. 

Extra Feet

 We have a couple of pair of extra feet for the week.  We will be relaxing and having fun family time.   Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Trying to get in sync

 I have spent a lot of time since my last post not being in total agreement with my body.  Unfortunately my body won, so I rested Whether I liked it or not. Except for an afternoon nap I think I’m back on track. But then again naps are kind of my thing. 

I did finish my 25th scarf and 89th project of 2021.  Maybe I should try to finish all my UFO’s by the end of the year.  We all know the odds are stacked against me because I love starting new projects.  My knitting needles hate being empty, they get cold. Well wish me luck.  

I Plan…

 Okay my body and I are at odds.  I spent a lot of time sleeping.  I did fold yesterday’s laundry and clean out a Fibber Maggie and Molly worthy cabinet that has been on my list for while.  I was to tired to knit tonight so I binged on jigsaw puzzles on my iPad.  I finished 5 tonight, some were partially done.  

What Happens When The Fall Cores Are Done

 We are almost done with our fall cleaning spree.  We only have a few things to do.  This will give me time to finish up the bits and pieces of projects that are almost finished.  A few rows here. Weaving in the ends.  A Kitchener finish for a scarf.  Fixing my stitch markers.  Maybe even spinning and weaving.  I want to see empty project bags.  

The Goal is Insight

 The end is in sight. I have gotten to the minutia of the cleaning spree most of the check list is gone.  Right now the devil is in the details.  My body has decided that I have over done it and I am taking involuntary afternoon naps.  I hope to finish tomorrow morning. If I get up early I will start with the fridge and laundry.  I have decided to take a few days off doing laundry.  I guarantee that it will wait for me.  

Well I think it’s time to call it a day.  

Over Achieving

 I know that I have been over doing it when I reach my weekly exercise goal by Tuesday by 3:30 pm.  My goal is 30 minutes of exercise a day over 7 days.  That is quite reasonable. 155 minutes in 2 1/2 days not so much. I did 95 of those minutes today, so far. I still have 2 rooms to put back together.  No wonder I am exhausted.  Off to mop another floor.  Ok, I gave up and left the steam mopping to John. I think I will rest for a bit and then put things back together again.  I am glad that all of my fiber storage drawers are on wheels.  Rolling, rolling, keep those drawers rolling.  

After a brief rest I put 2 rooms back together.  We only need to add a table and chair to make a temporary office space.  The space will have the pantry so course that means it has its own MK Snack area, minus the drinks.  I landed  up with a total of 138 minutes of cleaning time, for the day. Ok, it’s 2 hours and 18 minutes.  Is it any wonder that I was too tired to do much knitting tonight?  

I have also crossed out a few of tomorrow’s chores, because being the over achiever that I am today the work is done.  I really think it would be wonderful if my body let me sleep tonight.  Wish me luck. 

Busy.

 It’s been busy and I am exhausted.   Night all.  

It’s Finely Finished

 This is what craft room number one aka the guest room looks like when all the crafts are finely put away. The room is dusted and vacuumed.  John did the dusting and vacuuming.  This is usually the only time you can see all the carpet   

On the left side of the room is the Murphy Bed.  It folds down to a queen size bed.  A nice cozy spot to hang out in.  

Almost Done

 The sewing tables have been folded up.  The sewing machine put away.  I am leaving John in charge of vacuuming and dusting.  I just have to find a home for some blankets.  They are washed and bagged. They are too small for the V.A. , Project Linus does not take cotton blankets.  So I will call a friend tomorrow.  

I just need to wrap a few things , put some baskets away, fold up one table, sweep and mop the floor’s, clean the bathrooms along with my usual chores and we will be ready for company.  I am exhausted just thinking about it.  

The best part of this companies coming is that I tossed a lot of things rather than just put them in boxes and baskets for later.  I hope that this puts me ahead of the curve.  

A Busy Day

 Sometimes the perils in pattern writing is the the letters and numbers dance around the page like a Conga line dances through a room.  My current pattern fits this to an exact T as in T Square.  Today I tried to figure out if I hit that magic sweet spot of pattern section repeats.  I simply could not figure it out.  So I will keep knitting and working the pattern out row by row. I just have to have things add up to my magic number and maintain the angles, it’s really not that hard until I can no longer walk, talk and knit at the same time. This sitting down to write  patterns down is sometimes very hard work.

If I take this pattern row by row it is a very delightful knit.  Just enough change from row to row to keep the pattern interesting.  My student whom I am writing it for, loves the pattern so far. She is on section 2 around row 8.  She likes the fact that after so few rows knit and purled stitches a pattern is visible.   That makes me so happy.  I am only 2 full sections ahead of her so I have to find more time to finish this.  

In other news the bathroom is now painted.  I just have to pull the tape off the grab bar.  Give it a few days to dry. This is where a second shower is very helpful. Then put everything back where it belongs.  Also just a few projects to go before craft room 1 is ready to become the guest room.  My new storage containers for craft room 2 are somewhere in Phoenix. Hopefully they will arrive tomorrow, they were supposed to be here today, alas this is the season of shipping hiccups. 

I also came up with an innovative way to put my shoes away. I slip on one pair and walk to my closet   Take the shoes off and put them away. I repeated this process until all my shoes were put away while bring laundry from the clothes line to the closet’s. I got 2 chores done at once and added steps to boot.

I am hoping despite be sore all over, all day that I will sleep tonight.  Wish me luck.  

A Dumb Mistake

 Here I sit at 2 a.m. waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  All because I. choose not to wear my tendon isolation band while knitting last night. As you know I have chronic tendonitis do to arthritis.  It just seems to jump all around my body. Currently I have knitting elbow also know as tennis elbow.  Since I do not play tennis anymore, I call it knitting elbow. 

My arm was feeling good all day. So I thought that I was lucky That it went away very quickly.  Yeah, I am not that lucky. So here I sit at 2 a.m.  waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  I am wide awake.Pain  has away of doing that to me. So I might just do some chores while I wait. Since I did not get many things done yesterday.  I was having a bad body day except for my elbow. Then again I can feel the aspirin starting to kick in, so I just might be lucky enough to go back to sleep.  So maybe I will just get a jump on the day and start a load of.  By the way, I am so predictable that the prediction  program on my blog had picked out I was going to start a load of laundry before I even had it typed in.  A very good algorithm, way to go programmers.  

To Clean or Not to Clean is a Silly Question

 Will the deep cleaning ever stop?  That is a question that I have been asking myself a lot lately. It seems the more I organize and the more I get rid of the more there is to organize and get rid of. It seems like when I get one layer removed another layer pops up.

I was very clever in my organizing today. I managed to combine 2 boxes of quilting supplies into one box. That gave me a free box to bring sewing supplies to the garage.  I also combined all my fabric into one box that already had a space in the house.  That leaves the odds and ends to land in the right shoe box storage containers.  Then I can find a place for them. I also started a new box for Goodwill.  No new boxes were needed today which is a very good thing. Less boxes equals less stuff. Which equals more organization. Which equals more progress. Which equals more time to make and creat more donations and new patterns.     

For the other room, I have ordered 2 storage chests with 3 huge drawers each.  That will give me room for my spinning supplies and other loose fiber related items.  One is almost a direct transfer, the other will hold additional items.  I hope by Friday I can have both rooms finished.  

I am 1/3  of the way Into  a new scarf and have already used 6 skeins of yarn.  I must admit that 2 of those skeins were started tonight  so I still have at least 6 skeins more to finish this scarf. Hopefully it will be finished soon   

Then maybe I can take an online course Saturday and play with some beads after I put other rooms in order.  

Number 86

 This is my 86th completed project for this year. I really like the colors. The pattern is They Stash Dive Scarf by Summer Lee Designs.   This scarf is over 5 feet long. It’s meant ti be folded in half which makes it great for my knitting guild project. It’s going to northern Arizona where it gets really cold.  This also brings up the question: can I finish 13 more projects by December 31st?   This year I might not make my goal of 100 completed knitting and weaving projects in 2021. 

Wish List vs To Do List

 I really don’t know why I am still using a to do list. Lately I am half way through and have no more energy to finish my list.  It seems lately that it is wishful thinking that I can get everything done in a timely manner.  I think it is more appropriate to call it my wishful thinking list of things that need to be done.  I know some things need to be done in a timely fashion and other things not so much.  

I know that I am supposed to give it a month or so for my latest life style changes to kick in.  Let’s face it, the last change was 3 days ago snd I should in my humble opinion be up to full speed and then some.  My family would say give it time.  I am just to impatient.  

So I am wondering if I should return to setting priorities and ranking items.  I will have to think about that.   In the meantime I think that I will call it a day.  

A Perfect Solution

 When a bad body day collides with a highly emotional day there is only one thing to do.  Spin art yarn.  Why art yarn? Art yarn does not have any parameters. If the yarn is not perfectly balanced who cares.  The idea is to have fun.  I make bumps. I spin thick and thin. I spun for 2 hours.  Yes my new medicine is helping.  I make my art yarn batts from bits and pieces.  I play with color.  I never know how it will turn out once it is plyed and washed.  Hopefully it will go with some other art yarn to make a fabulous new shawl for me in a smaller size.  I thought that my shawls would still fit after losing a lot of sizes, not so much. So I need new shawls.   

I also figured out why my Lendrum Spinning Wheel was acting up, it literally had a screw lose.  So rather than  get my tool kit for my spinning wheels, I borrowed a pliers and flat head screw driver from John.  It took more time to locate the tools than to fix the issue.   I guess this means that every so often I should check all the screws out.  

I then changed spinning wheels to my Louet Victoria. After cleaning and oiling the flyer I was ready to spin the core for plying the art yarn just because I can get about 10 ounces on the bigger bobbin.  Once the white is spun, I will ply all the art yarn that I spun today.  From right to left. Pale pink, purple, red and a green yellow blend.  

Pretty Good

 Today was pretty good.  I spent some time working on the new pattern.  Finished one scarf, pictures to come later.  Fix someone’s blanket and taught the difference between leading and lagging legs. If you are a knitter and don’t know what this is we need to talk.  

Came home and made dinner.  Turkey burgers, yummy.  My hands were too tired to do much knitting tonight, but there is always tomorrow.  

So I will call it a day. 

A lousy day

 Not my best day. I let the stress get to me. Although I did manage to reorganize part of craft rooms 1 & 2.  Tomorrow will be better.  

A Low Energy Day

 Today I had more plans than energy.  So after an early morning run to get groceries, putting together dinner and putting the rest of the food away it was nap time.  I was really to tired to even eat lunch before my nap.  So the rest of the day I did small chores in little sprints.

On the good news side, I finished the first 3 sections of my new pattern.  Now that I don’t have to do the math for every row, it should go much faster.  Yes it’s one of those geometric patterns that I like to walk, talk and knit at the same time it’s easier that way.