Life Choices

 The thought occurred to me this morning that every single person in the Saturday spinning group had a vastly different childhood than mine. My childhood tormenter is near the end.  Which made me wonder what it must have been like if I was not waiting for my next misstep and the ensuing battle royal while growing up.  Even if I did not do a misstep and took the unwarranted blame and punishment for a siblings actions. 

Would I be more sure of myself and my choices in life? Would I have the courage to say no when I really wanted to? Would I still be so insecure about my whole life?  Would I have a stupid autoimmune disease that has been blamed on childhood trauma? 

What I do know is despite everything, I have tried to change the trajectory of my life. Sometimes with overwhelming success and other times with abject failures.  I did my best to be the complete opposite of my tormentor.  Sometimes being a little bit too ridged in hindsight.  I prayed everyday that I could get it right. Some days were better than others.  I also know that if my life had been different, I would not have a stupid scar on my left hand 63 years after a punishment.  I can’t even think about why anyone would do that to a toddler.  

I don’t know if I will ever get rid of my insecurities caused by my childhood.  Even the feeling that I will be all alone because my tormenter called me a bad person and their life and the world would be better without me. As an adult I know that this is totally out of bounds remark that I heard at least once a day.  

I hope and pray everyday that I am worthy enough to be part of my husband and children’s lives.  That my friends can accept my foibles brought about by my less than desirable childhood.  That I can make the world a better place.  That I am a much better parent and human being than my tormenter ever was.  

That the statement that childhood abuse lasts a life time is so true.  Ask me how I know? Many details have been left out to protect the guilty at the end of life.

Please make the effort to treat all children with the respect that they deserve. Please remember that “All G’d’s children are special all the time. “

My First Plying

 Ok I have the first 3 plys done for Tour de Fleece 2024.  As you can tell by the 3 skeins of yarn the first plying attempt was not as good as the second or third.  I find that’s the great thing about being an artist, everything is not set in stone except marble sculptures.  

So instead of going from the top down on a shawl with my Tour de Fleece spinning, I have a new game plan.  The first skein of yarn will go into a one of a kind scarf for a child who utilizes the Flowing Well’s School District Clothing Bank. Since the yarn is way too bumpy to knit.  The yarn will add a unique texture to the scarf.  Nothing goes to waste.  Everything in art has a purpose.  

I will continue with my Tour de Fleece spin and come up with a game plan for the rest of the yarn.  The pictures below are pre snd post washing and thwacking.  

This and That

 As I write this blog post we have had over an inch of rain since dinner time.  There were a lot of micro bursts that broke a lot of power poles.  This time we feel very lucky not to be in the red or pink zones without power.  This storm came in hard and fast  enough to trigger a weather related headache. It is supposed to rain for 2 more hours. I hope that by dawns early light the storm damage will be minimal.

I am almost done with the first  of 3 sections of my Tour de Fleece spin.  Hopefully that will be finished soon.  

I got overheated last Wednesday morning and my body just ground to a halt.  So most of the week has be spent resting.  I use to find the summer heat energizing because I hurt less.  Somehow this summer even dashing between the store and my car is very draining.  I just can’t figure it out yet.  I hope it is only temporary. Only time will tell.  

Testing My Limits

 As a spinner, I always like to test my limits on how full I can fill a bobbin or drop spindle.  My new Hansen mini pro e-spinner is no exception.  While plying my first bobbin of Tour de Fleece 2024 I got to within 1/8 of an inch of the flyer.  I was plying a worsted weight yarn.  I had o problem at all getting the bobbin filled with my first 7 stages plus a coordinating color.  I am spinning up the rest of the coordinating color to use as a break between the stages for knitting my new shawl.

I am still experimenting on where I want the bobbins that I am plying to be. I think I have ruled out having the bobbins adjacent To the e- Spinner, it is just too awkward to pull the yarn out smoothly from the bobbins. Right now I am experimenting with having the bobbins on a step stool which is about 12 inches off the floor. This seems to be working because I am not using my spinning chair. I am using a regular office chair. This seems to be a good distance and an easier plying experience. I also think the yarn looks better. I will have a better idea after washing the yarn to set the twist. 

I am projecting that I will not finish all the stages on time.  This is my current priority spin so I can get the shawl knit up.  I am not sure if I will use an existing pattern or design a new one.  It all depends on the yarn and what it wants to be.  

Books and More Books

 I have turned into a book dragon.  Collecting books faster than I have been reading them.  It may have been pointed out that the books exceed my current shelf space.  So there is only one solution that I am on board with. I will take 30 minutes a day to read the books until the piles are depleted.  I know that this will take longer than the other suggestions that I have received and rejected.  

As I finish the books, I will give you the title and author with a thumbs up or down.  Then if they are not autographed copies which I intend to keep, I have developed a plan of action.  

1. Try Bookman’s first. This is because I can take the exchange credit and trade for new socks for a local children’s clothing bank  that I like to support, this is a win-win for me.

2. One of the tiny free libraries around Tucson.  If by chance I finish a book while traveling, I will try to find a tiny library to leave it at or a coffee shop with a bookshelf.  

If you have any other ideas please let me know in the comment section.  

Things That Make Me Grumpy

 There are some things that make me super grumpy.  Take my ResMed CPAP machine.  Apparently they either have a manufacturing issue or a redesign boo-boo.  Either way I just installed power supply box number 3 for the year 2024.  Please understand that I am a fiber artist not an engineer.  I am not an expert. This is not my field of study, expertise or work area.  However this is July 19th and that means a power supply is lasting a little over 2 months each. I personally think that they should last much longer. Maybe even a year or 2.

I would like to point out that this is not a way to build customer satisfaction.  It is also bad for the environment.  E waste is hard to dispose of properly, many people do not have the knowledge or resources to dispose of e waste, so most land up in landfills.  It is definitely not the way to increase your bottom line. ResMed you have to do better. 

Another thing that makes me really grumpy is when a super big corporation buys a health food store then a few years down the line a new CEO takes over.  The new CEO decides that there are too many items that the store carries.  He looks at his labor cost and eliminates a very large portion of the healthy and vegan food, only to replace it with junk foods.  Yes, the “food” you replace the healthy food with is junk food. The employees are instructed to send the customers to the frozen food section for the items that we used to get made in house. The things do not taste as good.  Also cutting back the number of dairy free alternatives that taste good and not like cardboard is a mistake. I personally don’t consider soda to be a healthy choice.  Yes, Amazon and Whole Foods this is you. 

You have also turned a good portion of the front end into an Amazon return hub.  Eliminating indoor seating in the middle of the desert. You have cut off the restaurant hours to 2 days a week, instead of 7.  You have also cut the quality of the prepared food to go. Yes, people have noticed.  I am now buying my fruit at different grocery stores.  Safeway has a nice selection of cut up fruit at a better price.  Sprouts has a better selection of fresh fruit at a lower cost too. Trader Joe’s has a limited but good selection of fresh fruits and vegetables at a lower price.  

The specialty sector of the food industry requires knowledge of the food industry is a very hard market to do well in. It requires someone with a food industry background and experience. The food sector typically has a lower profit margin. That is usually made up with volume. Maybe it’s time to hire someone with experience in the field to run Whole Foods  

The last thing that is making me grumpy right now is my body and its inability to handle the heat. I was in a warm room for 3 hours on Wednesday morning.  It is Saturday morning and I am still dealing with the aftermath.  My spoons are low. I am aching almost every where.  I want my 30 something body back.  

This blog post was written over 2 days.  

TTFN

Spinning in the Dark

 Last night we had a rather wicked monsoon storm.  Over 32,000 homes and businesses in Tucson lost power.  A special thank you needs to go out to all he crews and staff of Tucson Electric Power Company who cut their weekend short to work through the night to get the power restored to the greater Pima County area.  There were still pockets of power outages this morning.  However the vast majority of businesses and homes had their power restored.  

Now it’s the turn of the cable companies, phone companies and data processors to fix their end of their share of the damage so businesses can run smoothly again.  I know that this will involve replacing some electronic equipment and rebooting other equipment.  This always takes longer.  

What we were doing during all of this.  We were out to dinner when the storm hit.  I just watched the very heavy rains while eating dinner.  It was not until we got closer to home that we saw and had to drive around tree branches that had snapped off of the trees. When we got to the house we realized we had lost power when we couldn’t open the garage door.  

John got all the flashlights ready.  He even had one that was powered off a drill battery.  It was too dark to knit because all of my projects are currently using dark yarn.  So I took my flashlight and grabbed a bowl of spinning.  We moved to the back yard to cool off.  The backyard was cooler than the house. I managed to spin almost 3 rolags in the dark.  I was using one of my Golding drop spindles.  I would highly recommend this spindle for spinning in the dark. The grove can be felt by finger tip. It’s very well balanced. The hook is very easily managed in the dark. Below is a picture of last nights spinning.  For a very low light spin, I am happy with the results.

4 Hours

 Between last night, this morning and afternoon I spent 4 hours beginning to organize my knitting room.  I went through every basket, plastic box and drawer on 2 sides of the room.  The net result so far is 5, yes five kitchen size trash bags full of yarn.  These will go with a friend up to Northern Arizona when she visits her family next time.  

The knitting room is down one rolling cart which will be for sale at the next Old Pueblo Knitting Guild meeting which is themed Christmas in July.  If you are in Tucson this coming Wednesday July 17th join us at St. Phillips Church at the corner of River Road and Campbell Avenue at 9:30am.  I will also have some of my hand spun yarn packed into kits that will include the yarn, a pattern and stitch markers.  I will price the yarn at hand dyed prices, instead of hand spun prices.  Now I have to spend the weekend pricing everything. 

I have also come to the realization that I have about 20 years worth of shawls for me to knit.  While I was busy clothing the community with winter hats and scarfs, I totally forgot about my needs.  I also have a few sweaters that will be knit after I make a dent in the shawls.  I have also come up with a brilliant idea for a lot of little skeins of sock yarn.  I will set up that bag after I finish all the pricing.  

So I have been talking about what is leaving the knitting room today.  Here is a visual for you.  

Tour de Fleece Spinning

 The picture of the bobbins tell the next chapter in my spinning journey.  I have gotten much more comfortable with my new Hansen mini pro e-spinner.  I still occasionally turn the speed dial to off when changing to the next bobbin. Then wondering why it won’t start. I am getting much better at remembering to put the break back on after changing the bobbins.  I have found that with my arthritis using pearl cotton as the leader is much easier to see and for my hands to get the fiber settled into than sewing thread.  I might be sacrificing a few inches of yarn, but that’s OK with me. 

In the past 2 weeks, I have upped my spinning skills with the e-spinner.  The bobbin in the front left is the first bag of pencil roving for my older sister.  This bobbin is just shy of 8 ounces.  So the bobbins hold a lot of fiber.  There is one more bag of that color to be spun on a second bobbin.  I will ply them onto a third bobbin until full and then refill the bobbin until I run out of yarn. 

 The bobbin in the front right is the second third ( stages 8 to 14),of the Tour de Fleece spin from Hilltop Cloud in Mallwyd, Wales. Katie is a fabulous curator and dyer of fiber.  It is also faster to get something from Wales than from some parts of the United States. The bobbin in back is the first third of the spin of Tour de Fleece.  Stages 1 to 7. Today I received the extra fiber I ordered from the first day of the spin for the purpose of plying with stages 1 to 7.  I will show that off when I am finished plying it.  Yes, I must spin it first and fast, as I am running out of bobbins. 

For all those who are curious about my other spinning wheels, I still have not gotten the clearance from the doctor to start using them again.  I am hopeful that it will be soon; however, I am prepared to pivot if necessary. So change might be necessary. I really did not think that would happen at all. I have bought and tried 2 e-spinners that did not work well with me.  This time I tried before I bought it. E-spinners are like drop spindles and spinning wheels. There are many different types and there is a right one for each person.  You just might have to try a few to get the right fit.  

It was a wonderful way to spend part of the day. Even though it was cooler with a high of only 107 Fahrenheit or 41.66 Celsius.  Verses yesterday’s 112 Fahrenheit or 44.44 degrees Celsius. This is summer in Tucson.  Although as the population grows, I think Tucson is turning into a heat island with too many paved surfaces and buildings. With not enough desert landscape. The nights are not cooling down much either and I worry about our cactus. That is my personal opinion and as of yet has not been back up by the science people. 

Still Working on My Summer Shawl

 I have got to love my long time knitting friends. When I complained today that my current shawl project was taking much too long to finish.  I am on the third section of four sections. Today they gently pointed out that if I am using lace weight yarn with U.S. size 4 or 2.5mm knitting needles it is going to take forever.  Below is my current progress on the shawl.  The pattern is 2 of 3 A Shawl Study, one of my knitting patterns, using 2 skeins of  Zooey by Juniper Moon Farm.  I divided each skein in approximately half.  It is a cotton / linen blend.  The yardage is approximately 568 yards for both skeins together. 

You might notice that I did not use the yarn called for in the pattern.  I always like encourage people to use what ever yarn they like. All you have to do is use the knitting needles that the yarn calls for.  Then follow the pattern. The size of the finished project and the gauge will not match the pattern, but that’s ok it’s your creation. 

The pattern 2 of 3 A Shawl Study by Sheri Karobonik Designs is available on Ravelry.com, Love Knitting.com or your local yarn store.  If you buy my pattern, I will get a share of the purchase price.  

I Need A Do Over on Monday

 My body was not particularly useful today.  I started off the day by dropping and spilling half a bottle of Excedrin.  The bottle just slipped out of my hands.  All I was left with was the cap in my hand and a huge mess on the floor. First I tried the Dyson stick vacuum. That only broke up the pills and sent the debris flying all over the place. So, I do not recommend the stick vacuum for spilled pills.  Then I got the big vacuum out.  I used the hand held wand which did a pretty good job.  John was very kind and reassembled the larger vacuum for me. We followed up with the robotic vacuum to get the broken bits that flew across 2 rooms.  I really don’t recommend dropping a bottle of aspirin on the floor first thing in the morning.  It just gives off bad vibes for hours.  Not to mention that it delayed my breakfast.

Next I went to package yarn for the Christmas in July event at you guessed it, the July Old Pueblo Knitting Guild meeting.  My electronic scale needed to be changed. It took me 30 minutes to find the charging parts.  The converter was in the silverware drawer with the soup spoons.  The charging cord was in the towel drawer near the bottom of the drawer.  I could have sworn that I stored all 3 items together to make things easier to find.  So the scale is now charged and waiting for me to find some time.  This I really can’t blame on my body.  

I tried to nap but could not get comfortable in the cooler rooms of the house.  It was 112F today in Tucson.  Which brings up the question of why my sinuses have not cleared up for summer. Usually 3 days of 100+ degree weather is enough to give me a few months of relief.  I am still waiting for that to happen.  

I did start my older sister’s spinning project.  The first package of pencil roving is almost finished.  I will spin the second package and ply them together.  Then I will go on to the next thing in the basket.  We sometimes trade off different craft projects.  

TTFN

Another Sunday in Summer

 Apparently it was not hot enough today for my freshly washed and thwacked yarn to dry in the garage.  At 108F or about 42C the yarn that was put out before lunch was not quite dry by bedtime. Maybe a high humidity of 18% is to blame.  It should be dry by morning.  

I almost caught up on my Tour de Fleece spin.  Instead of being 2 days behind, I am only 1/2 a day behind.  That is until tomorrow when I wake up to being 1 1/2 days behind.  Even with the e-spinner I have found that when I am having a difficult body day no matter how hard I try the yarn may just turn out a bit wonky.  Also I must remember to put the breaking cord on each time I change the bobbin.  Otherwise it really wonky things happen and it takes me a few minutes to figure it out.  With all that being said. I have had the e-spinner less than a month and overall it is going very well.   

I would love a change of scenery for some knitting.  However with the high at 109F I really don’t think outdoor knitting is really going to happen. It will be in the low 80’s at sunrise. Sighs.  So it will either be my audio book or watching the last episode of Geek Girl and finding another show to watch.  I really hope that they renew Geek Girl, it is cute and light television watching.   

TTFN

Adjusting for Extreme Heat

 Because of the extreme heat I have been staying at home with the exception of food shopping.  For some reason that I can’t fathom, my body is not tolerant of the heat this year.  Even a short trip to the mail box has me gulping down water and an urgent need to rest.  I am a summer person who up until this year loved the heat.  It made my body feel good.  This year not so much   I really hope that this is temporary.

So I have been getting to know my new e-spinner. I think I am up to some serious spinning now.  The learning curve was pretty flat.  The e-spinner is just starting to sing to me, which is always a good sign.  I thought that it would take about 2 dozen skeins of art yarn to get there.  I am totally floored that it took less than 6 skeins of yarn.  However, I did finish 6 skeins so that I would have another knitting kit.  

So tomorrow I am going to wash a bunch of newly finished skeins of art yarn.  None of the really fancy stuff.  Just the basic learning curve spinning.  It’s supposed to be 110f tomorrow, so if I get them washed early, they might be dry by bed time.  

TTFN