My Favorite Season

 Summer is my absolute favorite time of the year.   My body used to love the heat.  Notice that I said used to.  Now in the season when it is gloriously hot I have to stay inside when the temperature tops 100f.  Gone are my favorite times to go out shopping when it was over 105f because all the stores, especially the grocery stores were empty.  My body no longer likes the heat because it malfunctioned. 

I used to go outside just to have the summer heat warm my body.  Muscle aches and pain just seemed to melt away.  I tried that today for a walk to the mail box, but after a minute or 2 it was time to go back inside so my body did not throw a temper tantrum.  

The summer used to do awesome things for my hands.  Now after an hour or 2 of very slow knitting, my hands are just tired and stiff.  

It seems because of the high temperatures until Monday night, I will be home all weekend.  I might try an early run to the post office next week.  

So I guess it’s time to design my new knitting room layout.  I pretty much have a plan in my head.  Now I just have to put it on paper.  

I should also try to finish plying a drop spindle project.  Do you know how incredibly fast yarn drys in this heat after it has been treated to a hot bath.  

It will also be a good time to try to fill the recycling bin.  So I can have a clear table to repair John’s quilt before winter.  You just know winter is coming.  Maybe we will be treated to some sweater weather.  

If you are anywhere in the world that you are having extremely hot weather please remember to drink more water than you are used to drinking.  No polyester clothing.  Wear cotton or linen and try to keep the sun off your skin.  Wear sunscreen if you don’t already wear it year round.  Blue jeans with a long sleeve t-shirt is the perfect choice for hot and sunny days.  

Just remember when we are in the slogs of winter you will want summer back.  

A Big Change to My Knitting Room

 I am cleaning out my knitting room yet again.  I made a serendipity stop to an estate sale. At the estate sale, I found a beautiful dresser that looks like a cabinet. This will be replacing all the plastic storage in my knitting room. So I’m getting the room ready for the delivery by moving everything out of the way. To give them room to put the new cabinet in.

The old storage containers are all plastic. I will put that picture on top. The new storage container is solid wood. I got a fantastic price of $100 plus a $50 delivery fee. I don’t think I could get anything new or similar in size even in particleboard for the same price. This should bring down the clutter quite a lot because I think it has more storage than my current system. It even has shelf space so I can take baskets off the floor. Isn’t that wonderful?

My old storage containers. They are getting to the point of needing to be replaced. It would cost more than the $100 plus delivery fee to replace them every 4 or 5 years. I am really hoping that the new system pictured below will be a one and done. More money for yarn perhaps. Maybe not, if my family has a vote. After all it is made with solid wood. 

I am hoping that the new system pictured below will be a one and done. After all the cabinet is made of solid wood, not sure what kind though. Even better than that, I am giving the cabinet a new home and life.  This time my serendipity paid off big time. Estate sales can be wonderful if you know what you are looking for. I am also thinking this might have been a custom piece because the cabinet matches the wood floors and matching desk in the home I found it in. 

I found the piece in an estate sale run by Take Heart, Store, Estates & Auctions.  They are located at 463 N. Haskell Avenue, Wilcox, AZ 85643. Their email address is takeheartedtates@gmail.com where they post information about current estate sales and auctions.  Mary is a very nice person to work with.  

Addendum: Fo to a miss Communication the item was sold this morning. So I guess I’m not getting to rearrange my knitting room today. But at least I know what I want and can continue the search.  

It’s Getting to Be a Habit

 This seems like a very good trend to me.  I have finally finished another project.  Gee, didn’t I mention that yesterday too?   My first completed project of Tour de Fleece this year. Well this was a spinning project.  I spun 8 ounces of 75% BFL and 25% silk dyed by Twisty Desert Dames and sold exclusively at Grandmas Spinning Wheel in Tucson Arizona.  This was plyed with ITO 100% silk in the color Persimmon.  I used one  464 yard cone for the largest skein. I had varying amounts of the ITO silk on other cones and managed to empty 3 more cones.  This is why the 4 skeins are 4 different sizes.  The raw silk also adds a unique texture to the finished yarn that I would not have been able to create with silk or cotton thread.  This is why bespoke yarn is so expensive   

I was originally thinking of knitting fingerless gloves with this yarn.  However, now that the yarn has been hot soaked to set the ply and dried, the yarn is just screaming make me into a shawl.  This is my most expensive spinning project in a very long time, with the cost of supplies coming in at about $100.  So unless someone is willing to fork over $500 for the 4 skeins. I plan to make a bespoke shawl with the yarn.  If you want less expensive yarn, I would suggest going to Grandmas Spinning Wheel in Tucson Arizona or any other Local Yarn store.  

Now for a picture of the yarn.  

Getting a Head Start on Christmas projects for 2027

 I am getting a head start for next’s year’s Old Pueblo Knitting Guild Navajo scarf project.  The team already has enough scarfs for this year’s delivery. So, since the scarf is too warm for my local project, it will be put away for next year’s event. I am very happy that another project is completed.  

Very Great Full to My Friends

 Thursday at the Tucson Old Pueblo Knitting Guild my fellow knitting guild members donated five larger carrier bags and three grocery bags full of socks, and hand knit hats. All the items are going to my favorite School District Clothing Bank next week.  

If you would like to join a great group of people check out our website at Tucson Old Pueblo Knitting Guild. If you would like to join us our members knit, crochet, do machine knitting and weaving, any fiber artist are welcome.  

Lost, Found and Spinning

Today was a very mixed day.  I had a very slow start, I meant to get to the grocery store before lunch. That did not happen. 

Before I went grocery shopping, I had to find a couple lost things. Of course, one of those were my earbuds that are always getting lost. Luckily, I have a tracker on my phone to help find my earbuds. Although it did get complicated because it showed the location as the couch. So I looked under the couch and did not find them. I looked behind the couch and did not find them. I looked in the cupholders and the storage container. I removed all my blankets and shawls from the couch. They were still missing, but I was close. So then I started looking through knitting bags, of course my earbuds were hiding in a knitting bag. Where else would they be playing hide and seek from?

Then it was off to find the microwave popcorn maker. I looked in all the usual storage spaces, not once but twice. I looked possible storage places. Then, as a last ditch effort I thought why not look where the pots and pans are  stored . Of course it was hiding behind a pile of pots. 

Then it was off to the grocery store to get everything. Between coupons and gift cards I saved over $70 today. I’m really happy with that. I had thought that after I had gone grocery shopping, I would spend some time spinning, boy was I wrong. It was nap time. I was too tired to do anything.

We had a simple dinner at home. Then it was time for spinning. Well, actually plying the yarn I finished spinning yesterday. I must be really out of shape, because after plying one skein of yarn I was exhausted and needed a rest.  I guess I will have to build up to plying more than one skein of yarn on the drop spindle at a time. It was a lot more work than I remembered.maybe I will try to get Peyton a couple of times a day to get the project finished sooner.

After that, I watched some television and worked on a simple Tunisian crochet scarf.  I am on the last skein. 

TTFN. It has been a very long day and tomorrow is over packed.  

Tour de Fleece 2026

 On this the second day of the Tour de Fleece, I would like to say that I am doing it a little different this year. As I have been doing since January, I am trying to finish my UFOs, that includes hands-spun yarn. I have a lot of projects that did not get finished when I got sick two years ago. So those are first on the agenda for this year‘s tour. Since I’m not going for any prizes except for maybe a cleaner knitting  and spinning room I’m totally fine with this. 

I cleared the yarn off of 12 spindles today. There were 11 from a 3.9 ounce braid from www.edgewoodgardenstudio.com in the color Dusty Plain 1 in Stricken Lonk Wool which I had never spun before this. If you have never spun with Stricken Lonk wool I would highly recommend it. This wool is amazing, I used very tiny light weight spindles weighing in at about 18 grams all the way up to 1.5 ounces and got the same fine spin with all of them. 

On the Hansen electric wheel I have a braid that I am currently plying. The skein was bought at Grandmas Spinning Wheel her in Tucson. The braid is an in house dyed line by Cassie and Jessica. The braid is a merino and silk blend that I am plying with ITO raw silk. The yarn feels amazing. I am hoping that I have enough to knit a pair of fingerless mittens for myself. 

When I get caught up, I will bring out two batts with wool I have never worked with before. It’s a European wool that is raised on a small farm, locally processed near the farm.  The business the process this wool has been in business with the same family since 1800s. And then I bought the batts from a  company that specializes in small batch fibers from Europe.  

I am going to mainly concentrate on my drop spindles, Turkish Spindles and see if I can do a little bit of supported spinning.  My personal feeling on the subject is that I can spin on a Navajo spindle, supported spindles are very similar.  Although in the future I would like to trade my big company Navajo type spindle for a Dine made spindle.  I understand the balance is much better. The craftsmanship is usually better too. 

Below is a picture of my 11 spindles of Stricken Lonk Wool.  You can see what I mean by the different size spindles.  

Updated with the picture of the spindles loaded with Stricken Loch yarn   

Fun Things May Be Coming

 I have been playing with a new to me yarn called Coastal Cotton Ocean Mist by the Queensland Collection.  The yarn is 100% Cotton, the label says it is Pure Soft Cotton.  I must wholeheartedly agree with that statement.  By the way it is carried by both of Tucson’s Local Yarn Shops, Birdhouse Yarns and Grandma’s Spinning Wheel.

I chose this yarn because I am currently knitting items for a higher end charity event.  I wanted my yarn to reflect this. So far with the first skein I have made one 8” x 8” washcloth.  I have enough yarn to make a second washcloth which I started tonight.  If I have enough to make 3 washcloths I will add an addendum to the bottom of this post. 

I am really rocking geometric shapes in the patterns that I am designing. The yarn seems to be holding up well to this fun style of knitting.  I am also pleased with the yarn definition as I’m changing between knitting and pearling. I am also not using a pattern or sketches of any kind. I am just going with the flow. 

For full disclosure. I purchased all the yarn for the charity auction work, replacing yarn in current patterns and for the new patterns in the works. I purchased half the yarn from each of my locally owned yarn shops. If this yarn is not available locally to you both shops will take phone orders and mail out the yarn and anything else that they carry.

Knitting Accessories

 It has been determined that my husband’s car has a preference to what knitting accessories it likes to eat. It’s number one choice is the expensive Chibi darning needles. Once one falls I will never get it back.  I have tried flashlights and magnets to no avail. 

The car however, does not like stitch markers which is a huge surprise to me because I loose so many. The car practically spits them back at me. My guess is the car just does not know what to do with stitch markers.  

Does your car have a preference to what knitting accessories it likes to eat?  I am just curious. 

No Yarn Chicken for Me

 Tonight I decided that there was not enough remaining cashmere on the skein to knit 2 rows.  Since I don’t like frogging Cashmere I decided to change the yarn at the end of the row. I thought it would give the shawl, a more elegant look.

So it was time to change to the second color, which is 222 g of  hand spun yarn.  The yarn was a spinning challenge to try to make a color way that looked like a Monet‘s paintings. I think I came pretty close. Also the bonus is that one of the shades of the hand spun yarn Has the same red color as a cashmere yarn. 

Since the shawl is going to a charity auction. I will not be taking pictures of it because it is something called a blind auction. I will pack it up in a box with a note inside that they can read after they have won the auction. I like the idea of bidding on a mystery box.  I will be making several boxes for this charity event. Almost all will include something hand knit. 

So I will include a picture Of the Yarn I decided not to play chicken with. I will also say if you ever have a chance to knit with high-quality cashmere yarn go for it. Even if it’s not the whole project, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

I Need More Spoons

 I am sad that my body will not keep up with what my mind wants to do.  I am really getting tired, no pun intended, of not having the spoons to knit my new knitting project after dinner. 

Even more that I am in the mood to clean and declutter but if I do it standing and walk around the house, it’s 20 minutes max before I need a 2 hour nap.  If I am lucky enough to be able to do the project sitting down, I can go for hours.  I just can’t figure out why there is such a difference.  

I have also decided to get a wooden coat stand with shelves for my knitting and spinning baskets.  That will free up more shelf space for yarn and kits.  It will also leave the floor empty so John can run his robot in the room occasionally.  

Well it’s time to call it a day.  

The Next Batch

 The next batch of yarn to leave the house is all Sugar and Crème yarn that I used for fundraising efforts for Eric’s day program.  I got the yarn whenever it was on sale at least 50% off the regular retail price. I did this because I used to give the day program 100% of the sale price.  So stocking up on yarn at really low prices made sense. After Eric died we as a family decided that it was time for the parents of current participates to take over the fundraising efforts.  It was also time for me to explore the next chapter in my life. 

The yarn is going to a Tucson knitting group who make hand knit and crocheted washcloths and other items to sell to raise funds for The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona is a cause that our family has supported since so last century.  So I feel very good about where all the Sugar and Crème yarn is going. A little over 100 quarts of yarn. My ultimate goal is to get my yarn stash into counting it by skeins instead of quarts and gallons.  Wish me luck on that one. 

I am also going to put a Google link at the bottom of this post if you would like to help out The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.  Of course at this time of country wide need because of  the current climate in Washington D.C. all our food banks across the country need help. So I am asking all of my readers to be a blessing in their areas to support your fellow community members. Whether it is your local food bank, Meals on Wheels, religious organizations that house and feed people, helping out with school supplies and clothing, everything helps. 

As a bonus for the group members I am also going through my knitting and crochet magazines to give them all the ones that I no longer want.  

I never knew that getting rid of extra yarn and the things like books that I have already read would make me physically feel a lot lighter.  Not to mention give me more space.  I might be nearing the end of this deep cleaning cycle but rest assured there will be more on the way.  

Did Someone Say UFO

 The down side to doing a massive knitting room clean up is finding all the UFO’s that I had hidden away.  Below you can see a picture of my fireplace. This is only about 80% of my current UFO’s. Each bag holds a between 1 and 6 UFO’s.  Two of the bags hold my charity knitting projects, the are always being refilled with yarn because I like to make as many hats and scarfs for the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank as possible. I have a few different projects going for the Navajo Knitting Project, I make very large scarves for the older kids and I am currently working on 3 for next year. 

On the far right side of the picture are 12 kits set up for weaving scarfs mostly for different charities.  I believe that I have enough scarfs for myself and family at this point. 

The rest include patterns that I wanted to try. Patterns that I was designing and did not meet the mark or have things that need to be changed before it can become a viable pattern.  Even classes that I have taken and not finished the project  

There are at least 20 bags on the fireplace. I also have other bags and baskets of spinning, weaving and knitting projects scattered throughout the house. 

My goal for the rest of the year is to complete as many of these UFO’s as possible without starting too many new projects.  That is really going to be the hard part.  Wish me luck on this one.  

330 Gallons of Yarn

 This stage of my latest yarn de stash is complete.  I know that you have heard this countless times before. It has not been my biggest de stash of yarn. There was still an epic number of gallons of yarn that left my yarn stash over the past few days. So far it is 11 bags with a total of 330 gallons of yarn leaving the house. I also have an empty 32 quart bin going into the garage. 

If you are interested in acquiring any of this yarn please follow The Old Pueblo Knitting Guild to find out when the yarn sale will be.  Be sure to arrive earlier rather than later for the best selection of yarn.  I know people who drive from out of state just to go to this yarn sale.  Go to Old Pueblo Knitting Guild.org.  There you will find information on what we do as a knitting guild. The charities we support. Find out how you can join. You can even make a donation to help cover the cost of some of our charity work.

In this latest donation for the yarn sale, I have included Aspirational Yarn with projects that I wasn’t sure what I was gonna make with the yarn someday. Only that I loved the yarn. I have also included a lot of size 1,2 and 3 weight yarns because I can no longer work with smaller knitting needles.  It absolutely broke my heart to have to remove from my stash, some beautiful yarns, including silks and silk blends. It is the time of my life to become more pragmatic about what I keep and what I get rid of. I hope the Yarn that is leaving the house finds a really good Knitter or Crocheter to make beautiful projects.

With that being said, my knitting and spinning room is more organized. More useful to me because I know where everything is. And I even put together a few projects with some of my hand spun yarn which are destined to go to another funding raising project for another organization. And I know you will believe that I found a few more UFOs. I have also found projects to tink and make something much better or fix major construction problems. 

Now it is time to work on my current knitting project.  

6 Bags Full

 Off to check my entire stash for mislabeled yarn.  I guess that I need to bring a wraps per inch tool to big shows in the future.  While doing a de stashed on Wednesday morning I found over $200 in yarn mislabeled as fingering weight yarn. I relied on the seller at a large yarn show would actually know the weights of the yarn she was dying and selling.  On closer inspection the yarn had over 500 yards for 4 ounce skein and required a U.S. knitting needle size from 1 to 3. Not fingering weight any way I look at it.  More like lace weight or super fine. Should have been labeled at a Zero or One.  It turns out it was only one Indy dyer had the issue. I have decided not to call her out publicly: however; I have not ordered from her since the pandemic began. So if I have ordered from you since then you are doing a fantastic job. 

Because of too many hand surgeries and arthritis I can’t use any knitting needle smaller than a U.S. 5.  Off to check out 23 shelves of yarn plus all my bins.  I might as well get it done sooner rather than later.  If I can’t use the yarn it does not belong in my stash. This way someone who can use it will be able to add it to their stash.  This might just take the rest of the week.

I am also glad that I did not order more bags to organize my projects earlier this week. It turns out that I have a few extra yarn bags right now.

I think I will pull in another chair and pull the yarn from each shelf off to that chair.  That way I can sit while working.  I am also taking Thursday off.  It is a well deserved break since I cleared 6 grocery bags of yarn that I pulled from my stash today.  I still have the bins to go through.  

Since I have gone through my stash multiple times in the past years, I urge you to go through your own stash’s.  If you are now no longer a beginner, your yarn tastes have changed.  Feel free to sell them or give them away.  I find it’s best to keep my stash to my current likes and abilities.  

I Lied

This morning I said I was only going to de stashing one carrier bag of yarn. Well I exceeded my goal by also adding a shopping bag.  It will all leave the house this week. If you would like a chance to buy some of my de stashed yarn please watch for the time and date of the next Old Pueblo Knitting Guild Annual Yarn Sale. It happens in January every year. The Yarn Sale helps us support our on going charity projects.  For more on the Old Pueblo Knitting Guild just click this link. 

I also had a major oops. I told John that I did not have any more of his 3D printed Yarn Butler's, that I desperately needed him to print me another one.  Well,

I found the original prototype for the yarn butler, it has a purple base, a red spindle and a white yarn guide. Also the bolts on the bottom are not covered. This was definitely the proof of concept and not ready for prime time yarn butler. It still works very nicely.

Now I am off to wind yarn, finish 2 projects on the spinning wheel, get a few more yarn magazines out of the house. I will be dropping them off at the Oro Valley Library, Friends of the Library section.  They sell for 25 cents and help buy new books and other things that all libraries need.  Check them out if you are in the area. I will also be starting a new charity project. It’s going to be a busy day around here. 

Getting Out

 I had to get out of the house today.  I was feeling blah for a few days and needed to rest.  So I was bored. I needed something different to do. I really wanted to start a new project today. Specifically a new pair of fingerless mittens for sleeping. However; between knitting, Tunisian crochet, and spinning I have at least 20 projects in different stages of progress. It also seems that when I organize my knitting room, I also find one or two projects that need to be completed or tinked. So the I have a never ending pile of UFO’s. Not to mention the couple of projects I am donating to a charity auction. The summer t shirts and unfinished class work.

My solution was to go to the grocery store. I was very nice and did leave a few pieces of fruit for the other shoppers. Even in season fresh figs.  Also on the plus side Sprouts does not carry any yarn or fiber supplies. 

Now I will go try to make some forward progress on a project or two. 

More Searching Through My Yarn Stash

 Over the weekend I was asked to knit a couple of shawls for a fundraiser by a friend.  So this morning I went through 4 out of 5ish shelves filled with yarn kitted up for shawls. I know I should really go through the rest of the shelves.  In my defense I have already filled a weekender bag full of shawl kits.  

I am also really afraid that I will find more than my 2 newly found UFO’s for me.  I was really thinking that I had whittled down my current batch of UFO’s to less then 10.  I really do not want to find more.  I swear UFO’s hide everywhere not wanting to be found. I wonder if the yarn just does not want to be seen in public.

I will start with some of the bulkier yarn as those shawls will go relatively quickly. Then I will work my way down to the lighter weight yarns. If I happen to make more than two for the fundraiser, so be it.

Now I have to go bring my squirrel cage back to the knitting room so I can skein up the first shawl.  

Below are the kits I pulled out for charity knitting projects.   

Time to Finish My Shawl

 The tinking is finally done.  It looks like I will have 3 or 4 rows to knit before I do my bind off.  The pattern is Grandma’s Summer Shawl available on Ravelry or your local yarn store.  The yarn is by the French dyer la Bien Aimee in Paris. The yarn is a DK four skein gradient in super wash Merino. I am using a U.S. 5 or a 3.75mm ChiaGoo SWIVEL Interchangeable needles. Near the end you will need to attach a 50 inch and an 8 inch cord together. It is quite wide at the bottom.  

The shawl is no longer a problem project. The shawl is now just a regular UFO.  Today I knit 2 additional rows and still not have passed the tinking mark in the final skein of the shawl.  I might be off on my final estimate of how many rows that I need to knit before I cast off. 

Below is a picture of a form problem project.  I brought it to Bruggers Bagles to work on it with friends. 

A Book Review

 I managed to snag a First Edition of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. It is a fabulous book.  The paper is a very good quality which made it much easier for this dyslexic to read.  Thank you so much for the high quality of the paper, it matches the quality of the book.  

For people who know me well, this will come as a huge shock.  It usually takes me a minimum of a few months to read a book from cover to cover.  I read Automatic Noodle in less than a week from the time the book arrived at my house. The writing is excellent. The plight of the robots pulled me in.  The biang biang noodles sounded so intriguing that I want to try a new food. I wonder if I can find them in Tucson? 

The story takes place in a fictional post war San Francisco. It documents how the robots manage to overcome adversity to build a new life and family. There are perils along the way. Along with flashbacks of the past.  This is a good summer read.  I highly recommend this book.  

I bought Automatic Noodle from bookstore.org.  I paid for the book myself.  I have not received compensation to write this quick review.