The last Monday of Summer

Today was a very mixed day for me. I got off to an early start a 6am with a lot of energy. I got 3 loads of laundry washed. Then packaged and addressed 2 parcels. Wrote a slew of checks and got them addressed. By the way in case you missed the last postal rate increase like I did the current 1st class letter rate is 47 cents, not 46 as I had thought. It must be a common problem because they had an envelope of penny stamps at the post office for that very reason. I also did some house cleaning on top of all the other activities.

By 10 am it was nap time which lasted until lunch time. Followed by a little more cleaning and a trip to the post office. I still had an hour before I needed to pick up Eric so I walked around the Brandy Fenton Park. I spent a little time in the butterfly garden. There were a few butterfly's. Then a lap around the rest of the park. I have decided that the water play area is nice and I need to borrow a friends son so I can go play in it. She suggested that we find a way to cover Eric's chair because we do not have a stroller for Eric to get wet and that he might like it too. I just hate to see what a stroller would cost that would fit Eric.

Eric and I watched the new episode of Sesame Street today. I think that they may have up graded their cameras over their break. I also did some finishing work and row counting so that I could update my counter for the 1 million row challenge. I added 970 rows to give me a total of 16,931 rows.  Here is a picture of one of the blankets that I did. Don't look for the pattern because it is a one off and I did not write the pattern down as I went. This one is a favorite and will go to a local hospital for a preemie.  After dinner it was more knitting and watching TV with John. For those keeping track of the World Challenge walk, I did manage to get in my 10,000. steps today. Well it is getting late, everyone else is asleep so I should be too.

A Very Busy Day

Well after another long night with Eric, it was nap time this morning when he went to his day program. After a few hours of really deep slumber it was caffeine with sugar time. After that kicked in, I spent the next 2 1/2 hours cleaning and throwing.  Finding a few things I needed but a lot that I did not. At least 4 loads went out to the recycling barrel today. Thank goodness the trash company emptied it this morning or it would have over flowed and they just don't like that. I even inspired John to add to his to do list getting rid of papers we don't need. He now has to keep up with me in the cleaning.

 After being married for so long I never thought it would happen. John has always been the neat organized one. I come from generations of pack rats. Keeping everything because you never know when you will need this gizmo or that empty jar. I am now finding that the neater and less cluttered the house is the more time I have to craft. Plus it takes me a lot less time to find things. I have more free time too.  I have not told John this yet but he is right and has been right all along.

I also had time for some finishing work today. I wove in and trimmed all the loose yarn. When I manage to get everything tagged and photographed I can add over 1,000 rows to my 1 Million Row Challenge.

I did find time this afternoon to start making the earrings for Wednesday. So far 4 pairs are finished. Since I will not have time to make all the earrings that I had hoped to, I will be adding a new component to Wednesdays fundraiser for Taglit. For a donation of $25.00 to the Taglit Day program, I will make you a custom pair of earrings on the spot. You will get to choose the components and no one else will have anything like it. So be sure to stop by the Tucson JCC on Wednesday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. There will also be plants for sale, along with Mothers Day Soap Bags, greeting cards and various hand made items. The majority of the money will help pay for the gardening and nutrition project. Any left over money will be used to cover things that the state does not cover. There is also a wish list of things that the program needs. For cash donations use this link. You can choose other and write Taglit in the box below.

Well there have been a couple of long days in a row. So hopefully Eric will sleep tonight or I will start the day with caffeine.

Multi-Tasking

I would like to dedicated this blog post to  Emma S. from Canada. A fan and a regular reader of my blog. Is very much interested to know how I manage the household tasks and the knitting. This is a very good question.

The first thing I would have to say is that I take my knitting absolutely everywhere I go. If I am at the grocery store I have a small project such as a hat or scarf with a very simple pattern. The plus side of this is when the lines get especially long I am usually the first person they take to the new line. I think this is because good customer service mandates that your customers should not be in line long enough to actually be doing a "hobby" and making progress. The only place this has not worked is Walmart.

I also take my knitting to restaurants. We are not the 5 star dining kind of folks. So After I have decided what to order out comes the knitting until the food arrives. The plus side of this that I eat less of the nibbles that are placed on the table. This is a two for. 1 more knitting. 2 less calories are consumed. It also works when everyone is having the desert I so dearly want and choose not to eat most of the time.

When I have to do the carpooling for Eric, I always have my knitting with me. Sometimes they run late in his day program. So I just sit and knit while I wait for Eric. I seem to be one of the only parents that does not get upset with them running long. I also knit while John is driving so I will not be a back seat driver I never knit while I am driving, please don't knit and drive as I feel this is very dangerous.  I have also been know to knit while walking in the mall or at street fairs. My hint for knitting at the movies would be very light colored yarns and a very easy pattern.

I also get a lot of knitting done when Eric is sick. With the children's channels they tend to be on a 6 hour or less repeat cycle. I have to say there are only so many times I can watch the same episode of a show in a 24 hour period. I do keep a fully loaded basket of yarn for scarfs or ponchos in Eric's room by the rocking chair. I also doing a lot of knitting during his breathing treatments ( 45 minutes, 2 times a day), I consider this my down time.

With all this being said, in reality I have 5 hours a day to get all my chores done in between driving Eric. So not much knitting gets done during the day. I am not above running the washing machine, dishwasher and dryer at night while I sleep to free up some time during the day. My biggest chore of the week is still laundry with an average of 20+ loads a week. I also love my I-Robot Roomba and Scooba, this allows me to do other chores while the machines are mopping or vacuuming. Multi tasking is the key. This might sound just awful to most people but one of the advantages to have a child with a lot of health issues is that his aides are responsible for keeping his room and bathroom straight and the rest of the areas of the house he uses neat.

The main part of my knitting gets done when I have time to meet up with friends or while watching TV after dinner.

So yes, I do manage to squeeze in a lot of odd moments of knitting. Each row by it self is not much, but a stolen minute here and there really adds up to a lot of rows.

On the Road to 1 Million

It has been hinted at by various people that my aspiration to knit a million rows and keep track of those rows might be a bit obsessive. That I might even need "to get a life". How can I not aspire to knit a million rows with all that lovely yarn around. Did you also notice that twice a year new yarn collections are released. That means that there is so much more yarn to fall in love with.

These are just some of the lovelies that I have been knitting in the last few weeks. I know some of you read this on your phones so I will not add all the pictures.

 So my answer is no. I am not be obsessive about knitting, just humour me and there maybe something in it for you too.

Knitting Time

I seem to get a lot of knitting done when Eric is sick. This is very good for the 1 million row challenge.  Today was no exception.  Right now I have 2 UFO ponchos in Eric's room. I am 1/4 of the way through both.  One has quiet needles the other has noisey needles. Depending on his mood is what I knit.

I was lucky enough to get a few mInutes of spinning and a trip to the supermarket in today also.    It is going to be a busy day tomorrow, so I think it is time to turn in. Sp

A Day Off in Mommy Speak

Today I took a mommy version of a day off.  I went light on the laundry.  I did one load but did not fold it.  Brought the dry clothes off  the line and put them away. Re did the linen drawer in the kitchen and moved the towels that had seen their better day to the rag pile. Of course the drawer is all nice and neat now.  Got Scooba ready to run on the kitchen floor and started her. This was all before I dropped Eric off at his day program.

The it was waiting for the Century Link guy to fix the telephone yet again. This time it was 2 bare wires touching each other and doing random shorts in the system. So I caught up on e-mail and such. Then it was off to do a return, get some lunch and go to Trader Joe's. Since I went after lunch none of the food looked appealing at all, so we landed up with goat cheese sandwiches and salad for dinner. I put most of the grocery's away and did some light picking up before it was time to go get Eric.

Then it was Barney, followed by Dinosaur Train. When Eric's aide arrived I did some finishing work on 3 projects so I could take their pictures and post them to the 1 Million Row Challenge. If the mittens look like they are different sizes please remember that I knit each one on a different flight. I am 327 rows into the challenge, I only count rows on finished projects. I will get more knitting done tomorrow.

Eric was a bit fussy tonight and wanted more mommy time. It is all quiet at the back of the house so I think is is time to go to sleep.

A Busy Day

It has been a very busy non-stop day for me. It took me most of the day, all 5 hours of it with out Eric to get through the top 5 items on my to do list. So to save time tomorrow I wrote my to do list tonight. That should save a good 5 minutes, which might be useful tomorrow.

I did not have much time for knitting or spinning. I still did find the time to get 1/3 of the way through the first fingerless mitten. I really think the person who picked the yarn will be happy with them. All I can say is the merino/silk combo is just yummy. John says my new found fondness for small projects is that the row count for the 1 million row challenge will go fast.

Well it seems that my boss has settled in for the night and I have another very busy day tomorrow. it's time to say good night.

1 Million Row Challenge

Well the washing machine is officially down for 2 more weeks and I will be making twice weekly trips to the Laundromat. I don't think I could stand doing it once a week and doing 20+ loads at once. As it was I used the jumbo machines that hold between 2 and 4 loads each today.  I still had 6 full wash loads today. I brought along a wool cowl to work on today and now understand why people in hot humid climates prefer cotton for summer knitting. Did I mention that the Laundromat has a swamp cooler.  It was at least 85 degrees and 50+%  humidity outside today, this is not what the cooler was designed for.  I still did manage to get 3 rows knit while doing the laundry.

We are up to 57 members in the 1 Million Row Challenge .Just use this link if you would like to join us. Remember we are there to have fun and use up our old and newly acquired stash yarn. Yes any yarn that crosses our thresholds is considered stash yarn. I wounder if any local yarn shops would like to get involved, by hosting knit ins or party's? After all having a bunch of fiberholics around is sure a good way to add to our stashes. Did you really think 1 Million Rows would reduce my stash by much?

We are crossing our fingers that the leaky roof is now fixed so that we can tear out the damaged wall board and replace it. Then repaint. I hope the carpet decides to dry out with out any mildew otherwise we will be replacing that too, but not with white. Beige or brown would be my first choice, after all it does not show the dirt. Which of course would leave me more time for knitting and spinning.

Next week will be my official spin/knit-a-thon week. I have heaps of projects lined up from wrist warmers to shawls. I also have my drop spindles and braids lined up.  My goal is to have as many projects done as possible by next Saturday. I will give my row/skein count and show pictures next Sunday.

I wonder if I have time for a quick nap?

One Million Row Challenge

Last night I decided to share the One million Row Challenge with my fellow knitters and crocheter's on Raverly.  We are using the hash tag 1 mil rows to identify the projects, I would like to thank Melissa for coming up with the hash tag. We have also found a counter thanks to Annette & Alexander and here is the link to The Ticker Factory .

If you would like to join us in this journey just follow this link to Raverly 1 Million Rows Challenge . As of this blog Post we have 32 people going at their own pace, trying to bust their stashes. We all plan on having a good time doing it.

Have a great evening of knitting and family time.

The Million Row Challenge

The guys are very creative in thinking up ways to get me to use up my stash yarn.  So tonight they came up with the million row challenge. Its suppose to be knit entirely from stash yarn. I am not sure if that includes new stash yarn that just happens to land in my stash. You know how those stash fairies can be. They did not say if I should count the newly spun yarn, after all once it is spun it is technically stash yarn. They said I could choose any patterns I wanted to do, with any stash yarn I had. The goal is to knit a 1,000,000,000 rows.

They also threw in a bonus that I could count the shawl I am working on now for the challenge. This is a good thing because I am already 100 rows in. Which leaves 999,999,900 rows left to knit.

What I am looking for is a good row counter for the blog. So any ideas would be wonderful. Also does anyone want to join me in this endeavor? I would love some company along the way. In that train of thought do you think I should start a Raverly group? Who would like to join the group, if I started it?

Well it is getting late and I have dragons to slay tomorrow. So Good night all.