Random Life Events

There are just some activities that are much better to do with Teri. Yesterday I went to the new Lush store in Tucson. The store seemed to be about a third of the size of the one in San Jose, where I shop with Teri. I think I really needed Teri there.  If you ever want to have a great time just try shopping with Teri.

Some times it is very hard to have a child leave home. I miss her at odd moments. That being said, she has blossomed into a very wonderful young woman. She is working very hard to get her legal career off the ground. This leaves me proud and in awe of her at the same time. In my heart I know that she will soon have the job of her dreams, its just those darn speed bumps called the economy that get in the way.

Me on the other hand have a bad case of what I like to call Eric Shoulder, a repetitive injury from moving Eric very fast when he is coughing, chocking or in need of urgent intervention. My knitters elbow is acting up a bit from knitting an average of 120 rows a day for a few days. I must get this latest charity project out of the way so I can give my poor right arm a break.  The break will consist of crocheting some what nots and making earrings.

Well it is going to be a busy day tomorrow, so I am calling it a night.

Eric's Vacation Day 1

Eric's vacation day one went pretty well. I stopped at Starbucks for my free drink and then on to the dealership to do routine maintenance's on my brick. I would personally like to thank all the other customers for letting me switch the TV to the Disney channel instead of the news. Eric was really happy about that. I did manage to get a small hank of spinning done. I am still not knitting but my hands are feeling much better and I am on less aspirin.

We then went on to the VA to drop of a case of Christmas cards. Someone gave them to me and said that if I sent them out Eric would be cured. Well I had Eric deliver them in person and guess what he still has ML4. I am quite sure that the person meant well.

Then it was off to World Care to drop of some supplies destine for Joplin or some other community in need. Eric does love helping other people and doing charity runs, so I guess there will be a Goodwill run next week.

We then decided that we were to tired to head to Target, so we headed home for a nap. Eric was out before I was. After nap time we had a new aide for Eric, I don't know if it was him or me not feeling well but it did not go well.

John was gracious enough to bring home dinner so I did the polite thing and cleaned up from dinner. I know it is just so difficult to put takeaway out in the trash. Well it is getting late so good night all.

Saturday in Tucson

Need less to say my day did not go as planed. But I did manage to drop off a bag of hand knit items at a charity event before I came home. I have lots of skeins of freshly spun yarn hanging in the garage waiting to dry. Think back on my, plan a cold rainy day was not the best day to do the final processing of the yarn, so it will take a bit longer to dry.

A lot of random knitting went on but nothing was finished. A lot of progress was made on a lot of projects. I kinda of envy those who can work a project from start to finish without picking up another project. I am not that type of person so I have random knitting projects placed where ever I tend to spend time in the house. I even have my emergency knitting kit in my car. After all I never know when knitting will come in handy.

Some plying and spinning also went on. I definitely need to practice my plying to get a better technique down but since plying is a relatively new activity I suspect it will take some time to learn.

It was a very cold and rainy day here I think the high was around 48 and it rained all day. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the rain and we are at a rain deficient but some things just cant be done in the rain. Such as taking pictures of some of my newer projects.

Well it is getting late here and tomorrow is going to be a very long and busy day. So enjoy your families and have a great weekend.

And the Year Moves On

Well Eric is home sick again with some kind of stomach virus. Which means 4 loads of eyrpy laundry in less than 24 hours. But I used my time with Eric wisely today. I did all the finishing working the finishing basket. Finished 1 UFO and worked on a few more. I had a very short attention span due to lack of sleep last night. But knitting did get done, not a complete project all at once though.  We will not talk about the house work that did not get done or the errands.

My Priority List

1. Family
2. Laundry
3. Crafts
4. House Work
5. Errands

You guessed it I am not a domestic diva but things to get done in due course. Food does land on the table for dinner. Take to night, one of my best semi home made dinners, chili. Simple brown the meat open the cans and freezer bags of vegetables and add the spices. Stir up the corn bread 45 minutes before dinner and I have a happy family. One pot meals are great for days like today.

I wonder if John would consider it fibre encroachment if I put finished objects in the hall closet in giant Ziploc bags. Well I guess we will see when he does open the hall closet. I have to put the charity work some where before it can be dispatched.

Well it is time to pretend that some work got done today. So have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Still at Home

I am still at home with a sick boy. Yes this is another iPod blog. I am currently watching Sprout Good Night Show with Eric and hoping that he falls asleep soon.

In honor of my UFO month I finished 8 charity items in my finishing basket. This means that I only have to knit 42 more items to reach my 50 item goal of the year. When the light is better I will take pictures and post them so you can see the work so far. Supriseingly I also picked up Teri's blanket and finished 2 squares today. I don't think it will be done by the 28th of the month,but at this point any progress is good progress. John thinks that I might have it done in time for summer.

Well it looks like Eric is finally settling in for the night. So have a good one and enjoy your families.

So What Day of the Week is This?

After a long night with Eric, we went to the doctors today. The good news is that he has the crud that is going around. The bad news is that he will be home for at least 1 more day. My sincere hope is that with the grace from heaven above that he will sleep through the night tonight. And would it be asking too much for him to go to sleep by 10 pm?

On the bib front I was able to slip out of the house to look for bandanna's. The bad news is that I could not find any brown or tan bandanna's at the two stores I went too. Not even brown or tan fabric that was suitable was available. Not having a whole lot of time I came home empty handed. Thank goodness for Amazon they had just what I needed. So I will start the other bibs while I wait for the brown and tan ones.

A whole lot of knitting is getting done. I just need to do some finishing work so I can get my friend Nancy the hats and scarfs I have promised her for her work with Primavera Shelter for Women here in Tucson. I had promised 2 hats and scarfs which are done.  Being disorganized as I can get I also have one more scarf on the needles right now for her and I am positive that she won't mind the extra scarf. I will let you know later if I was wrong.

I think that I will go set up my bib production line now. Maybe just maybe my boss will let me have a little time to make some bibs for him during the day tomorrow. So have a great evening and enjoy your families.

My Lastest Charity Projects

Today was spent doing some knitting and not much else. I did not manage to get out of the house today. I was up with Eric until after midnight again so I spent part of the day catching up on sleep.  I have noticed that since I gave up diet soda I need my sleep.

I finally got to my finishing basket today. Freshly sewn together, ends woven in and miscellaneous finishing work done are 2 ponchos, 2 hats and 1 scarf for the OPK Guild winter charity projects.

I still do have some room in my XXL Ziploc bag so I have started a few more projects. I don't know if they will be finished in time but there is always next year.

Well some more knitting tonight and maybe a few minutes on the tread mill. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

I Love Small Knitting Projects

I love small knitting projects. They make me feel like I have accomplished something. With laundry and child care that never ends it feels like I am doing something concrete with my life. The hat I started yesterday was finished today. Then another hat was started. I have a lot of odd balls of yarn left over from other projects.  I try to blend the colors and yarn weights together to come up with unique colorways. I love to do hats with odds and ends of yarn I just never know what I will end up with. Since my Art Fire Studio is full stocked with hats I will be sending them off to kids in colder climates.

We had a nice slow day today. By the way did I mention I got some knitting done?  The weather was cool for this time of year only in the mid 80's but the humidity was near 30% all day. We were graced with a very small down pour tonight and a nice show of lighting.

We it is time to go put Eric to bed so have a great evening and enjoy your families.

The World has not Ended

I have done the finishing work in my basket to day and the world did not end. There are a total of 5 scarfs and 1 hat just off the needles today.

Because I love this hat so much I thought I would throw in a pattern today.

Supplies
Size 6 circular needles
size 6 dpn's
Scrap yarn

This hat can be made in 2 sizes small and large. The small one is for a child the large for a teen or adult.

Cast on 81 stitches for the small (place a stitch marker every 20 stitches) and 101 for the large(place a stitch marker every 25 stitches).

For the 1st stitch knit together the first and last cast on stitch, knit 1, purl 2 * knit 1 purl 2* for rounds 1 through 15.
*Added the second color and knit 2 rounds. be sure to twist the yarn on the inside for a more sturdy hat.
Go back to the first color for 2 rounds.* repeat these 4 rows until you have knit 32 rows of stockinette.
The crown is very easy. You will do a *ssk (slip,slip,knit) after each stitch marker and knit to the next stitch marker* repeat until you have 4 or 5 stitches on the needle.  Cut a tail and pick up the remaining stitches on the  darning needle go around once. Weave in the ends on the wrong side of the hat. About half way through the crown you will need to knit the stitches on to the dpn's. I divide the stitches by the stitch markers on to 3 dpns, this is not even but it works for me. The crown can either be done in a solid color or stripping every other row. I have done it both ways and both are easy and look good.

Have a good evening and enjoy your families.

PS let me know if you need clarification on the pattern. Please use this pattern for personal or charity use. If you make this pattern for profit please donate 15% of the money to a charity for children or to your local community food bank. This is the honor system.

Waiting for My ipod to Charge

While waiting for My i- pod to charge to charge to night I will give a quick update of the rest of the week.

Tuesday went a whole lot better than Monday I made progress on the hat for Eric's camp counselor.

Wednesday got even better I was on a roll on the hat, the house got some attention. Eric's pod also got some attention 50 new songs were ripped in for a total somewhere over 2600 songs with no duplicates. I also learned that I can not flip from Eric's account to mine during the download process or everything and I do mean everything just stops down loading and aborts the job.

Thursday and Friday I got a whole lot of knitting done. I also found some time to make some new stitch markers. I hope to get some of them listed tomorrow or early next week. Friday was also a wonderful day for Eric, he got to give the big check to Ronald McDonald for the money he and his camp group raised for the Tucson Ronald McDonald's Children's House. They raised well over $500.00 to help the sick kids and their families. Eric and his friends were very excited to meet Ronald live and in person.

I was 5 rows from the end of the chart today when I dropped a stitch I could not recover so the whole hat had to be ripped out. I did manage to get all the ribbing re-done plus 5 more rows this afternoon and evening. This is a very challenging pattern for me but it will be done by Friday, the last day of camp.

Well I think my i-pod has enough charge to last a few hours so good night and enjoy your families.

In a Sorry Rut.

I am in a very slow rut today. I had coffee with friends which usually cheers me up, but not today. I am very happy that their children are doing new and exciting things from jobs to tennis lessons. Yes I know that these are the small things in life, but darn it it would be nice to see Eric do some of these things. Yes I know it is NEVER going to happen so it is time to move on from that subject. I need to put the green eyed monster away, I hate when he creeps out.

The hat I am making for Eric's camp councilor had a major boo-boo so 5 full rows had to be ripped out an another ugh for today. It is back to row one of the chart. On the positive side I did not have to take out the 15 rows of 1x1 ribbing. So the hat is a wash for today.

Teri's blanket sits idle on the couch waiting to be finished with the humidity in the house over 35% and the thermostat set to 80 it is to hot to knit a queen sized blanket. I am so glad that I have an understanding daughter.

So I am ramping up my charity knitting see how many cold weather items I can knit. The economy does not seem to be ramping up fast enough and I personally feel that there will be a high demand this winter. I know I can not knit enough for all those in need but I will try to fill at least 2 XXL Ziploc bags full of a variety of hand knit items. I mean what else is there to knit when it is the the high 90's low 100's with the humanity of the monsoons so high.

It is time to turn my day around. So it is time to go find a comedy to watch on TV, maybe "Hot in Cleavland" on Tivo,  if you have not seen it it is a must. Time to also get those needles moving.

Have a great day and enjoy your families.

Today

I was a long night with Eric last night but I did manage to get all the laundry done last night. Although you have guessed correctly that is is yet to be folded.

After I dropped Eric off at camp I took the advice of a friend and took a nap. Well the morning was then gone. But after a light lunch I managed to get 3 baskets of mics. papers out to the recycling bin for a total of 4 baskets for the day.

On the knitting front I finished one more charity scarf and started another on the same small needles. I started another block on the blanket that never ends, well it will end but I am only approaching the 3 foot mark and have 4 feet left to knit. My one word of advice on this project. Never ever knit a queen sized blanket on size seven needles unless you really, really love the person receiving the blanket very much.

Well I am recharged again and am off to do more chores. Maybe I will even finish folding the laundry. have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Children, The Good Side

I just got a direct message from Teri, it looks as if she has finally found her niche in this great big world. As a mother who promised her for years that she would find where she belongs, this is music to my ears. This seems more like an opus than any old song, but this makes me very happy.

Eric has also found something that makes him happy. He has started a community service project at school. He is collecting pull tops from cans for the Tucson Ronald McDonald House. I know this might sound like an oxy-moron to most people, a sick kid helping other sick kids, but the joy he receives for helping the other sick kids is beyond belief. Last month between his home collection efforts and his rallying people at school he turned in 2 pounds of tabs.

If you would like to be part of Eric making the world a better place for other sick kids by saving tabs please let me know. Lets all help Eric make the world change for the better.

As for me I am still knitting hats to help kids keep warm this winter. I am ripping through yarn at a good rate of speed and should be able to pull a box or 2 of stash yarn from the garage soon. If you need hats or scarfs for kids please let me know, I will try to help. They will be wool or cotton, because I don't do acrylic or polyester.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day. Enjoy your families.