The Forth Skein

 This afternoon I hit the magical 4th skein of yarn in the 4 color fade shawl.  I did not even notice when I went over the Russian join.  Which was very surprising to me.  We were returning from a day trip to Scottsdale. Of course John was driving, I would never knit while driving. It just feels so unsafe, like a very distracted driver. I was exhausted when it was time to add the join. I always add the Russian join a few yards before I need to.  I like the yarn to rest and settle into place. We were going down I-10 going the speed limit of 75 mph. We were on a straight stretch of freeway.  I got my tool kit out and managed to make a pretty decent join considering I was not at a table. This is definitely not a beginner move.  

Each row is now taking about 30 minutes to complete. The shawl bottom is in excess of 50 inches. The only question I have is will it be ready by Thursday for the Old Pueblo Knitting Guild Fashion Show. Now I did tell my husband that I would model it even if it was not finished. Even if I had the yarn on my spinner yarn holder, minus the bottom of the butler part of course. If you want a yarn spinner like mine, Grandma’s Spinning Wheel in Tucson  carries them. I think I will have about 2 to 3 hours to knit tomorrow, which should be another 4 to 6 rows.  I am so bad at the math figuring out how far the yarn will actually go that I will be playing yarn chicken with this shawl.  

You will notice that I keep my Lantern Moon tightening tool and dropped stitch tool in the center of my yarn spinner. This is so that they are always ready when I need them. You can also see all the colors of the fade. 

My Hero

 I have been doing a wonderful job of shrinking out of clothing or to get a laugh line in this house the clothing has been growing in the closet. Dillard’s did not have much of a selection locally. I have also filled 3 boxes with clothing that have grown larger in the closet.  Yes, clothing can really grow bigger over a weeks time. I really need to make a trip to Goodwill. 

So today my hero drove me 2 hours to the Scottsdale Bryn Walker store. To buy local even if it was 2 hours away.   There was a huge selection of clothing to try on.  I came home with 2 bags of new outfits for the next few months.  I tried on clothes for over an hour.  Talk about your patient husband.  Towards the end when I got to tired to move he encouraged me to try on just a few more because after all it was a 2 hour drive each way. 

Most importantly was that I had lost enough weight to get into a few styles that were previously too small for me.  Kiko the store clerk was able to put a few combinations together that I did not even think about.  I have a few outfits for those really cold days. I got some Tucson dressy clothing too. We tend to be more casual even when we get dressed up.  

We went and got a quick lunch. For most of lunch we had a private patio.  I am not sure why more people were not eating outside with all the numbers going up. John’s corn beef sandwich was good. The meat was lean and tasty.  My salad was a 3 out of 10. To rate higher a salad must taste good without any salad dressing. I do not like diving into a salad that is swimming in dressing, only to drain salad dressing off my salads to eat them.  Also a random question.  How do you get an avocado to go limp? I do give them credit for not burning the peach iced tea though.  

On the way home traffic slowed for a medical emergency on the side of the freeway.  So it added about 15 minutes to our ride home. After hanging up the clothes we got today I took a nap until dinner time. 

Another takeaway from today is that I don’t know which is harder on my body during a flare up:

1.    Doing 45 minutes of physical therapy. 

                            or

2.     Trying on clothes for an hour or so. 

I am sore and tired after both.