More Changes for 2022

 After many discussions with my family over the past couple of years I am going to change up my knitting style.  I will no longer try to knit more than everyone else. Instead I will do charity projects while John is driving.  I usually work on hats and scarfs while watching television. That will not change.  I will still continue to teach knitting, spinning and weaving as the opportunities present themselves. I will continue to design knitting patterns as the patterns want to be written.  I will cut my knitting goal by 50% to give me time to work on projects for me.  

This is being done because I am not getting any younger.  We also want to preserve my hands and my ability to use them.  Less is going to have to be more.  I will also explore other areas of my creative self.  I will try painting and drawing.  I will do more sewing.  I will do more weaving. I will try not to be singular in my artistic pursuits.  This is also because arthritis really suck’s big time.  After decades of trying to push past the pain, I have nothing let to prove to myself.  I really hate being in pain most of the time. I am hoping that these changes will help in the long run.  

These are just some of the me projects I have lined up. 

My New Golding Drop Spindle

 Today I did manage to get to 2 different grocery stores, the post office, fill up my car before and put the groceries away  before my breakfast caffeine wore off.  I garage door broke when I came home.  Last time this happened there were spider webs in the tracks. So I vacuumed the tracks to try again. Still no luck.  The service man comes on Wednesday.  

After starting the laundry I decided to close my eyes for 5 minutes, you all know where this is going. So 2 hours later I woke up freezing.  I started the tea maker. Hung up some wet laundry and put a little bit in the dryer.  Started the next loads. Had my hot tea and apple, that did the trick.  It’s weird that sometimes I don’t feel hun, but get really cold when I need to eat.  

I did a little bit of knitting. I really wanted to try out my newly refurbished Golding Drop Spindle. Tom Golding did a fantastic job at a reasonable price.  The turn around was much quicker than I thought it would be.  I just happened to have some silk on the table that I had been meaning to put away. So I started spinning the silk instead of putting it away.  The spin was awesome.  As you can see by the picture below that I was able to spin a very fine thread.  I can always spin silk finer on a drop spindle.  I think that I will spin some more to go with some sock yarn and make a shawl.  

I was too tired to list and of my spindle herd on Ravelry. 

A Perfect Solution

 When a bad body day collides with a highly emotional day there is only one thing to do.  Spin art yarn.  Why art yarn? Art yarn does not have any parameters. If the yarn is not perfectly balanced who cares.  The idea is to have fun.  I make bumps. I spin thick and thin. I spun for 2 hours.  Yes my new medicine is helping.  I make my art yarn batts from bits and pieces.  I play with color.  I never know how it will turn out once it is plyed and washed.  Hopefully it will go with some other art yarn to make a fabulous new shawl for me in a smaller size.  I thought that my shawls would still fit after losing a lot of sizes, not so much. So I need new shawls.   

I also figured out why my Lendrum Spinning Wheel was acting up, it literally had a screw lose.  So rather than  get my tool kit for my spinning wheels, I borrowed a pliers and flat head screw driver from John.  It took more time to locate the tools than to fix the issue.   I guess this means that every so often I should check all the screws out.  

I then changed spinning wheels to my Louet Victoria. After cleaning and oiling the flyer I was ready to spin the core for plying the art yarn just because I can get about 10 ounces on the bigger bobbin.  Once the white is spun, I will ply all the art yarn that I spun today.  From right to left. Pale pink, purple, red and a green yellow blend.  

24 Quarts

 I usually count my yarn and batts by the quart or gallon.  I know most people count by skeins,  ounces of roving or yards. So for last week’s spinning for Spin Together 2021 I emptied 2 , 12 quart sweater boxes of hand carded batts.  Since I spun 12 skeins of yarn that works out to an average of 6 skeins per box.  Of course as you have seen from the pictures, the skeins were spun with 1, 2 or 3 batts.  That’s the great thing about art batts, no 2 are alike.  Some can be singles while with others just more go together.  

Don’t worry about the empty boxes.  They will be filled up again by tomorrow night.  I am in the process of cleaning craft room number 1.  My crafts are currently divided between 2 rooms.  I have it on the best Authority that craft room number 1 aka the guest room might just have some guests.  So I do need to finish my top to bottom cleaning of the room.  I got off to a great start today.   Just so we are clear craft room number 2 is shared with our pantry.  At least I have all the snacks when I am working in craft room 2.  

I also learned today that my body no longer likes kale.  So my go to vegetables are carrots, celery, salads, squash, sweet potatoes, daikon radish, soy beans, Lima beans, lentils, Garbanzo beans, beans in general,   radishes, yams, corn, peas and seaweed.  Yes I now count seaweed as a vegetable. It goes great on tofu.  

Below are my empty storage boxes.  I was going to stack them the other way but the kept on sliding. 

Spin Together Day 5

 As you can tell from the picture below I spent the afternoon spinning mini batts. I managed to spin 5 mini batts today. With the 3 batts from yesterday that is 8 spun in 2 days, waiting to be plyed.  These are 4 ounce bobbins and I managed to get 6 ounces on the front left bobbin. I will try to get them all plyed and skeined after dinner.  Usually plying goes fast for me.   I would have spun more but ran out of bobbins for my woolly winder.  

This is the only plyed yarn that got skeined tonight. I am calling it shades of blue. This is a keeper for a me project.  It has a nice even balance and the coloring is fantastic.  Under traditional counting it has 182 yards. With the Spin Together 2021 rules it has 546 yards.   Which will bring me to over 1000 contest yards.  My biggest bobbins that I plyed tonight did not get skeined because it bed time, and there is always  tomorrow morning.  I also have to spin another bobbin of white plying yarn. I still have 2 bobbins that need to be plyed. I thought 6 ounces of white was going to be enough, I was wrong.  So I will fill another bobbin tomorrow.  Then ply the rest before I spin more batts.  

Day 3 Spin Together 2021

 I have other skeins in progress.  This is my first completed skein of art yarn.  35 yards multipled by 3 give me 105 yards for the contest.  Tomorrow will be better.  I had a very bad body day today.  

My Local Yarn Shop

 I woke up feeling fantastic today.  I had a good day and taught 1 knitting class.  I got help from Michael in fixing my Lendrum Spinning Wheel, the squeaky footman are gone.  If you are in Tucson or just passing through Michael at Grandma’s Spinning Wheel can help you with most of your spinning wheel problems.   Also for those of you who plan to do the Steven West Make along shawl, Sandy the fantastic in house dyer at Grandmas Spinning Wheel has dyed up several different colors that have been put together in sets for your convince.  If you would like to choose your own colors that is an option too.  This is something that needs to be done as soon as possible because Sandy is dying the yarn to order.  

If you are in Tucson the group will meet in Friday’s at the shop.  If you are in an area without a Local Yarn Shop you can still get together with friends for this make along.  You can also order your yarn from Grandma’s Spinning Wheel for your project.  

Just to let you know, Grandma’s Spinning Wheel has a large selection of yarns, fibers, weaving supplies and notions for all. Just use the link for you shopping convince.  

Happy Fiber crafting to all.  

Getting Things Done

 I am starting to get back into sync. I spun again tonight. More plying. I will have plenty of yarn for hand woven scarfs.  I did some knitting while waiting at my doctors appointment today.  They were so slow that I finished the brim and started the pattern.  I am almost halfway done with the first repeat.  

I am finding that as long as I write a to do list, I get things done.  So tomorrow it is to do list ho.  

A Relaxing Day

 I spent my day knitting, spinning and relaxing.  I worked on a hat , but did not finish it. I did however find my missing scissors, I managed to put 2 pair in the same bag.   I also added a couple of rows to a scarf, but fit not finish it.  I have to admit that I have been binge watching Downton Abbey.  I find it hard to knit.  I just love all the clothing and the attention to the little details. This includes the food too.   So I watch not to miss anything. 

This evening I finished spinning some purple roving and the immediately plyed it with some multi colored purple variegated yarn.  I ran out of purple at about 8 ounces on the bobbin.  So I have just a little left to ply with something else or ply it on to it self.  I am trying to empty all my bobbins before Saturday’s start of Spin Together.  I have a 1 1/4 pounds of fiber to start things off.  After that I will stash dive.  I still have to replace the footman connectors on my LundrumDT spinning wheel, it’s a two person job.   

I have noticed that if I use my Cubii2 everyday it is much easier to spin for longer periods of time.  Which means I need to start warping the loom more to use up all the yarn I am spinning.  

Bumps in the Road.

 I feel like my body is back in high school with constant sprains and rotating tendonitis.  I really wish I could figure out my own body.  I am not sure how, but I sprained my ankle.  I tried to exercise tonight using my Cubii2.  I lasted less then a minute going very slow. Walking is painful.   I know I will be making a call tomorrow.  

Spin Together 2021 is coming up in a few weeks. I honestly don’t know if I will be able to use either of my spinning wheels.  I have been debating an e spinning wheel for ages,.   I tried the eew mini spinning wheel, I was not impressed.  I am leaning towards the Hanson e spinner.  If I don’t get the e spinner, I will go old school with drop spindles. I might just have a few laying around.  

Connections

 I am beginning to think that there is a connection between our summer rains and my arthritis flare ups.   The bad ones seem to happen at the end of July or beginning of August.  I wonder if having the humidity between 46% and rain for days on end is the reason.  

Meanwhile I have not knit or spun for days.  Yes, it is quite survivable, but depressing at the same time.  My right hand has been on almost total rest for what seems like forever.  I put away my Ashford Drum Carder today.  I only have a small box that did not get carded.  My hand is slowly getting better.   I am getting ready to set up the sewing machine to do a few lap quilts.  Nothing fancy, just basic useful quilts and a few more dog pillows.  Sewing uses different hand movements than knitting or spinning.  

It has been suggested that I add another art to my line up that is not hand intensive. So i am open to suggestions.  Right off the bat I am thinking that pottery is too hand intensive.  Anything that involves extreme heat or fire my dynamic tiro would say no to.  I have gotten a punch yarn kit to try.  Someone also suggested adult coloring books, that might be worth a try.  I might even get bored enough to go through my books to see which ones to keep and which ones to sell.  

The lighting and thunder seem to be winding down so it’s time to call it a day. 

2 Out Of 3

 2 out of 3 fingers on my right hand are doing much better.  They are almost usable for knitting again.  I was able to go through some of my fiber stash and do a bit of stash busting.  I have a full laundry basket to go.   I managed to card 3 mohair batts.  I also reorganized part of my fiber stash closet.  It no longer resembles Fibber McGee and Molly’s closet. Nothing will fall down when the doors are opened.  I can even do some easy kitchen stuff.  Just don’t ask me to chop an onion  or do dishes by hand yet.

What I had a hard time with was drying my hair. Halfway through I needed to use both hands to hold the dryer wand, the kind with the hair brush built in.  My hair survived.  With the laundry sorting the wet clothes was easy as was doing the hand wash.  What I found hard was putting the wet clothes on hangers.  

I still did a lot of resting today.  This flare up has been less than lady like.  This morning it was 10 minutes of work and 30 minutes of rest.  By this afternoon it was an hour of work followed by a 2 hour nap and I am still exhausted.  I think the stress from the roof leaks, yes that’s multiple leaks and the dampness of the Monsoon was just too much stress on my body.  

I am not ready for knitting yet, however; if my hand feels better tomorrow I might try some weaving or plying some yarn.  I have a box of mini skeins and 4 bobbins that need to be emptied and plyed. The picture below is the latest update to the fiber closet.  I know it will still look very messy to most, but some of you will notice a huge change.  There are only 2 bags of fiber left on the top shelf.  

Winter is Coming

 After yesterday’s food debacle when the restaurant deemed that 11% fat was a low fat item, By the way my body says it’s not.  All I had the energy to do was 2 loads of hand wash and 2 washer and dryer loads.  Then it was a day of rehydration and knitting. 

 I am hoping to enough energy to spin some of my new mini batts tomorrow.  I would also like to do some more drum carding of fiber.  I also want to warp the loom and get some scarfs started.  As long as we stay home with the temperature heading upwards of 109, maybe higher. I will be staying inside. I hope I have enough energy for everything   

The hats pictured below are the 2 hats that I finished today.  Don’t worry the knitting needles are not lonely as I started another hat and a scarf   

I Should Know Better

 It would not surprise anyone who knows me that I was spinning some ecru silk brick while wearing a jet black dress today. I had silk threads everywhere on the dress.  What a mess. I went over to where I have the next dog pillow in progress and tried to get most of the silk off.  I need to coordinate my spinning colors with my clothing colors better.  I might have just as much fiber on me, but at least it would not show up so boldly.  

Cravings

 Tonight was just a top off to a bad body day.  I was craving ice cream and chocolate pudding. Both of which are big no no’s on my post retooling diet. I am on a very low fat diet. It’s great for the scale, I have dropped  8 pounds down since the retooling and 13 since I got sick. This is very bad for my bad inclinations of eat yummy high fat food occasionally. I landed up settling for chai with soy nog and a few low fat cookies.  

Tomorrow I am going to be ordering more low fat vanilla soy milk. 

On the bright side I plyed 1 small skein of yarn on my favorite Golding Drop Spindle.  I also got 2 more ready for plying.  I returned 2 drop spindles to their homes. I also played with a very lightweight drop spindle to start spinning the 1st shearing of some baby alpaca, talk about a heavenly spin.  

Well it’s getting late and sleep is necessary for healing.  

To get your own Golding Drop Spindle go to www.goldingfibertools.com.  I have several and you can never go wrong with buy a Golding spindle. They make great gifts too. 

Keeping Busy

 Today I kept busy.  As of 7 p.m. I walked 12,500 steps or 5.2 miles.  I also attacked a few of the shelves in the sewing room.  I did not take a before pictures but the messy top shelf of the rack is what it looked like.  The picture is what some of the work today. A lot of skeins and kits were organized.  I also work on the closet organizing   I also filled 1 1/2 boxes with yarn, fiber and weaving supplies.  I am hoping that the friend who took the box last week will take these also.  

I spent part of the afternoon spinning.  First some pencil roving. Then some alpaca with silk.  I can say that I did keep myself to busy to think.  I am exhausted an so I am hoping to sleep tonight.  Then more tomorrow.  

Grief and Loss

 This week is going to be hard.  It’s been a year and 1 day since we lost Eric.  Today is the one year anniversary of his funeral.  In five days it would have been his 31st birthday.  Although we tended to celebrate Eric’s birthday all month long and when ever we went somewhere special.  I am not sure how the week will go, but my goal is to try to stay in the now and not eat my way through my grief.  I also plan on a lot of walking. So far so good on the eating and walking front.  

Since stress makes my arthritis worse and I still have 6 weeks before I can try knitting again.  I know that I can spin and weave but I might not have any creative mojo this week. I just might go on a cleaning and de stashing spree.  So a few people might just get some calls to pick up some crafting supplies.  I am sure that you won’t mind. I just don’t know about you’re families will like it  

If you are so inclined to remember Eric a donation in his memory would be most appreciated.  The first that I would like to suggest is www.ML4.org as they are continuing to do research on this disease that turned my family upside down.  ML4 was Eric’s primary diagnosis. The second  is your local community food bank, like all kids with ML4 Eric loved to eat.  Eric also loved making donation runs around Thanksgiving every year.  We would fill up the van with a donation that Eric would hand off while I slipped in a check.  He was delighted when the volunteers remembered his name and that he like to hand them the food. 

I will miss his smile this week and his delight in having the birthday guy sing happy birthday. Eric might be gone physically, but he is not forgotten. I love him to the moon and back. 

A Better Day

 I stayed away from the internet most of the day.  That alone made the day better. I found a missing drop spindle, one of my favorites, it was in a basket in the same bag I left it in over a decade ago.  The batt needed some tender loving care, but still spun a nice lace weight yarn.  No just one more lost spindle to find.  

My hand did fine with the drop spindle.  My hand was still tired later in the day.  

Not Quite Ready For Dinner

 Sadly I learned tonight that my left hand is not quite ready for dinner yet.  I make a fantastic thin crust pizza with topping to rival a Chicago deep dish pie. It requires a knife and fork to eat it. I tried my best, but my left hand wasn’t quite ready for the fork yet.  Instead of my walk after dinner, I iced my hand instead.  I am hoping that this resolves fairly quickly.  Yes, to those who want to know.  Even though the stitches are not out, I have started what physical therapy I can do   No, I am not over doing my hand with the exception of dinner tonight.  I prefer my left hand for eating as I am much more messy with my right hand.

By the way spinning went well today. I took some art yarn singles off the bobbins and started another set of batts. No yarn is getting soaked and thwacked until my stitches are out and the doctor says it’s ok.   After Spin Together 2020 is over it will be weaving time.  

Spinning and More

 I spent the morning clearing off my bobbins so I could start spinning for Spin Together on Grandma’s Spinning Wheel Team.  I fell a little, oh who I am I kidding, I fell way behind because of hand surgery on Tuesday morning.  These are the skeins that I took off. I will not be able to wash them until the stitches come out and my hand heals a little more.  

After my nap I started spinning for Spin Together.  I managed to spin a few mini batts before my hand got tired.  I really like how the almost yarn looks.  I will be weaving scarfs and shawls, then post them on my Handmade by Sheri Facebook page and Instagram.  I am still in recovery mode so things are moving very slowly around here.