A Joyus Day

 Today started out on very bad footing. My neck and right shoulder hurt to the point I had to turn my body to look right. I was out of precooked home made oatmeal and did not have the time to make any before I had to leave. 

At lunchtime things began to slowly change for the better. I was just wishful thinking when at my favorite bread spot in town Beyond Bread, I asked if my favorite sandwich the Avi’s Avo could be made without bread or mayonnaise.  They said yes.. they really said yes and asked if I would like Romain lettuce instead of the bread. Of course I said yes. They brought out an overflowing bowl of lettuce, cucumbers, Sprouts, and turkey with two small cups of guacamole on the side. It was absolutely amazing paired with gazpacho soup and I was in heaven. Thank you Beyond Bread.

The day got even better my day got even better when I was working with my knitting student. The first thing we did was casting off a table runner That she had been working on for about a year. All it took on my part was showing her how to cast off just two stitches and she cast off the rest. The smile on her face for the accomplishment was just so wonderful. It just filled my heart with joy.

We then had to tackle the fringe on the table runner. First we pick the length the easy part. We use the short side of a CD case because it was the perfect length. First she learned how to cut the fringe. That was another easy part. Then we worked on putting the fringe in. That took a little more work, however she got the hang of it and got almost 10 inches of fringe done today. She had never picked up a crochet hook in her life. She learned how to put the crochet hook in the right stitches. How to do a quarter turn and pull the yarn through. And then how to tighten the fringe.  She was so excited and happy it was just absolutely amazing.

John managed to quickly get the spasm out of my neck and shoulder and now at bedtime even though I don’t have full range yet, I don’t hurt. I am hoping that a good nights sleep will take care of the rest. Having my neck and right shoulder hurt threw my whole body out of alignment. 

I did not get any spinning done today. I did manage to get 3 loads of laundry done with 2 being put away. So it turned into a good and joyous day. 

My Learning Curve

 I needed to develope a new learning curve for knitting. I am taking a multi facetted approach. The first thing I did was figure out how I was holding my knitting needles. It turns out I was holding them too close to my body. So I am learning to hold my knitting further away from my body. This has changed a couple of things like muscle memory for one. I am now prone to make more mistakes and can not knit with my eyes closed when I am tired. 

Which brings up the second change which is a major one for me. I stop knitting when my hands or arm gets tired. This means I have less knitting time on bad body days. I used to do more knitting on bad body days to keep my mind occupied.  Now I read more or listen to books on tape. I am actually watching television during the day. This is something I reserved for sick days in the past. 

I am also doing more things with my left hand. I am teaching myself knitting with my left hand for starters. I am practicing coloring with my left hand and then onto writing which I have not done much of since 3rd grade when my teacher did not let us use our left hands at school.  

No my arm is not totally healed by these changes. My right hand is more useful. I am dropping less things. My right hand is not in as much pain. Less pain is always good in. My humble opinion.  

I know that there will be other changes along the way. I need to learn to live within the limits of my body instead of pushing my body to live beyond its limits.  I still push it a little, but not like i use to.  

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. 

A Dumb Mistake

 Here I sit at 2 a.m. waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  All because I. choose not to wear my tendon isolation band while knitting last night. As you know I have chronic tendonitis do to arthritis.  It just seems to jump all around my body. Currently I have knitting elbow also know as tennis elbow.  Since I do not play tennis anymore, I call it knitting elbow. 

My arm was feeling good all day. So I thought that I was lucky That it went away very quickly.  Yeah, I am not that lucky. So here I sit at 2 a.m.  waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  I am wide awake.Pain  has away of doing that to me. So I might just do some chores while I wait. Since I did not get many things done yesterday.  I was having a bad body day except for my elbow. Then again I can feel the aspirin starting to kick in, so I just might be lucky enough to go back to sleep.  So maybe I will just get a jump on the day and start a load of.  By the way, I am so predictable that the prediction  program on my blog had picked out I was going to start a load of laundry before I even had it typed in.  A very good algorithm, way to go programmers.  

Spin Together and more.

 My body and I are not, not on speaking terms, more like a major disagreement today. Since it is fall I did not think it was weird to put a shawl on my shoulders and cover myself with a blanket after dinner.  Being all nice and warm really helped with the aches and pains.  

My first day of Spin Together was pretty good. I filled 4 bobbins.   Now I just have to spin some white ti ply with the art yarn.  The are going to be small skeins of yarn.  I am starting with all those bits and pieces of fiber that I made into mini batts.  The yarn will go into hand woven scarfs and maybe a shawl or two.  

It has been a busy day so I am officially calling it over.  

A Good Day.

 I actually had a good day with a few whole hours totally pain free.  I hope I get more of that time in the coming weeks.  

This to Shall Pass

 Just another very early morning, waiting for the aspirin to kick in for the flare up that refuses to leave.  I am resting, eating right getting Exercise and getting plenty of sleep, just not straight through the night.  I honestly feel like I am in high school again with the pain jumping Wiley Nelly through my body.  

Tonight it’s just that low level of pain that refuses to let me get comfortable.  My hands are too tired and sore to knit.  I can’t concentrate enough to read. So here I sit and wait.  Other people my age don’t seem to have as much pain or have various parts of their bodies stop working for no apparent reason.  It is my honest wish that the doctors and scientist come up with multiple cures soon.  

I really wish that COVID19 was long over so I could go and get a massage.  That usually helped in the past.. The thought of going in an enclosed room with poor ventilation just does not sound good right now.  Yes, I am fully vaccinated, but I am going with the science on this one.   I think I need to chant that this too shall pass throughout the day to convince my body to feel better.  

Arthritis Pain

 Some nights no matter how much I want to sleep, sleep does not come. Every toss and turn just brings a little more pain. I try to distract my brain with music or sleeping with the lights on.  Sometimes all that brings relief is more aspirin.  So I am hoping it will kick in soon as I have a busy day tomorrow.  

So I will just try to relax while I wait for the asp to kick in.  I will probably fall asleep on the couch, which is not goood for me but I will take sleep wherever I can find it at this point.  Wish me luck.  

Just Another Night in.....

 It’s never good when arthritis pain wakes me up at night.  I must learn to sleep through throbbing pain in my joints.  I really need the sleep. Just waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  I have in been knitting less than last year.  I am really trying.  I really hate arthritis. 

Last Retooling of 2020

 I had what is hopefully my last retooling of 2020 eleven days ago.  The road to recovery is slow on this one. I can honestly say that I can not get through the day without a nap. I am only walking about 2 1/2 miles a day, but I am not worried about my step count right now.  I also found the most amazing thing with this retooling, with in days my arthritis pain levels dropped to a pain level that I have not seen since my 30’s.  So I am hoping for an onward and upward 2021. 

I will start 2021 with selfish knitting.  My current plan is to finish every work in progress without frogging for a smaller size. This means that if between the time I started the project and the time I finished it the finished object is to big I will just sell it on my Facebook page Handmade by Sheri. Then I will go through a backlog of projects that I have wanted to do for a long time and are just waiting for the time.  Well now is going to be the time.  I have sweaters, gloves and a whole lot more. 

With the COVID19 vaccines I am really hoping that I can knit in person with my friends soon.  I can’t wait to knit at Grandmas Spinning Wheel here in Tucson again.  I can truly say that I am more optimistic than I have been in a long time.  

I think it is breakfast time and I hear my oatmeal calling.  

A Rough Start and A Smooth Finish

After a rocky start I managed to get all my errands done.  I also got a home cooked dinner on the table too, albeit leftovers.

Eric is happy with his new jeans. I can’t believe this is the first time since he was in size 5 slims that I bought a regular size 18 for him. He is over the moon that I bought him 5 new pairs of jeans. Truth be told, we just could not do the top button of the size 18 slims up. The 2 extra inches in the waistline should help.

I am still working on the first hand knit project for me the year.  I was hoping it would be done by now. I hope to wear it Wednesday. Wish me luck.

I am calling it a night a little after 10pm. Yes I took something for the arthritis pain with dinner tonight so I am really hoping to sleep until 6am. Night all.

Pain

When am I ever going to learn that I can not sleep when the Arthritis pain is beyond being boxed up? Other than not sleeping it was a very good Sunday.

My Hands

Here I sit in the middle of the night with my hands aching and too swollen for the night splints.  Waiting for the aspirin to kick in.  Trying to think of anything I can do around the house without waking the guys.  Knitting and spinning are out my hands are too sore and it would only make them worse.  Weaving is out I do not have either loom warped. I guess that I could do some light cleaning and start the dishwasher and washing machine. Maybe by then the swelling and pain will go away enough to sleep.  I can only hope.

Why does pain always seem worse in the middle of the night?

2,444

This is what 2,444 rows looks like. There are 3 hats, 7 scarfs, 2 shawls, 2 cowls and 5 kitchen things. These will all be at the Taglit fundraiser.

The other score for the day Arthritis 1 Sheri 0. John an A+ for a great dinner. Last but not least I think Eric is doing better..

Toasted

I went to a fiber retreat last weekend and had a wonderful time. I think that I might have had too much fun. My hands are now toasted. I will have to take a few days of total hand rest with no fiber. My left hand is a little swollen.

So I guess that I will redo the craft room and do some more purging of things that I do not use. After all less is more, well maybe. I found a lot of knitting needles today where I did not expect to find them. So you know which room that I will be in tomorrow.

Sewing

I spent the day sewing. This was a plan to give my hands a break. I tried to work around a BBD and had partial sucess. I finished one quilt, which is now in the dryer. Pictures of the quilt will be posted after the birthday person gets to unwrap it. I started catching up on repairs too.. one skirt is now in the wash and the next one will head to the wash tomorrow.

By lunch time my body won and got a nap. Everyone went to their own quiet place to take a nap. The nap did not seem to make a diffrence for Eric. He had a small sizure tonight followed by by wild eyrps an hour later. So we will be laying low all weekend. I wonder how much cleaning and sewing that I can get done this weekend. Laundry is a given, it just depends on how much laundry Eric makes. I am backing down on knitting until my hands feel better. This means that I will not get 31 hats knit this month but every hat that I have made so far will help a child. Let me know if you want to knit a hat, scarf or sweater for a child in Tucson. I have some donated yarn that you can use.

Have a great weekend.

22

You might have noticed that my knitting has slowed to a crawl. My hands are being very cranky. So I have been filling my time with deep cleaning. It is starting to take some thought as to what is going to get cleaned next. I have also taken out the sewing machine to catch up on repairs and make a few items for this October's Taglit fundraiser. I need to come up with new an exciting gifts that people have not seen before. I also want to use as many supplies from my art supply stash as possible. As I am organizing things, I have found that I have more art supplies than I thought I did. So look for some awesome new stuff in October.

With out futher ado here is hat 22 and part of the new quilt.

Not Quite 19

I had a very busy hand day. So hat number 19 will be finished in the morning. With my hands at a throbbing level of pain, I thought it best to stop for the night. I will put on gloves to keep my hands warm tonight. I know they will feel better by morning. So tomorrow you will get to see 2 hats.

I am over 2/3 of the way through cutting the 360 squares for my quilt project. Hum, I wonder if that is why my hands are extra sore? I am cutting the lining squares now. I will have enough scraps left over to make an artisy quilt. I can't wait to see how they both turn out.

I even had time to go drop things off at Goodwill today. It seems to me, that the cleaner and less cluttered the house gets, less stuff needs to be rehomed. I guess that is a good thing since I now have more creative time.

I am still waiting for Eric to go to sleep. Hopefully soon. I tnik I might just get to sleep before tomorrow.

Night Time Pain

There is nothing quite like being up in the middle of the night with arthritis pain. Then having to take care of Eric before the aspirin kicks in. Eric was half asleep and still tried to give me hugs to make my hands feel better. It almost makes up for not being able to sleep.

A Bad Night

As I write this I am waiting for Eric to fall asleep.  I woke up a little over 3 hours ago with bad joint pain. Just as I had managed to loosen up the joints in my hands, when Eric decided it was time for a complete change out.  Twenty minutes later he is still kicking off the covers and crying when he gets cold.  I have been to his room 4 times in the last hour to recover him.  

I am now officially tired and cranky. So today's word of the day is NO.  As Teri likes to point out, NO is a complete sentence.