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. 

Going Batty

 This afternoon I carded over a dozen batts form bits and pieces of fiber. Some were just the leftovers from other spinning projects. Some were samples of various fibers. The only things that they will now have in common are they are one of a kind batts and once they are spun up they will be going into handwoven scarfs for the children’s clothing bank in the Flowing Wells School District here in Tucson.  

I am very thankful that Vicky from Grandma’s Spinning Wheel in Tucson was able to get me new drive bands for my Louet Victoria even though they were not in the catalog.  Vicky is simply amazing.  My Victoria is 2 years old and this will be the first drive band replacement.  Just remember when your drive band starts to get loose it’s time to replace them.  

Here is a very small sample of the mini batts. I think that this is box 2 or 3.  I used my Ashford Art Drum Carder.  Vicky carries those too and can ship to your house.   Another few days of carding and I will move on to spinning these.  The bits and pieces that are not relevant to any color way will go into a box to be carded later.  I will empty the last of 3 laundry baskets tomorrow. By the way a laundry basket can hold a lot of fiber.  This is a very small part of my deep cleaning projects. Make it useful or dump it.  

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.  

Would You Believe?

 Would you believe that carding batts is this weeks strategy for cutting down my fiber stash. If it is not ready to spin it is harder to use up. Today I spent enough time to card a dozen batts using bits and pieces of fiber to make many one of a kind batts. I also did two bundles with 3 batts each that can be spun together for more yardage.  I have a feeling that I will be changing up my Louet Victoria to accommodate the smaller bobbins for the one of a kind batts. These batts will be spun up and used in scarfs for the clothing bank.  My carder needed a short break so I took a picture of some of the action.  

This is a batt of mohair.  The mohair might not go into the scarfs.  
 

Living Near a Fiber Artist

Sometimes I wonder what our neighbors that of me.  Living next door to a fiber artist must be weird at times.  What got me thinking about this is that I have woven 3 scarfs since the beginning of the year.  After I am finished weaving them, I soak them in a hot bath of *Soak Wash* and very hot tap water and rough them up a bit to help set the weave.  After the water cools I rinse the scarf out of the excess dye.  Then it is time for thwacking. To do this I take the soaking wet scarf to the back yard and swing it as hard as I can on to the patio table for a few minutes.  Then it goes into the garage to dry on the line.  The same thing happens to freshly hand spun yarn too.

At other times I have freshly washed fiber drying in the sun. Perhaps blocking mats laying outside when I have to block something. Sometimes it’s a freshly wash quilt hanging on the fence.  On a nice day I might take my spinning wheel out side to spin.  If a fleece has a lot of vegetable matter I might take the carder to the driveway or front porch to card so I don’t have to sweep and vacuum a mess in the house.  I might even sit outside and knit.

I have friends who hang freshly dyed yarn outside to dry.  Even decorate fences with fiber art.  I have friends who dye yarn in their back yards too. I also will dye yarn in the back yard at times.  When I waited for Eric’s bus I used to stand outside and knit scarfs.

Does this make me weird? Does it mean that I just know how to have a lot of fun? That I don’t know when to stop having fun?

* I have been using Soak Wash for a long time.  If your local yarn or lingerie shop does not carry Soak Wash you can get it directly from Soak Wash , Raverly or Amazon. The makers of Soak Wash did not pay for this endorsement. I have not received anything for the mention in the blog.  It is just my favorite wool and lingerie wash.  I always have at least a couple of spare bottles in the laundry room so that I don’t run out.  I also recommend it to wash all of my by hand created fine washables.

A Tired Day

I was very tired today.  Eric is feeling better and I started him on a trial of formula at 5:30 this morning.  It went well.  By 8:30 we were both ready for a nap.  I think the nap was a better choice than a lot of caffeine.  By 11 we were ready to get a haircut for Eric. That was enough to wipe me out.  

My body has been tired all day.  I found it hard to pull the first batt off the carder this afternoon.  So on the the other 3 batts, I did not pack them as full which made it easier to take off.  I only spun 1 skein of yarn today, with nothing washed.  

I am hoping for more energy tomorrow.  

Cleaning at a New Level

This morning I have taken my cleaning to a new level. Over the years I have ended up with bits and pieces of fiber left over from other spinning projects and samples that I just did not know what to do with.  So this morning I got out my Ashford Art Carder, so appetly named I think. I am taking many little bits and pieces and mixing them up together to make one of a kind mini batts to be spun up into you guessed it more art yarn.   Here is the batch of 7 batts that I made this morning.

I also managed to spin 1 art skein too.  It was a very crafty day around here.    I had friends over working on projects too.  Amber managed to make 2 bibs from scratch and appliqué Elmo's on 4 bibs.  Amber also finished a twin sized blanket for a gift. I taught Lisa how to use her new to her spinning wheel and she made some great art yarn. We will have to do this again.  

A Fantastic Day

After a very slow start to my day, yes I am sure it had nothing to do with being up with Eric until 2ish this morning. Or getting 3 out of the 5 loads of laundry for the day done before 2 am.  I did manage to sleep in until 6:30. I did leave the folding until 7:30 this morning, after breakfast.  I did take a nap too. That must have been my catalyst for the day.

After my nap I got the computer desk picked up a little. Straightened the kitchen counter of all the odd junk mail, did the shredding, and took out 3 loads of trash. Carded a 3 ounce combination of 75% wool and 25% silk, this is when I found out that my carder can only do a 2 ounce batt. So 1 ounce for me and 2 ounces for a swap. The strawberry's got planted and the flowers got trimmed and re potted in to a bigger pot. I started looking at stitch patterns and after dinner worked on incorporating it into a wash cloth pattern. I am a third of the way through the pattern and I like it very much. As usual I am knitting it while I am doing the design. It will debut at the May OPK luncheon and after that for non-OPK members it will be available on my Raverly Designer page. All I can say is that I am having fun with this one.

I did manage to get some knitting for the World Wide Knit in Public Day done at dinner. This was my first venture out of the house for today.

After dinner we did a quick stop at the drug store, yes I know a great date right? This is where my ganga* of the day came in. I got 2 bottles of vitamins at buy one get one free and a small spray bottle for the strawberry plant. The original cost would have been about $29.00 for the 3 items. After the deals and gift card we paid a  total of .51 cents for the whole shopping trip. Now that is what I call a great shopping trip.

Well it is summer so if I get to bed soon I will have another fantastic day tomorrow.

*Ganga is Tucson speak for a really great deal.

Things Are Looking Up.

Well Eric has been sick long enough for me to lose track of the days. Thank goodness for the calendars, clocks with dates and the newspaper so if some one does ask at least I know where to look. That being said Eric gave me the first smile in it seems like weeks but in actuality only since last Thursday. He is not at 100% for Eric; but he is getting better. I am hoping that I will have him well enough to go to school a week from Monday.

On the knitting front I finished another shawl today and it fits me to a T. It is perfect in every way. I have added more UFOs to my knitting bag today. Most of them are scarfs which should go pretty fast. That should help my totals go up faster for the month.  Tomorrow I will take pictures of the finished items for the week. I now have freed up 2 long circular needles. Yes I have finished 3 items but I immediately cast on a hat for John with the small circular needles.

I also spent a few minutes and I do me a few minutes playing with the new carder. I will add some pictures of the batts too. I really need to try to get some rest now before I have a total revolt from my body. So here is hoping Eric goes to sleep early.

A Day Off

Eric went to school today. So I got a day off. The only problem was that I was so tired I could hardly move or keep my eyes open. So I decided to put my eye drops in count to 500 and get moving. Well I don't think I made it to 500 , but I did manage to wake up before noon. I think my body plead exhaustion. Then made the nap time decision.

After a light lunch of figs and goat cheese. I poured a cup of Roobios tea and headed ot the door to the Withers Ranch. Kathy was kind enough to teach me how to use my carder. With a lot of Kathy's help we made a 1 ounce batt. I am going to miss my time with Kathy. She is such a bright and artistic woman. All I have to say is that you folks in Maryland are getting a treasure. So please learn from her and support her artistic endivers.

I still had time to run to the Pharmacy. And Trader Joes. I even had enough energy to make a red pot soup for dinner. This is the first cooked from scratch dinners since my hand surgery. The good news is that we have enough for at least another meal.

Well I think that it is time to call it a night.