The last of the dog pillows for 2023 we’re finally finished this morning. I think that I will have time next week to drop them off at the shelter. These are some of the nicest that I have made. I have also changed the way I do the final seams which gives the pillows a more finished look.
I had a busy day today. I traded in some books for store credit at Bookman’s on Speedway. I used my credit to add 4 more pairs of socks to my charity project for next winter. Then I dropped off the ai fryer we decided not to keep to a local charity Youth on Their Own. Then it was off to lunch and knitting with a friend.
Four dog pillows got stuffed and all I need to do is seam them up. Then one of us will drop the pillows of at the animal shelter. I am on the last 3/4 of an inch on a hat before I start the crown. I am not going to update you on all my works in progress, but there are quite a few.
Tomorrow I need to do the laundry that I ignored all week. Then some general house cleaning and organizing. Just maybe I can fill another couple of bags to take to Bookman’s on River. I probably need to start another goodwill box too.
Have a happy and productive day.
Since I have delivered all my charity knitting projects it seemed like a fantastic time to start work on the holiday knitting for 2024. So I already started the big Ziplock XXL bag with a pair of socks and these 2 scarfs.
The next batch of 6 dog pillows stuffed with yarn scraps are going to the dog shelter. The dog pillows are a great way to keep yarn scraps out of the land fill and benefit my community too.
I got my stress cleaning out of the way early today. I have only done a couple of hours today. But it’s not even 11 a.m. yet, do the day is still early.
Now if I could just distress and relax.
I am declaring tomorrow, Wednesday to be UFO Day. I have at least 10 projects that need 30 minutes or less to finish up. Six dog pillows that just need a 6 inch seam closed. Then 4 knitting projects that are almost done. The scarf on the loom has at least 4 hours to finish, so it may not get done.
Of course there will be laundry too, but let’s face it the washing machine and dryer do most of that work. Now what I need is some very cleaver engineer to make a system where I put the sorted load in one end. Out will come the clean wet clothes that need to be hung up on hangers. Then put the wet clothes on the clothes line. The rest of the clothes sent to the dryer to be hung up or folded depending upon the article of clothing. The folded clothes will go neatly into a basket and the clothes on hangers will go directly to the clothes line to be put away later. Of course all the socks will be matching and folded too. Now how hard could that be with all those and/ or variables? Easy peasy right. We just have not asked for it yet.
Then I can going with my last minute holiday gift projects.
I was busy today. I finished 2 more dog pillows before breakfast. Went to lunch and knit with a friend. Truth be told we brought our lunch back to the house, it was even too hot for a patio with misters. Worked on a new pattern and got past the half way point and color change. Did some random cleaning. Grocery shopping. All this dispute my body and a heat wave. Tucson peaked out at 110f today.
I ran out of energy for spinning and tagging yarn. I am now going to call it an early night.
With Christmas in July coming to the Old Pueblo Knitting Guild on July 19th at 9:30 am, I have been spinning up a storm and deciding which of my current hand spun yarns are going to leave the nest. With my hand issues still not going away. Add to that my limited time to use my hands daily some big decisions had to be made. I only kept what is currently talking to me. To that end, I now have over 1 cubic feet of hand spun yarn tagged and ready for the 19th. I still have a bit more to tag tomorrow.
When that is done I will come up with a few more simple things that I hope my friends will love. I also have a bunch of dog pillows to make. Then those will leave the house too. I think I might be able to fill my car with dog pillows once I am done.
I am really hoping we don’t have another summer like 1994 with over 100 days over 100f. On the other hand being just a couple of years older the heat seems to be effecting me a bit more. I am less heat tolerant. I am trying hard not to mope and being more proactive on getting things done.
One last thing. This is the first batch of Tour De Fleece 2023 newly minted or should I say hand spun yarn. I had fun spinning it.
Today I finished plying 3 mini skeins of hand spun yarn. I used the drop spindle instead of the spinning wheel because it gives me a better yarn. By this I mean a more balanced twist. It is so much easier to control the twist.
I also made a concerted effort to catch up on my back log of making dog pillows. I made 6 cases. I stuffed 5 and pinned them. I left 1 by my squirrel cage for all the little bits and pieces I get when caking yarn. I also cut the fabric for 2 more pillows.
After all that hand work my hands were just too tired to knit tonight. Sometimes I feel like a beginner in knitting were projects took months instead of days. I have about 2 more ounces to knit. I hope to be finished by Mother’s Day. I am really ready for my hands to be better.
I don’t know about you but weaving in the ends and doing finishing work often takes a backseat to creating. Tonight I had an ever growing pile of the evil finishing work. I decided it was time only because I am currently creating more art the will require finishing work. It is an evil, vicious cycle. Create many, many things. Wait until I have a small pile and just sit down and do it. Repeat.
You know what comes next, don’t you. Taking pictures and posting to Ravelry. Well that will be tomorrow in better light. In the meantime please enjoy the group photo. Three hats for the Flowing Wells SD Clothing Bank, 2 cotton and 1 super wash wool hat made of hand spun yarn. I hope the kids like the colors. Also 6 coasters woven from hand spun yarn. I wove 7, but one had a major problem not worth fixing so it is going to the dogs for pillow stuffing. Waste not want not.
Then everything will go in the proper storage bags.
I had an incredibly bad night, followed by a BBD with a pain level of crying. I still managed to sew 2 pillows to be filled and filled 2. This leaves me with one pillow to add my yarn scraps to. The pillows are loaded in the back of my car. Yes this is the 3rd charity trip in the last 7 days. I am on a roll. I thought I would be able to make more pillows but the green one is very large. There is just no comparison on the sizes. Off to the shelter they go tomorrow.
Most of the knitting room is finished. All I have to do is make some dog pillows and do a charity drop off later this week. I just have to pull out my sewing machine and bring it to the knitting room. The table I use for the sewing machine is currently occupied.
I am exhausted. I only had the energy to do four hours of cleaning today. I hurt down to my finger tips so I am going to bed early
After the dog pillows are finished I will start pulling out the cones of yarn for weaving that I don’t think I can use in a reasonable time frame. I have a feeling it is going to be a lot.
My biggest project was combining 2 accessory bags into one roll. I won a Twig & Horn roll up accessory holder. It took me a few hours to work things out. But here is what it looks like. By the way I just love it. As you can see I did not fill all the pockets but put everything I need in it. You will not be surprised to know that between the 2 bags that I condensed down , I had 5 measuring tapes. Oh, and I did add a pen after I took the picture.
I just finished the next 3 dog pillows.. All I have to say is thank goodness dogs can’t see in the green range, because I had 2 pillows that were the same pattern but different colors. No, I am not ripping out the final seam. At least something is finely finished. I am so use to finishing multiple projects a week. This not using my hands is driving me nuts..
I guess my sewing is done for the day. I see lighting is the distance. Unlike my old Kenmore mechanical sewing machine which ran in any weather, my newish BERNINA does not like static discharges. It just messes with the programming. Not to mention it can fry the chip. Newer innovations are not always better.
Something else that is driving me nuts is the weather forecasters and the National Weather Service They have decided that 100 degrees is a heat emergency. I live in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. Did anyone bother telling them in school that it gets hot in the desert, it’s not unusual for the temperature to stay above 100f for weeks at a time. We usually only used to keep track of days above 110f. I can really see setting it at 110f or 115f or above for a heat emergency. I am the 3rd generation of my family to live in the desert. My grandparents came when swamp coolers we brand new technology. The swamp coolers did not work during the monsoon season, which is our rainy season. For those of you who are not familiar with swamp coolers, they are also called evaporative coolers. The equivalent of blowing air over a bowl of ice cubes to cool off. My point is that if you don’t like the heat don’t move into the desert because you like our winters. We just don’t have enough water..
We have always known that we did not have enough water in Tucson. My dads 1st job after graduation from the University of Arizona in 1956 was with the Better Business Bureau to tell people not to move to Tucson, because there was not enough water. Fast forward to 2021 and low and behold they were right. We are 20 years into an Epic Draught. One good year of rain is not going to fix this. Growth is not always good.
This blog post is a bit rambling and disjointed. That is where my mind is now. The rising COVID19 numbers across the country combined with a very low vaccination rate , means that I probably won’t see my family until spring. But to end the blog on a good note, here are the dog pillows.
This week’s finished projects. 3 dog pillows for the shelter. 1 hat for the kids. 1 blanket headed to the V.A. When I have a box full. Pictures are here. the car is loaded for Monday’s delivery of the pillows.
