If at First You Don’t Succeed.

I just love the color way and feel of this Queensland Collection Perth in Bay of Fires yarn. Please be forewarned that this yarn might not be in your local yarn shop anymore.  The explanation is quite simple really. I tried five different patterns with this yarn. The yarn was not happy with the previous patterns.  It was really saying I know what I want to be. You are not understanding what I want.  So after each failure the whole project bag was put in timeout.  Yes, sometimes yarn does need a time out.  Maybe, I just did not know what to do with the yarn.  

I need to start a different UFO,  I have completed 3 projects in 2 days. I still have to make time to take the pictures. I believe I am up to 5 pictures that need to be taken. It has been crazy busy since we got home from our last family trip. 

Well last night everything changed.  I tried knitting the project that was on the knitting needles.  The yarn said no.  So I frogged the work.  Using U.S. size 10 1/2 knitting needles and not the recommended U.S. size 1 to 3 knitting needles I charged ahead using a slightly different cast on count of My Doodling Shawl pattern, available on Ravelry.  By the third row the yarn was sing, she finally got me.  So I kept knitting until I needed a longer knitting needle.  Believe it or not I did not have a circular knitting needle in 10.5 by 60 inches long.  So out came the LYKKE interchangeable knitting needles to the rescue.  By the way don’t the copper knitting needles look good with the yarn?  

I don’t know how big the shawl will be.  I have 3 skeins of Bay of Fire at 437 yards each. Again I think the shawl will make the decision for me. This should make a great summer weight shawl for those cold places. 

Tuesday

 Meta has changed the rules yet again.  I am only being give the option of one Facebook page. So you will find me on Handmadebysheri on Facebook.  All my posts will go there in the very near future.  

Now that today’s business is taken care of. We go on to the real stuff.   I finally finished a UFO today, with the exception of weaving in the 2 ends. So you will see it tomorrow.

My new gloves shrunk as hoped for with the exception of 2 small areas by my fingers.  Since it supposed to be 110f on Sunday, I will try shrinking them one more time.  The garage should be nice and hot.  Along with the water temperature.

In looking at all my featherweight spindles today I have discovered that they are all between 10 and 29 grams.  I can’t believe that I did not realize that I had a 10 grams drop spindle.  Gee, that is awfully light. 

The Gloves WereTo Big

 When I wore my new gloves this week I was quite dismayed that they were about an inch too wide and let in a lot of cold air. The pattern said that they were meant for an adult hand. Apparently my hands are too small.  I do wish pattern designers would put the across the palm measurement for sizing.  So as you can see in the picture below I soaked them in hot water with a hot water rinse.  Careful not to agitate them.  I did not want them to felt.  Then I put them in a very hot garage to dry.  

If the easy method does not work, I will then have to steek them. I will put them on and put several marks where the seam will go.  Then I will baste them on the sewing machine, making sure I have a very secure seam.  Then it will be time for the surger.  I think the first run through will be without the blade.  I will cut them by hand. Wish me luck in this endeavor.  

Lost Gloves

 The only thing to do when I lose my hand knit fingerless gloves after 2 weeks of searching for them is to make a new pair.  To that end as of tonight I am 1 1/2 way through knitting a replacement pair. I know for a fact that the only way that they will come out of hiding is to have competition from a new pair of fingerless gloves.  

How is your weekend going?

Trying Something New

 I am trying something new and different.  In the past 25 years of knitting I have always had multiple projects going at the same time.  Currently I have at least 5 scarves, 2 hats, various shawls and mittens on the knitting needles. It can be so overwhelming at times I just start a new project for a change up.  

Today, I started to try something new.  For me it’s revolutionary.  I have never done this before, well really after my first scarf.  I really wanted to start a new shawl today.  I currently have 4 different shawls on knitting needles.  I decided to try to finish all the shawls on my knitting needles / crochet hooks before I wind yarn to start another shawl.  Most of my friends only have a couple of projects going at once.  Some even only buy more yarn when they finish a project, this will not happen for me for so many reasons.  

So instead of winding more yarn to start another project, I put the project bag back on the shelf.  I pulled out a shawl in progress.  With plans to finish it and several other shawl projects before I wind yarn into cakes for the next shawl.  

It’s probably not conducive to a neat house having 10 or more UFO’s on the fireplace waiting for my attention.  Not to mention a few baskets worth in the knitting room. This does include weaving projects that have not been completed.  

So wish me luck. I will try my best to finish most of the projects, before I start new a new one.  I am trying to see if it’s more efficient to only have one of anything going at once.  I might not make it. I will at least give it a trial run before I can pass judgment on the plan.  By August I should have enough data for a conclusion.  

Yesterday

 Yesterday was a busy day.  I started out in the garden cutting back a bush that had gotten all branch very little green.  Then it was laundry and chores.  

The good news is that I have completed enough UFO’s to send a laundry basket back to the laundry room.  Yes I was seeing what I needed to finish and organized things as I went.  Thus the knitting room got a small reorganization.

Knitting waited until dinner time.  Then I finished 2 charity projects,  1 hat and 1 pounder scarf.   Then I cast on another pounder scarf and hat for my charity projects.  

Pictures Taken

 

I have finally gotten around to taking pictures. In the above picture, there is one handwoven scarf, One crocheted scarf, and four knitted scarves. Also included our two of the three mud rugs that I have recently finished. They are now all logged in to ravelry so I have completed 16 out of 24 anticipated projects this year for 67% completed so far this year. They are all being put in the appropriate bags to leave the house.

I have had a lot of health issues this year, so I have not been doing much Crafting. I have mostly been resting this year, however, as I start to feel better, I’m starting to get things done and I’m going after my WIP’s So I can have a sense of accomplishment. I continue to empty the WIP basket. So this is a good start and as I get as I feel better, I’m hoping to accomplish more. 

All the above projects were stashed dive projects. So no new yarn was bought to complete them. Although  I still seem to be losing the stash war..

I still have good days and bad days. So some days, I don’t accomplish anything at all.

I hope everybody has a good holiday season and enjoy your friends and family.

*WIP is works in progress.  

Cooking More and other things

I have been feeling well enough to do more things like cooking. In the past 2 weeks I have cooked 5 times which resulted in 9 homemade dinners for my husband and myself.  The home cooking is great and some creative recipes have come into our dining rotation.  A new favorite is Scottish Loch Trout, which is similar in appearance to salmon but with an entirely different flavor and texture.  I am happy to report that the Scottish Loch Trout tasted even better the second night.  

You have guessed that there is a down side to all this cooking.  Yes, there is a downside. I plan my shopping trips early in the morning.  Then after the food is put away I take a 2 to 3 hour nap.  Wake up in time to start dinner and nap again while dinner is cooking.  

I am also working on a small shawl.  It has a 7 row repeat.  I find that since I am on the second skein of linen yarn I can only do 1 repeat of 7 rows a day.  That’s ok with me.  The shawl is slowly getting finished.  Any progress is good progress. 

As for house work it is all done in 5 to 10 minutes at a time followed by resting or a nap.  Sometimes I wonder if the old energizer bunny will ever return.  Other times I am grateful that I can get so much accomplished between my many rest and nap breaks throughout the day.  

Completed Projects

 These are my completed projects for the week as of yesterday.  The 4 blue skeins of yarn are going to my sister. The 2 small skeins are going into my hand spun yarn stash.  The 4 skeins of pink were responsible to compress some of the air out of the yarn to make it more suitable for weaving.  The green skein of yarn is going into a new pattern design.  The hat is part of my holiday knitting for the kids clothing bank here in Tucson that I am supporting.  That would be 6 more completed projects for the year.   

Now to pit everything away or get it ready for mailing tomorrow.  I hope to have a big stack to bring to the post office.  It’s always good when things leave the house.   

Finally

 I finally got 3 low hanging projects completed.  One project in each of the following categories: knitting, Tunisian crochet and quilting.  I added 3 more stitch markers to the counting vase.  Without further ado here they are.  The quilt is a present so I can’t show you the rest until the quilt is given.  The scarfs are a head start on next year’s holiday gifts.  

Projects by the Dozens.

 This is the year to complete as many UFO’s as possible.   Every where I look in the sewing and knitting rooms I  seem to find more UFO’s without even looking.  I just seem to be scattered trying to finish everything at once.  Right now I have one on the sewing machine with two more lined up, meaning under two hours to finish each project.  One on the espinner, a little over halfway done with the first spin, then plying, hot bath and thwack. Too many on Tunisian Crochet Hooks and knitting needles to count. 

Did I mention I still have to write the directions for a beginner weaving class on mudd rugs?  That will be two different pdf’s. 

Now if I could only be more organized.  Wait a minute, if I was more organized I would be able to complete one project before starting another project.  I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon.  

The Next Step

 90 percent of the deep house cleaning is done.  It’s just things like the pantry, filing cabinet and curio cabinet that need my attention.  

So I am turning my attention to UFO’s problem. I currently have 4 baskets of UFO’s that need to be completed. UFO’s are projects that are in various stages of completion.  Last year I tried a log book to keep track of my UFO’s.  That was a terrible failure.  So I am going for a straight numbers thing.  For every 10 projects I completed, I have given myself permission to cast on another project.  The only exception to this rule will be charity knitting for the kids and some family members.  

To keep track of all this I plan on dropping a stitch marker in a jar for every completed project.  This should be totally doable for me.  It’s not like there is a shortage of stitch markers in this house.  I am also sure that I can find a see through jar or vase.  With a limited amount of hand time per day it will take longer than in the past. I have started this project today with a random project. I got 2 inches completed today.  Pictures for you of my progress when the items are completed. 

My goal is to get rid of my PhD in knitting. Projects half done.  Wish me luck.  

My aspirational list

 This morning I was tired of the endless to do list that I have been making for decades. I also have been failing to complete them most days which I find quite discouraging.  So today it became my aspirational list. These are the things that I aspire to do during the day. If I don’t get everything done oh well, no harm done. I did manage to complete 80% of my aspirational list today which made me feel pretty good. My dad always said it’s not what you say, but how you say it that matters.  Words do make a difference. Now I just have to get rid of all the list that say to do, and convince people to make aspirational lists instead. 

I was very busy for most of the day. I can’t remember a day recently that I did six full loads of laundry since the end of 2019.  Now to be truthful, two of them were hand wash. But that’s still six loads of laundry. Except for the clothes drying on the clothesline everything is put away too. I haven’t done that in a long time.

I even found time to knit and spin today.  I also managed to get in 10 minutes of Zenning by partly cleaning out a drawer and filling a trash can halfway.  Plus get over 6000 steps just by cleaning house today. So all in all it was a busy day and I’m really tired. I haven’t done this much work since at least the beginning of February so I’d say I’m well on the road to recovery.

TTFN

A Very Geeky Day

 Today was one of those incredible geeky days for me.  I figured out that if I went over international yarn standards and deviations in my head it would relax me enough to fall asleep.  Things like how many knots are actually allowed in a standard ball of yarn.  The answer is 3.  If you would like no knots in your yarn I would suggest using an independent yarn dyer because even though you pay more, you generally do not get knots in your skeins of yarn.  The knots in yarn are actually what helps keep mass market yarns on the less expensive side. Say $3 to 10 USD versus $25 dollars or more for a small batch skein.  Yes, you get what you pay for.  Yes, there is a large place in the market for mass market skeins.  Think beginning knitters or crocheters. Young kids art projects.  Charity projects.  Table decorations etc….

The day did get even more geeky, yes that is possible.  At knitting guild I explained that each country had its own yarn standards that are different from the international standards.   I did not go into details, but basically before mass yarn manufacturers. There are currently 5 that dominate the world market. All yarn was manufactured in each individual country. Weights and needle sizes were most likely determined by local weather conditions.  Thus an Aran weight yarn could be different in different countries.  Thicker in colder climates and thinner in warmer climates.  That account for the variation of size on knitting needles with the same numbers but the millimeters are different. The current yarn standards make international shopping much easier with numbers for the weight. Each yarn distributor can then label to their country standard. 

The last geeky event of the day was a knitting in public kind of thing.  I was working on a right handed knitting project. The comment made was I don’t knit like that.  With a little discussion I figured out she was a left handed knitter. So I put the project I was working on down. I picked up a left handed knitting project and started knitting left handed. Yes, that is how she knit. A person across the table looked at me and was probably wondering what kind of person brings both left and right handed knitting projects. Also how does she keep track or could use both hands to do the same thing a different way.  After all aren’t all people either right or left handed?  The simple answer is a definite no.  So of us are lucky enough to be able to use our hands interchangeably.  They call that being ambidextrous.  I am sure it bothers a lot of people, even my own family.  I have been know to switch hands in the middle of something as mundane as a meal.  It came in handy when the kids were younger.  I would feed them with my right hand and myself with my left hand.  It did make meals go faster. Also I made special stitch markers for just that reason. I made L and R stitch markers.  Each project is marked.  You would want to ask my friend Louise why that is necessary.  

I hope your day was less geeky.  

A Very Busy Day

After an early morning doctor’s appointment, where everything was fine and healed nicely. There is also no visible sign of infection or inflammation. My sinuses are finally working again.  I am very happy with that.  

I accomplished knitting and grocery shopping today after my doctor’s appointment.  I finished hat number 7 for the year. Then of course started hat number 8.  I did not want the stitch markers getting lonely.  After lunch it was nap time.  

Also the clouds got in the way of the lunar eclipse tonight.  Not many good pictures.  I did do some spinning while watching the eclipse tonight.  I can spin in semi darkness.  That is my new superpower. 

I managed to craft today.

 I am spinning some yarn for myself.  The samples are on the smaller side, so I am plying the wool with a llama silk blend yarn  that I bought for a weaving project that will never happen. This will give me twice as much finished yarn.   I have to use the yarn for something. It might as well be me. Hopefully this will give me enough yarn to make a small shawlet.  I am in the middle of plying the third mini skein.  I have a great rhythm going. First I spin the singles for three bobbins. Then I ply those three bobbins.  I will use my 1 yard knitty noddy to skein them.  Yes, they are very small skeins, but not small enough for the knitty noddy that I use for my drop spindles. 

After I finished spinning and plying the entire set, I will divide them up by color ways and wash them in small batches using Soak Wash.  

There will be no pictures tonight because the antibiotic for my sinus infection has hit my tummy very hard today. I spent most of the day resting. I am half way through a 14 day prescription.  Therefore my knitting/ spinning room is very unorganized.  

Also my knitting hit awesome tonight. I found 2 dropped stitches in a black section of a shawl that I am knitting. I was able to fix both dropped stitches so that I can’t find the repair work at 12 inches. I have come so far in my knitting   I used to rip out something like that  now I just go to the row and fix it without have to rip out hundreds of stitches.  

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  

Recovery Is Exhausting

 I find it just amazing how little it takes right now to tire me out.  This morning I emptied the dishwasher. Knit with friends for an hour before I started falling asleep.  Spent less than $75.00 at the store and put the groceries away.  

I was too tired to eat lunch instead I slept for about 3 hours.  My head hit the pillow and I was out for the count.  I woke up just in time to talk to John and tell him what I forgot to pick up at the store today.  

I started to ply 2 eight ounce bobbins into a DK weight yarn  I am wondering how many bobbins I will fill.

By dinner time I had a pounding headache. After dinner a cuppa helped get rid of the pounding headache.  

My goal tonight is to try to get a good nights sleep.  

Still Exhausted

 I am so over this recovery period.  The supplies that I thought would last for 2 weeks are almost gone.  I am using my last nasal spray. I have ordered another 6 pack which will arrive on Saturday.  I have lost my appetite and finding it hard to hit 20 grams of protein per meal. Not to mention eating my vegetables.  I am also tired of being exhausted.  

To end on a positive note. I completed one charity hat which is very bright and colorful tonight.  I cast on another hat tonight too.  I am only a few rows into the brim.  I am putting the shawl aside until I feel a little better.   I need quick fun projects so hats do fit the bill.  Also the clothing bank I knit for has promised they will find a head for every hat that I knit.  Today’s hat will show up in  tomorrows blog.  You have been forewarned that it is bright and colorful.  

The 5 Minute Rule

 I strongly believe in the 5 minute rule for doing larger cleaning projects. Since my surgery last Friday and my very obviously diminished supply of spoons, I have come up with a very effective variation of the five minute rule. 

It goes as follows. If I manage to get up from my very important job of resting I try to put a few things away.  While my tea is brewing, I put things away around the kitchen.  If I need to go to the back of the house for any reason, I try to return things to the back of the house.  If there is nothing to bring forward, I stop and try to un clutter an area for a few minutes. I find it amazing how much I can get cleaned up in 5 minutes.  

As usual the recovery is taking longer than I think it should.  Although it is going according to the doctor’s recovery plan.  As you know I hate the recovery period. 5 days in 9 to go for the hard core recovery. Then I will start to increase my activity.  

I have also started a new shawl. Hopefully I will finish the entire 100 grams of wool before I complete my recovery.  I am using a Zauerball. I find the Zauerball’s very fun to knit with. My husband thinks that I should choose a brighter color for the next one. 

The Streak - Day 2

 I am currently working through a weird streak.  Yesterday as you recall, I broke our coffee maker. According to Costco that model broke a lot. We did not even have to explain. Just show the paperwork work for the refund. 

Today was quite different.  While bending down to pick out my shoes for the day a closet clothing rack fell on my head. At least the clothes were soft. But the hangers did do a little bit of scratching.  So I cleaned off a couch. Then moved all the clothes to the couch.  Then I vacuumed up the mess. Cleaned my self up. Did my hair.  Had a very quick lunch. Started a load of laundry. Added water to the pool. Then went to have back to back lab studies done.  Then went to the grocery store where my discount card failed yet again.  I have signed up for that account at least 10 times.  But it’s always someone else’s fault that their discount card does not work as promised.  I re registered the dam app.  I think if it does not work this time I will send a note to the state attorney general’s office and complain about false advertising.  

The good part is that I found time to spin and relax.  After dinner I did some knitting   

Wish me luck that tomorrow will be a better day.