Slowing Down

I have been in a crazy mode since the accident on December 7. 2015. My life just took on an agenda of its own and I tried to keep up. I can really feel the effects it has been having on my body. So I am taking Teri's advice that "No" is a complete sentence with no explanation necessary. I am trying to do things that relax me and that I want to do.

I took the weekend off, as much as I could at least. The guys took me to Dim Sum at China Phoenix on Saturday. Out to dinner with John on Saturday and Sunday nights. Lisa, Eric and I also went to see the movie Mothers Day on Mother's Day. If you need to see a great movie that will keep you laughing most of the time, this is the on to go see. Yes, it is a chick flick. Yes the weekend did include 5 loads of laundry, I am beginning to think in his own way Eric is showing me his love.

Everyone gave me flavored teas to help with a healthier lifestyle. I still have not had a soda since the flu bug a few months ago.

I also have been knitting more, which is not a bad thing. Well it might, because I have a lot of knitting and weaving to do before I really need to shop for yarn. I spent some time spinning today. I am finally unwound enough to try sleep so wish me luck.

Day 3

My hands are feeling better, but I still can not do a whole lot with them. I find it really  hard to watch TV at night and not having my hands in constant motion. I am hoping every day that I will be able to knit and spin soon. Although I think I will be able to use the loom first. It is much easier on the hands.

A Little Bit of Everything

A lot has happened since the last post. I got a request from Eric's day program for winter gear for the Primivera Men's Shelter in town so that the young adults from his Taglit program learn about clothing the poor. So I stopped knitting kids hats for a few days to make a couple of adult hats. Everyone is suppose to bring something, so I don't feel the pressure to make dozens of hats. I will add the rows and picture at the end of the blog. I have since gone back to making kids hats.  I enjoy these, they are like candy because they go so fast. I also found out that the kids who got them so far love them. Plus they said that they would take as many as I could knit.

We went to a marshal arts recital of sorts. Yes I know it is not called a recital but my Japanese is not good enough to remember the name of the event as well as spell it. My apologies to all. Eric's friend Matthew a second degree orange belt, did a terrific job. We were rewarded for the outing with a Saturday night of wild eyrping and laundry. Followed by a day of trying to get liquids into Eric. We are hoping to get Eric back on his formula tonight. Needless to say it was a lot of long hours and a very wild weekend.

Today I got some spinning done. All I have to do is spin 3/4 more of the next bobbin and then I will ply the yarn. Hopefully John can get the Lazy Kate straightened out before then. I also think I might have over estimated the time I have for the on line course that I am in the middle of. I hope to play catch up this week. I find it hard to get really creative things done when I am in a state of exhaustion.  Plus it is probably not safe to use certain carding tools while half asleep.

Well it is time to go make dinner.

2 hats for 88 more rows toward the 1 million row challenge. 

Laundry Math

The math just does not add up I did 4 loads of laundry Saturday with 1 load left over. I started doing laundry at 6 am this morning. I had 1 load from Saturday and 5 loads from today with all the laundry finished by 4 pm. So how is it that just 6 hours later I have at least 3 new loads of laundry. How does 1 boy make so much laundry? Is there an evil genie who goes around just pulling clothes out of drawers to be dirtied and thrown back in the laundry  before the fresh laundry smell is gone?  I sometimes wonder if Eric has a deal with Proctor and Gamble, he will make as much dirty laundry as possible if they agree to put Tide coupons in the Sunday paper once a month. The thing I don't want to hear is that you do only 2 to 4 loads a week. That is unless you convince my son that he does not have to keep mommy busy by doing laundry.

There are other things in life that I love to do. I have signed up for an on line course that I have yet to crack the "book" open or even completed the 1st home work assignment. I have another 6 classes that I need to listen to before next semester for my religious studies class. I can not forget all the yarn I want to knit up in to charity hats next to couch, I think it is about 4 gallons of yarn. Yes I count my yarn in gallons and quarts for the reason that 4 gallons of yarn sounds better than counting just how many skeins make up a gallon of yarn. Also how much  I have to knit up. Its a little less daunting that way. Did I mention that I have both spinning wheels in mid project with a few spindles busy too. Yes I am making more yarn too.

In the sewing room today I just finished a set of toddler bibs. I bought the supplies more than several years ago to go to a set of twins who are now in elementary school. So as long as they are finished, the bibs will now be going to a friends granddaughter. While I was at it I also made 2 more bibs for Eric. Now to get those project bag samples done. The work in the sewing room is part of my deep cleaning effort. Finish all work in progress that can be made relevant or get rid of it.

Now if someone can just get Eric to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Sleep through the night and not wake up before the sun I would have it made.

Busy As Usual

I has been a busy few days around here. This morning was laundry/cleaning followed by tinking about 8 wash cloths. The yarn will go into some cotton hats. I have a better chance of finding homes for hats than wash cloths. A few more hats got done between yesterday and today. They are getting more creative as I get into the the smaller bits of yarn. Did I mention that I found more yarn as I was cleaning on Friday? I thought I was just about done with cotton hats and ready to move on to wool and other fibers.

Even though I still have a little more than a week to get everything done by Thanksgiving  I am still feeling a bit rushed. Tomorrow I hope to wrap up the work in the craft room by finishing some bibs and making a few project bags for people who have asked for some. The most surprising thing about the craft room was that I did not just throw it all into bags and into the garage. I went through everything piece by piece and found a home for it or recycled it. I still find this level of organization a bit unnerving, but it is much easier to be creative. Who would have thought that a cleaner space lead to more creativity.

Then it will be time to take care of the fiber creep and maybe put some in the garage. I am really trying to get the fiber stash under control, but I can't seem to knit and spin as much as I would like too. This is a case where my mind is working faster than my hands.

Since I have another busy day planned for tomorrow, I know this because the to do list has already been written. I think I will call it a night.

Finishing off the Week

It has been very busy around here. On Thursday I did try to take some time off. Some of it was good like learning a new way to place the freshly spun yarn on a bobbin to get it much neater. I like bringing my wheel and just sitting around and spinning with other people. I learn so much about spinning and life. Lunch with everyone was nice too.

On the other hand I was deeply disappointed with a craft room appliance manufacturer. I got to meet the president of the company. I asked why my first service could not be performed on the machine without additional cost to me. After all the first service was included in the sales price. When I went in for the first service they were long gone. They said that the company that they were leasing space was responsible and you can guess what the lease holder said.  For the president of a consumer driven industry he sure does not understand the average consumer or really care if they receive good service after the sale. His regional sales manager was not much better, since I did not drink the current rah rah drink and disagreed with her I was in her eyes an awful person. She felt it was good business to yell at a consumer and to try to publicly shame me. Like that is ever going to work on me.  Also when is it a consumers responsibility to keep track of the inner workings of a company or know their policy manual inside out, really!!!  Also to tell someone that even though you bought the appliance less then 10 miles from home and they closed a company branch, in their opinion it was not unreasonable to ask a consumer to drive 100 or 200 miles to get the appliance serviced.  Do they realize that that would take 2 full days out of a busy life that I do not have. I will continue to use the appliance but no way in HE Double Tooth Picks would I ever buy another appliance from this company*.

Today was filled with more knitting and friends. I got a good start on the laundry, I should only have 2 loads to wash tomorrow, we all know that depends on Eric. I got about 4 pounds of fiber washed. The fiber was dirtier than I expected so it took longer to wash and did not manage to get it all finished today. I still have more in the garage to wash. I did not realize how much work it would be  on my hands to wash the fiber.

On the hat front number 27 is done. Hat number 28 is on the needles and after that there are only 2 to go. So it is time to call it a night even though I should be exhausted my body seems out of sync and I am not in the least bit tired.

*It is the policy of this blog not to publicly shame bad companies. There are lots of people that do that. So that is why you will not see the name of the small appliance manufacturer in the blog. Conversely if they are products or companies I just love and think you should give them a try like my Kitchen Aid K5-A mixer which I think everyone should have one ( yes mine is from the late 1970's). Or even my Le Creuset cookware (My first piece was bought from the Betty Crocker Catalog back in the mid 1980's) everyone should have at least one every day piece for cooking.  Even household cleaners like Scrubbing Bubbles, great for the bathroom tile in Eric's bathroom.

Recharging

It was a very quiet weekend around here. We all took the time to recharge. All that got accomplished was a bit of cleaning, laundry, knitting and spinning. I almost forgot, we wondered over to the Apple store to look at the colors for the new 5s. I am still not sure what color I will get, but the gold color is still not shipping and is not the greatest shade of gold around. I may just go with the black and get a very colorful case. Something that won't get lost in my purse. Apple that may be your next goal, a phone that won't get lost in purses.

I have time to do a quick to do list for tomorrow before I call it a night.

Oh No

I am going to leave the guys on their own for a few days. I am a little nervous about this. Eric had a cold this weekend and John just caught it. Everyone is saying go, but I am a little nervous about this trip. So today in the midst of taking care of Eric, I started gathering my knitting and spinning. I pulled as many UFOs that I could put together that were small and not fussy. So I have 2 bags of knitting, 1 bag of spinning and a small bag of snacks. What, you did not really expect me to pull and pack my clothes first did you?

I also manage to get over 1,000 rows of knitting added to the 1 million row challenge on Raverly. I wonder if I can finish that many rows while I am gone next week. I also figured out that the stash down does not go as fast if I keep spinning more yarn to relax. Oh well you can't have everything.

Things got a little wonkier as the day went on. So as I was going to record my exercise for the day I could not get my ipod touch to start. The apple store connection on my computer does not even recognize this ipod right now. I tried everything that the page suggested. So it is off to the Apple store tomorrow to see if they can fix it. I am really hoping that I did something really dumb and they wave their magic wand and presto it is fixed. So is this an omen that I should not ignore? Anyway you put it I have a lot of things stored in this little piece of magic. You can not believe how much of my life is stored on those 32 gigs of memory.

So tomorrow it is gathering clothes to pack. Possibly doing all the car pooling to give John time to recoup, pack, go to the apple store and hope for the best. I am a little bit tired so the blog is a little bit choppy, sorry about that.

New Shoes and More

Eric slept for 12 full hours last night. I can not remember the last time that had happened. Me on the other hand was up at around 4am from arthritis pain. Eric was in a really good mood today too. Although I can not figure out how he managed to get more sleep today as he dozed on and off. I really hope that he sleeps tonight. So far its almost 11pm and he is still up.

As for the arthritis pain in my knee, I recently did some research on causes of foot/knee pain. Report after report said that the slip on shoes that I like can be a cause of improper alignment of the foot, that leads to bad body alignment. They all recommended sandals with sturdy soles and the straps that go across the front of the foot, mid foot and a strap that goes behind the heal. Yesterday I went shoe shopping and today I wore the first pair. Gravity Defyer - Amelia in black. The stiffness has not gone totally away, but I have not had any Tylenol since 4am and I don't think that I needed any until bed time. I have not had any sharp or shooting pain. No muscle cramps in my calf's. So day 1 is a success. I did take one Tylenol right before I was going to sleep an hour ago. Also I would like everyone to know up front that I had never heard of this brand before shopping yesterday. I paid the going rate for the sandals at the time of purchase and was not asked by the company to review these shoes. I am also not giving any professional medical advice. Please go to your personal physician for any medical questions.

On the spinning front I am trying another artsy spin on a drop spindle in shades of purple with diffrent fibers. I will post a picture once it is plied. I also started the second half of a poncho. I am really tired and hope that Eric goes to sleep soon.

Slow Progress

The good news of the day is that as of this evening Eric is back on his formula. We did go for a slow start but he is all smiles. It is my hope that his post viral asthma does not keep him up tonight.

I had a pretty good day today. I started on my pile of finishing work. The pair of slippers, 2 kerchiefs and mini wash cloth will be available at the Next Taglit Fundraiser for Eric's day program. Because of the I-cord on the scarfs you will notice my counter is up over 1000 more stitches on the million row challenge. I am also blocking 2 wash cloths (not counted yet) that will go in my Etsy store when they are dry.

Besides the finishing work I did get another square finished on Teri's blanket, that makes 193 squares done and some where around 50 to go plus the border. I am almost finished with another kerchief. I spent the night spinning small bits of fluff, mostly 1/4 ounces samples from my last Phat Fiber box. I even spent a few minutes cleaning in the craft room. We are having company in November and I am not sure they want to sleep in a bed of yarn and fluff. I need an early start. I can give them some closet space, but the drawers a full of yarn.

Tomorrow I will do some more finishing work with the goal of listing a few new items in my on line store. What would you like to see first hand spun yarn or hand knit items? I only have a small backpack full of things to be finished for tomorrow with most destined to be sold on line or at the next fundraiser.

While cleaning I found the pattern that I was looking for, so tomorrow I will pair it with the yarn. Well I think since Eric will be home again tomorrow I should get a little extra sleep tonight.

Not an Idle Summer Day

It has been a very busy day. It started off shopping at the Friends of the Pima County Library sale. I found a slew of good knitting books in excellent condition for a very reasonable price. Most of these will be raffle prizes at future guild meetings. The hard part for me will be letting most of them leave the house. They are all that good. I also found a lot of books for Eric, so if you like to read aloud to a very willing audience please feel free to give me a call. Then it was off to Starbucks for a much needed caffeine break. I also found a replacement for one of my favorite coffee/tea mugs that found it way to the trash can in pieces. I just wish that people would let me know when they break something.  Darn if we did not go a little out of our way to Savers. I did find a Lego set for $1.00 for my friends son. The funny thing was I promised that we would try to find a set of Lego's if he agreed to go with us. I just love good karma. That was not the best deal of the day. I can't say much more about it, although the person I have this in mind for will just love it.

Then it was lunch with John followed by a short nap. I did manage to get one project off the knitting needles, however so the needles would not feel useless I cast on the next project. I did also find the time to do a little spinning this afternoon.

Since I am handing Eric over early tonight to John, I think I will call it an early night. My to do list is a mile long for tomorrow.

I Could Use a Slower Pace

I was all set to blog last night when the wild eyrping started. So let me back up a few hours.
Most of Monday was spent resting and napping because Eric had a really bad night Sunday too.
 I started the final skein on Teri's shawl, silk-moon-crescent-shawlette. I currently stand at 130 rows knit, with 6 of those rows knit last night. Please remember that the patterns first few rows are 3 stitches each, which morph to 9 before the real adding starts. the increases are 2 stitches every other row. Plus a mega increase every 10th row. So I am well beyond 300 stitches per row right now. It is so soft and squishy that I might just have to spin some baby alpaca and knit my own.

Most of last night and today was spent with Eric. I got caught up on laundry when Eric dozed for a few minutes at a time. I am running on caffeine and chocolate plus the healthy meals that John is cooking. I am knitting a charity scarf in Eric's room, I love the yarn, but hate the color so I want to get it off my needles asap so I can start something new.

I managed to get to Trader Joe's to pick up the ingredients for dinner. John and I put it together and we will eat as soon as Eric is through with thump.

The things I need to accomplish before Thursday are getting a new pair of summer heels. Its really awful when I shrink out of everything in one clothing category at once. This time it was shoes. Also make a few more stitch markers and earrings. If Eric sleeps tonight maybe he can help with making the jewelry and stitch markers tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Keeping Out of Trouble

The longer that John is retired the more we seem to be doing. We worked together on Thursday and Friday to clean house for a party and get the jump on passover cleaning. About all we have to do is clean the stove and polish the cabinets. John and I make a great team. I also got some spinning done and a few more rows of Teri's shawl done.

Today I walked with a friend at the walk for the cure. It was no very well organized, but we had a great time anyway and plan to do it next year. I had 9,000 of my 10,000 daily steps done before lunch today. I am also over 10,500 steps for the day so I am I a roll. I thought I would have some energy after the walk to buy some new summer shoes, since I have shrunk out of all of mine. Can you believe that I lost weight in my feet? There is a little bit of a need to rush this, because all my pants are getting longer again. Even the new ones. YEAH!!!

You will notice a very big jump in my counter as I have finally logged over 1000 more rows to my One Million Row Challenge. Most of it went to fundraising for Eric's day program so they could plant a garden. If I have not mentioned it before, we did make our goal.

I am still a little to tired to tackle the chores. John and I will get them out of the way early tomorrow. Well Eric's aide is here so it is time to get things moving.

A Solution Has Been Found

I have found a solution to my i-cord problem. The i-cord was taking me longer to knit than the soap bags. So I am using this Spool Knitter by Clover. I like the way it turns so there is not as much fumbling that goes on with this. It has been taking me 5 to 6 hours to make the i-cord using 2 dpn's. With the spool knitter I got 2 i-cords finished while watching TV tonight. This is a very good thing because I have at least 24 soap bags to make and I only have 8 completely finished. Yes I know that they look different but will function the same in the end.

In other news I did finish spinning and washing the last of the alpaca for Teri's shawl. When it is dry I thing I will go off somewhere to knit for a few hours to get it finished. All that is left to do after that is give the spinning wheel a good cleaning and a bit of polish.

Eric is on the mend and should be out of the house by Monday. We only have post viral asthma to deal with. By far this is the easiest part of the cold to deal with. Since he should sleep for the next 5 or 6 hours I think I will call it a night.

Another Busy Day

It has come to my attention that newly cleaned floors are more of a magnet for spills than a dirty one. I am also most likely to make a good portion of those spills myself.

I finished spinning and washing the "black baby alpaca" that did not feel quite right and left my hands black. After 4 or 5 washes with clarifying shampoo the dye stopped bleeding out. What I have left is a skein of dark gray alpaca from and older alpaca. It is not going into Teri's shawl because it is the wrong color. I will spin up the last bit of black baby alpaca tomorrow and try to get it washed too. Yarn takes forever to dry in cool damp weather. Yes I will get Teri's shawl done soon.

My knitting mojo was only interrupted by house work today. I have 5 more soap sacks knit up and in various stages of being finished. I will be making i-cord forever on this project. This should give me my first dozen and then only 12 to 18 more to knit. I am burning through yarn at a decent pace.

I also made a decision tonight that will surprise everyone. I have decided to forgo one of my yarn clubs this year in order to work on projects I already have. I will decide next February if I am going to rejoin. This did not take prodding by family members either.

Eric came home from his program today with the cold De jour, this time a sore throat and a fever. I will keep everyone updated. The good news is that I still have a lot of yarn to knit and fibers to spin. So no worries on that front. Since I predict it will be a long day tomorrow, I think I will call it a night.

Laundry Rules

After I blogged last night I ran the dishwasher and started today's laundry. All totaled I did 6 loads of laundry.  All but the one currently in the dryer are all properly dispatched.  Did I mention I have at least 2 full loads for tomorrow already? Can someone suggest to Eric a different occupation then making laundry for me to wash? I also spent an hour organizing things. Does anyone else have a messy monster that creeps out and just leaves random bits in odd piles. If you don't would you like to borrow mine for a while?  I could really use a break from him.  I did also manage to sweep and mop, well actually scooba the kitchen floor today. Less than 8 hours later I spilled yucky stuff on the floor and will set scooba on its rounds again tomorrow.

As for knitting I got a total of 16 rows done or or to sound more impressive 640 stitches. I also got 10 minutes of spinning in. During that time my hands turned black from the so called natural black fiber. I can't wait to finish the skein and hit it will clarifying shampoo to strip out the "natural color" and see what color was actually sent to me. My bet is not black alpaca. And we have already determined that it was not from the first couple of shearings, the fiber is just to course. At this point I see a place mat in its future.

After the 3 hour cleaning spree this morning I was to tired to do much else today. No knitting got done tonight. I need to get more work done tomorrow, but it will be in moderation so I am not so tired at the end of the day.

How did It get to be Wednesday?

We are still in recovery mode from Eric being sick. Not a lot got done around the house today. I was caught up on laundry so I only had 2 loads to do today. I also think the worst of the cold snap is behind us. Although I do find it very curious that Eric was home sick during the cold snaps of the last 2 years.

I have hit row 101 on Teri's shawl and really think that I will have to spin a fourth skein to get the project finished. I should start spinning that tomorrow. I am almost finished with my current hat on the knitting needles. After that one get done the monochromatic one is next.

I also got out to the new Whole Foods store at River and Craycroft. I have never seen that parking lot so full. I do like the way that they transformed the interior of the store. If you have seen the other stores that this replaced you will know instantly what I mean. It is very up-scale with a bakery, the small snacks did seem a bit pricey to me, but then again I am very competent in the kitchen and think nothing of throwing a quick something together. If You are Gluten Free they have a whole lot of little areas although the store for you. The produce section was nice, I really liked the golden beets that they had. The beets made a nice addition to dinner. The wine section appeared to be quite large, but then again someone else will have to drink our share. I could not get very close to the meat or deli counters but they seemed worth another trip back in a week or two when things slow down a bit. I like that they still carry dairy free because a lot of stores are dropping dairy free to go gluten free. Now if we could just reclaim some of the ice cream section and get rid of everything coconut. Yes, I know it is for the Paleo Diet but do you really think cave men ate ice cream?

Well I have to go break apart the ginger and cashew chocolate bark I made for tomorrows guild meeting. I will be there even if Eric is home. John said he will stay with Eric so I can go.

What to do on a Cold Day

We are in the middle of a cold snap. It was in the mid 20's when I woke up this morning and it it a low of -3.5 degrees Centigrade, it just sounds colder that way. I decided it was not the day to take Eric out of the house even for a movie.

I did manage to keep busy and work up a sweat today. I managed to get in 3 1/2 hours of house cleaning. All but 2 loads of laundry done and put away. I was even debating hanging the hang drys out side to see if they would freeze dry tonight, and take less time to dry.  I guess I am not that brave. So it will take a couple of days to dry on the line in the garage.

This afternoon I kept equally busy. I used a drop spindle to spin 3 mini skeins in gray for a custom order. I am looking forward to knitting a monochromatic hat, but fear that I do not have enough shades of gray wool. I check most of my stash, not much gray, but lots of black and white wool. I even got 3 more rows done on Teri's shawl ( this should read that I knit for 1 1/2 hours tonight ), yes the rows take about 30 minutes a row to knit now so it will be slow going from here. I also got the knitting done on a cotton cowl, now I just have to sew up the seam.

I failed to get the serger threaded properly so modifying Eric's sweat shirts will take place tomorrow. Let me know if you want me to write up directions to modify an over the head sweat shirt to fit easier for someone in a wheel chair. I think it might make a nice change up in the blog.

Well its time to go get Eric settled for the night.

Queit is Good

It was a very quiet weekend around here. Little odds and ends got done such as the third skein of yarn for Teri's shawl got spun. I will take it off the wheel tomorrow to wash and dry it. I think it might just go straight to the bathroom to dry, we are expecting cold wet weather tomorrow.  Speaking of Teri's shawl the rows are now almost 200 stitches long and 66 rows have been completed. I think it is almost half way done. She wants hers the same size as mine so I will have to lay one on top of the other to be sure.

Welcome to 2013

My only News Years resolution is to remember to write 2013 on every thing I have to sign and date. I decided not to go after a long list that I will review later in the year to feel bad about. I think daily or weekly to do list are better for me. That being said I was asleep by the time the New Year arrived.

We had a very slow day today.  Only 3 loads of laundry and a little picking up got done. I did start spinning the 3rd skein of yarn for Teri's shawl. One skein of yarn is still drying. With the 1st skein I am 40 rows into the 130 or so rows of the pattern. Did I mention how soft the alpaca is? If it were not promised to my wonderful daughter, I would keep it myself.  I am making it a little larger than the pattern calls for. If you would like to knit along with me I am using the silk-moon-crescent-shawlette by Jaala Spiro Designs. I know the Pattern calls for Noro Silk Garden, but the hand spun alpaca, spun to the same weight is working out well. By the way the shawl does look fantastic in Noro Silk Garden.

When I got tired of working on the solid black shawl for Teri, I started a new scarf in a lighter color. Well sort of, dark purple with a purple and pink carry along. Well I need to go mix up the Matzo Balls for tomorrow night dinner. I will give you the recipe tomorrow.