Day Gone Wild

Today turned into a Topsy turvey day with in 10 minutes of waking up this morning. Yes it was one of those wild eyrp days with 5 loads of eyrpy clothes to wash. I have since folded and put away 4 of those loads. Aren't you impressed.  UCP was able to get me coverage so I could go to my eye appointment. Yes new glasses are in order. I should have them by years end.

On the fiber arts side. I finished another hat and started another hat. I picked up a scarf that did not quite feel like a scarf while I was knitting it. The further I got into to it the more it said I want to be a small felted purse. With that decided the knitting went faster. I also pulled out all my black alpaca fiber and sorted it. The good news is that only 50% has to be washed. I am almost positive that I have enough to spin and knit an nice comfy shawl for Teri. Being the wonderful daughter she is it does not matter to her if I use a drop spindle or spinning wheel. I am pretty sure that Eric will not let me bring the wheel into his room so I might just use a drop spindle.

On the Eric front it seems like he now has a runny nose too, so I would not expect me anywhere this week. I just have to get an Eric sitter so I can make 1 other appointment this week. I will call a few people to pick up end of year drop offs for me too. Well the boss is calling so later all.

Tuesday.

Today was not a typical day for me. I was moving non stop all day long. I drove to 3 of the 4 corners of Tucson.

 After dropping Eric off at his day program it was time to do some catch up at home and get some packages ready to be mailed. I ran out of time to get them sent  before I had to drive to South Tucson for a luncheon. The food was good. The company even better.

Then off to get the packages mailed. I landed up having to drive to the Foothills Mall to get them mailed at FedEx, with just enough time to go pick up Eric. Then off to do one of Eric's favorite chores. Getting gas for "his" car along with a trip through the car wash.

I was very brave today and did a pretty good job of trimming Eric's hair. He seems to be sick most weekends lately. I think I will finish up the left side with Lisa's help on Friday. Yes this was one of my crazier ideas. With 2/3 of the haircut near perfect, in my humble opinion. On the other hand Eric does not think I should give up knitting and spinning or my day/night job to become a hair stylist.

I only have a few more appointments to book before I can clear off my calendar. I did not finish the hat I am working on either. I only managed to get about 50 grams of wool knitted today.  Well it is beyond late so its time to say good night all.

Still Here

It has been a bit crazy around here lately. If you have not been to the house in a while you will not recognize the interior of the house. The house no longer looks like a fiber artist has taken over the house completely. I am beginning to adjust to that, now I just have to remember where I put everything and I will be fine. I still find it a bit disconcerting to have to go to the garage to pull out stash yarn and fiber to work with. I know once my stash is a manageable size, it will all be in the house. Now don't you all hold your breath. It might take another year or 2 to get to that point.

Eric shared his cold with me and I spent all of yesterday sleeping while John was in charge of Eric. Except for a little post viral asthma for Eric all seems to be better today. I am also feeling better but still on the tired side.

Eric even let me spin in his room today. I finished 2 spinning projects today and both are off the spindles. I am still on a hat streak and knitting 3 to 4 hats a week. I will either get tired of knitting them or the scrap basket will get to low to make really awesome hats and I will have to move on to other things.

Well I think I will call it quits for tonight and tuck Eric in.

Procrastination

Eric was home sick again today. Since Eric was feeling better but not quite ready to go back to his day program, I decided to play catch up on deep cleaning.  Today was also my day to work on the filing. Now you might not know this about me but I hate to do filing. So it was a major procrastination day for me today. Instead of filing I did the following chores.

1. Roombaed Eric's room.
2. Unpacked the box from i-robot and put a new filter in Roomba.
3. I put a new battery in Scooba and then charged him.
4. Scoobaed Eric's room.
5. Roombaed our bedroom, twice because he ran out of power half way through the job.
6. Gathered and sorted laundry, but did not do any for lack of a full load.
7. Organized the dining room table. Now I just need to find someone who wants to dust and polish the table. Especially the under the table part. I wonder if the folks at i-robot can come up with something?
8. Loaded, ran and emptied the dishwasher.
9. Filled and emptied the recycling basket twice.
10. Found time to spin at the wheel.
11. Found time to do some knitting.

That brought me to 11 am and my list was done so I had to do the filing. So I sorted, shredded and recycled as I went along. Once everything was sorted the actual filing took 30 minutes. I guess it was just going through everything that I did not want to do.  By 4:30 I had gotten the job done.

By the way Eric slept the entire day. I sure hope he sleeps tonight.

A Busy Day

It has been a very busy non-stop day for me. It took me most of the day, all 5 hours of it with out Eric to get through the top 5 items on my to do list. So to save time tomorrow I wrote my to do list tonight. That should save a good 5 minutes, which might be useful tomorrow.

I did not have much time for knitting or spinning. I still did find the time to get 1/3 of the way through the first fingerless mitten. I really think the person who picked the yarn will be happy with them. All I can say is the merino/silk combo is just yummy. John says my new found fondness for small projects is that the row count for the 1 million row challenge will go fast.

Well it seems that my boss has settled in for the night and I have another very busy day tomorrow. it's time to say good night.

1 Million Row Challenge

Well the washing machine is officially down for 2 more weeks and I will be making twice weekly trips to the Laundromat. I don't think I could stand doing it once a week and doing 20+ loads at once. As it was I used the jumbo machines that hold between 2 and 4 loads each today.  I still had 6 full wash loads today. I brought along a wool cowl to work on today and now understand why people in hot humid climates prefer cotton for summer knitting. Did I mention that the Laundromat has a swamp cooler.  It was at least 85 degrees and 50+%  humidity outside today, this is not what the cooler was designed for.  I still did manage to get 3 rows knit while doing the laundry.

We are up to 57 members in the 1 Million Row Challenge .Just use this link if you would like to join us. Remember we are there to have fun and use up our old and newly acquired stash yarn. Yes any yarn that crosses our thresholds is considered stash yarn. I wounder if any local yarn shops would like to get involved, by hosting knit ins or party's? After all having a bunch of fiberholics around is sure a good way to add to our stashes. Did you really think 1 Million Rows would reduce my stash by much?

We are crossing our fingers that the leaky roof is now fixed so that we can tear out the damaged wall board and replace it. Then repaint. I hope the carpet decides to dry out with out any mildew otherwise we will be replacing that too, but not with white. Beige or brown would be my first choice, after all it does not show the dirt. Which of course would leave me more time for knitting and spinning.

Next week will be my official spin/knit-a-thon week. I have heaps of projects lined up from wrist warmers to shawls. I also have my drop spindles and braids lined up.  My goal is to have as many projects done as possible by next Saturday. I will give my row/skein count and show pictures next Sunday.

I wonder if I have time for a quick nap?

Hot and Busy

Here in Tucson we are setting a record pace for days over 100. So today I tried to beat he heat by getting the laundry done very early on Saturday morning. I almost made it. By 9:30am we had hit slightly over 100, just as I was taking the last load out to hang on the line. I have no doubt that they were dry by bed time . A great summer family activity is going to the movies then taking a lap or 2 around the mall. So we did both.

We saw Men in Black 3, not a bad movie. It was well written with lots of twists that I did not see coming. You will be surprised by the cliff hanger. That is all I am going to tell you until you see it for yourself and want to talk plot line. I did knit about 1/4 of a new scarf while watching the movie. It is a simple broken rib pattern in light pink for the charity bag.

Later my friend Lisa and I went through my new Phat Fiber box together. I have been doing a pretty good job about teaching her about fiber. The good thing about sharing the box with Lisa is now I don't have to worry about any allergies, she can use the fiber I am allergic to. Then it was time for her first spinning lesson. Man I got to tell you her first time spinning was great. After about 15 minutes of fumble she had that spindle going  and going. He first spun yarn was at least 10 times better than my first spun yarn. Lisa had watched me enough to join fiber with out help. All I can say is wow!  Lisa is the second person I have taught to spin, and I think she was hooked before she even picked up the spindle.

Sunday we got off to a rather slow start. Then it was off to see Tucson's new Iron Chef. We had one of those roving lunches where we tried a little of this and that from the various restaurants in town.  Afterward it was nap time for all.

A little spinning but no knitting got done today. I had to wait until after dinner to start the laundry because I got off to such a slow start this morning. Since Tucson is on pace for a record year of over 100 degree days, I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of early morning or late night loads this summer. Anything over 100 and I give the appliances the afternoon off. It just messes with things when it hits 100 so early in the morning, then stays over 100 until after dinner.

Well I have a long day tomorrow. The final load is in the dryer so it is time to go to sleep for the night.

It's Here

Awe you just have to love summer. At our house it briefly got up to 109f. So I spent the day knitting wool scarfs. I also found the time to do some spinning. I also love this time of the year,because when else can you pull pj's off the clothes line at 10 in the evening and have the pj's feel like they just came out of a hot dryer? Yes this is a short one done on the pod. Night all.

Stash Busting

Sometimes the realization hits in my stash busting journey just how many hats and scarfs for charity I will have to knit before an area becomes yarn depleted. Don't get me wrong I do love knitting and I need to knit to keep my sanity some days. If you have ever watched kids programing for 18 hours a day while taking care of a sick kid you know exactly what I mean.  But I am just 2 scarfs shy of knitting 2 trash bags full of Joann's Sensations Licorice in the past 2 months.

Today's cleaning and organizing yielded yarn for at least 24 more scarfs and some where between 50 and 70 hats. I know I will enjoy knitting each and everyone of them. I know that in this economy every one of them will find a home and be out of my house in a few months.  Then it is off to the next area, and the next. 

I am slowly knitting down my yarn and have even passed some on to new knitters. I can say that I have no more yarn in the storage room or the living room. Yes the living room does look much neater.  I have 2 areas still out of control the craft room and the area in the garage with 6 - 96 quart boxes of yarn. I hope some day to have my entire stash in my closet not overflowing the storage containers. This I hope will also include the fluff. When I stopped buying yarn I replaced it with fluff sprees. After all you get more bang for the buck by spinning then knitting it. Right?

 I know I will never be one of those people who buy one or 2 projects at a time. I know this because I have been know to knit 2 scarfs in a day and start the third. But how exactly do I determine how much yarn is the right amount for me. Don't expect an answer today but sometime in the next year or so. After all I come from a family of pack rats. How do I know this? Well there are still a few boxes, still sealed from a move in 1965 in my moms garage.

I don['t know if I will ever be as organized as John or Teri but I am really trying my best. Well It is time for more kids programming and knitting . Maybe another couple of scarfs will get finished.

Not bad for a Wednesday

After a good nights sleep and 2 day time naps I am almost recovered from Eric's weekend. Lets keep it our little secret and not tell Eric that today I caught up on laundry too. Yes Eric is still home until next Monday, but he had a better day today too.  It seems to go hand in hand when he has a good day, I have a good day. When he has a bad day my seems to go down hill fast.

 Maybe tomorrow I can con him into supervising the clean up of the craft room or catching up on filing. I would like to get the craft room useful after I had to clear craft material from the rest of the house. Then maybe I can get some carding done and catch up on some sewing repairs.

I did manage to find time to knit and spin today, but no projects got finished. The result of a lot of much needed sleeping not a lot of cleaning got done, but that should be remedied tomorrow.  Now its time to go off to dreamland.

Memorial Day Weekend or Keeping Busy

I would like to start this blog by thanking all the families that have lost loved ones through the history of our country do to war. You and your families have given up so much so that we can enjoy our freedom. With out you this blog and thousands like it would not be possible.

Friday, Eric came with me to knitting and was shocked to find out more people than mommy were addicted to yarn and fiber. I think he thought that we were totally nuts. But he did seem to have a good time when people talked to him. The walk around the mall was not bad either. Then it was on to lunch with Nancy. The best part of the day as far as Eric was concerned was just being out of the house.

Saturday all hell broke loose with Eric getting sick. It was a lot of work but we managed to keep him out of the hospital on a holiday weekend. I really don't think that it would be a holiday or vacation if someone did not get sick around here. He will miss his first week of summer camp, but we have to get him well.

On the knitting front I am almost done knitting the scarfs from the trash bags full of yarn ( yes it was actually 2 kitchen trash bags) that I was given 2 months ago. Less than 5 scarfs to go, about 2 1/2 days of knitting. I think I can really say that I am tired of that shade of blue. On the bright side a lot of little and not so little people will have warm necks this coming winter.

2 skeins of yarn got spun. I find the whole process of the fluff moving through my hands very relaxing. Just throw in a little music and I can go into my own little piece of heaven on earth.  Well its getting late and Eric seems to be settling in for the night.

A Chapter Ends

Today was the end of Eric's long high school career. It was the very last time that I would have to clean out his cubby or pick up his meds from school. He had his very last school bus rides today too.  He will transition to  a day program when the paper work is settled. Then it will be the mommy taxi to and from his program.

I know that most change is good, but we are now traveling into the land of adulthood with the very same boy we have journey this far with. I have no idea what to expect. What I do know is that the services that were suppose to be in place 2 decades ago have changed. The system that is suppose to help us is getting harder to navigate. The services are getting scarcer as Eric gets older and we need more help. Promises made by last century's politicians do not resonate the same with today's politicians.  I know I must prevail because I am Eric's voice.

 I have yarn to knit and fluff to spin. I will be able to hold my course no matter how rocky things get. John and I will be each others rock. Well it is time to go take care of Eric.

Tuesday

A lot has happened since I last wrote on May 15th. The camera we got when Teri graduated 5th grade died. We helped the encomy in California  by buying a new one when we got in. So the pictures will be up as soon as John loads the software and John or I download the pictures.  We got to see Teri graduate law school. Needless to say we are very proud parents. We had a great weekend just hanging around with Teri.

Today was spent at Eric's graduation at high school. Then working on his paperwork for Eric's new program. When it hit 105 today, which is still very early in the season even by Tucson standards, I hit the house work. Now I do have to be honest here, I would rather hang around with Teri shopping or shooting the breeze than do house work, but it was not an option today. A whole lot of cleaning got done. I even managed a little organization too. I might be in trouble later in the week as the recycle bin is half full and it is only Tuesday.

I did find time to knit and spin so it was not a bad day overall. Eric appears to be sleeping so I think I will call it a night.

Terrific Tuesday

I had a rare day off today. Eric was eager to go to school today. So after he boarded his bus, I was off to have fun. There was knitting with Vanessa, she is working on a pretty cowl for herself. I finished another wash cloth and am attempting to duplicate it so I can write the pattern up. The best news is that it only takes 2 ounces of cotton yarn.

I also have to thank the wonderful people at my local Trader Joe's. They just seem to know when I am exhausted and insist on loading the grocery's into the car for me. Yes I did take a little time away from play to restock the house with grocery's. But the way this year has been going, I never know when the next siege will hit.

I spent the the afternoon watching some mommy programs on TV.  I watched 2 episode's of Dr.House, 1 of Modern Family and 1 Undercover Boss. Yes being tired did turn me into a couch potato, but every once in a while it is good to be one.  I did get a bit of spinning done too.

John came home and made a lovely dinner of a salad, Bagels and lox. He wants to make sure that I am 100% before I start cooking again. How lucky am I to have such a great husband.

I do think Eric needs a little help in the choosing gifts for Mothers Day. He thinks that I need a new Thomas the Tank DVD and a new  stuffed Snoopy. He has tried to convince us that he will take care of the Snoopy for me. That I do not doubt. Just maybe he needs to have a heart to heart with Teri to really figure this out.

Over all this has been one of the best days that I have had in a long while and do feel totally recharged.  So I think it is time to call it a night.

On a Spring Roll

Things are going quite well right now. The creative juices and cleaning bug have kicked in together. Awesome things are happening and I have been far too busy to blog. Finished this week 4, scarfs, 2 wash cloths and 3 skeins of hand yarn spun. In progress the design of a hand knit hand towel, let me know if this is a pattern anyone would be interested in. More yarn on the wheel and another wash cloth, scarf on the needles and a lot of other projects. Deep cleaning has also resumed.

My plans are to continue at this pace and work until my body requires a nap. I am trying to cut back on the caffeine.  That will last until Eric gets sick again but it is worth a shot for a few days anyway.

Back on Track

Today was the best day we have had in a long while. Everyone was up to doing their own thing. Yeah!!!

Eric and I went to the mall today. His idea of fun was to go to every store in the mall that had stuffed animals and check out each and everyone. He had us convinced this morning that he was going shopping for himself. Forget about my list. So first we looked at Hallmark. Do you really know how many stuffed animals that they have? Then it was off to the Build A Bear Workshop Store. Yes we went through every stuffed animal in there also. I was surprised that they had less stuffed animals than Hallmark store. But in their defense they had a half of a store full of bear clothes. Then it was off to the Disney store. After going through all the animals and toy friends we almost settled on Fozzie Bear. When I asked the all important question "Will you introduce Fozzie to your other friends?" Eric signed no. I asked if this was a ploy to stay out of the house longer and he signed yes.

After a few more stops it was off to Trader Joe's. Everyone was very nice, but I don't think the middle of the day on a Saturday is the time to do the Eric train in a small speciality store. In case you have not seen an Eric train before it goes like this. I push Eric in his chair ahead of me and drag the shopping cart behind me. I do spend a lot of time apologizing and saying excuse me. I find it surprising no one ever gets angry at the inconvenience that I am putting them through. How lucky is that?

I even managed to find time to spin on the wheel and 2 different spindles, then work on 2 different knitting projects. I am finding the purple shawls rows to very long. I can only do 2 rows now per hour show. I started out with 4 stitches and am increasing on both sides of the row. I hope I don't have to get longer knitting needles to finish the project.

Well if we have a good night tonight tomorrow might be even more fun.

The Weekend

Needless to say my weekend did not go as planned. Friday Eric was home sick. I thought he was feeling better Saturday sowe went fo a much needed haircut for Eric and picked up a drive new drive belt for my wheel. We you guessed right, Eric woke up with a fever and a runny nose. I did not make it to the 4th avenue street fair as planned. Instead I did most of tommrows laundry and cleaning. I managed to get a little spinning and knitting done too. I don't think that luck is running on my side so I will tackle paperwork and chores while I am home with Eric tommrow. Well it's not quite 10 and I am hoping for a quiet night because I am exhausted. Good night all.

Things are Looking Up

I have kicked the cold and spent the morning doing some much needed house work and laundry. Until I get the new dryer next week I am limited to 2 loads a day. As I have a limited amount of hanging space.

Eric still has no energy but at least he did not nap all day so I have some hope of sleep tonight. He is at the point of recovery that every time I do something for him he makes nice mommy. I always like to get my nice Mommy's.

On the knitting front I blindly dipped my hand into a a pile of UFOs and landed up with a green scarf. I almost finished it tonight. As I was knitting the scarf I thought of all the "extra" knitting needles I will have when I finish all these projects but also all the little knitting and project bags that I will have. Not to mention all the finished projects, some with missing yarn labels so I don't know what the yarn is but I am going to finish them anyway. Some of the fancier pieces with out yarn labels will go in to a gift pile. I also decided since I did not finish all my UFOs in February I will work into to March to finish them.  Also no spinning got done today.

I am 24 rows into a new pattern design. I am writing the pattern as I am knitting it so I hope it does go smoother when it is time to type it up. Considering that I started it on Saturday I think it is going at a good pace.

Well it is getting late and its time to call it a night.

Friday Already?

My question is how did it get to be Friday already?  Where has the week gone?

But enough about that. The Big news is today Eric left the house for the first time since he got out of the hospital. We went to the laundromat and as hard as I tried, I could not convince Eric that it was as much fun as Disneyland. He did seem to like the sound of the washers but hated the dryers. Then it was off to lunch at Loving Spoonfuls. He seemed to like it best when the music track stopped and there was a weird tonal hum.

I spent some time at the wheel and managed to get about 3/4 of an ounce spun. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to ply the yarn. I also worked on a scrappy hat and got it to the decrease rounds. I did not work on the infamous sock.

Well it was a long day and I am going to try for 2 full nights of sleep in a row. Wish me luck.

TGIF

It was a busy and wonderful day all at the same time. I got to spend a couple of hours with my knitting friends and even had time to go to lunch. A great big thank you goes out to John for this treat. He took care of Eric for a bit. Liz had made some very adorable hand knit critters, I personally think the bear was the cutest. I felt like a social butterfly at knitting, I got more talking done than knitting. Karen had knit a very large pile of wash cloths and was doing the finishing work. There were sweaters and scarfs in various stages. It is always so fun to hang out with a great group of knitters. I also like to see what every one is doing. Next week I expect to see a lot of the Uncle Harry Scarf Pattern going on. Everyone just had to know what the very complicated pattern I was working on. This is my favorite pattern for Operation Gratitude. So here is the pattern and please consider knitting one or two for Operation Gratitude.

Uncle Harry's Scarf Pattern

This pattern is named after my dear Uncle Harry. When he was in the Tucson VA hospital I would spend hours visiting him. I would usually bring my knitting and no matter what I was working on he would start chanting knit 1 purl 2, over and over to the point I had to rip out what ever I was working on. So I started making scarfs in this pattern. My only request was that he slow down to the speed I was knitting at.  It works with any weight yarn and any size needles. My personal preference is wool or cotton.

Cast on in multiples of 3. A typical scarf in Cascade 220 or Patton's wool is 30 cast on stitches. On US size 8 knitting needles.

the pattern is knit 1 purl 2* repeat this sequence all the way through.  Until you get to the last row and then cast off in the pattern sequence.

For Operation Gratitude they like the scarfs between 5 to 7 inches wide and 45 to 50 inches long. I usually use Patton's or Cascade wool in black, brown, dark or olive green and blue. One skein makes 1 scarf.

I also took advantage of John being home to run a weeks worth of errands this afternoon.  I did manage to get one commissioned scarf off the needles so now I just have to do the finishing work.

I manage to boil one batch of yarn and am just about finished with the spinning on another.

Well it is getting very late so it is time to say goodnight.


Uncle Harry's Scarf Pattern by Sheri Karobonik is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.