Progress is Good

 A good but all around tiring day.  I had knitting guild this morning.  Followed by lunch with John.  Followed by a long nap.  Followed by lots of small cleaning tasks which lead to some great progress.  

I raffled off my last spare yarn swift at knitting guild. Now it just the Shepard’s Woodworking squirrel cage for me.  That makes me very happy.  That cleans out a bit more room.  I am finding that taking many smaller steps in cleaning and decluttering are leading to bigger strides.  

Which has lead me to break down bigger tasks in my head.  I will have to see if this works out.  

Cheating

 Yes, I am going to cheat tomorrow at the knitting guild meeting. I was supposed to knit a few pairs of gloves for the Navajo Project this month.  Somewhere between 2 eye surgeries and my hands looking a little Craigy from all the stress I am cheating.  In a good way through. I will not disappointed any child.  

Tonight John and I walked over to Tuesday Morning while waiting for an outside table that never materialized, but that’s another story.  I found 2 pairs of gloves that would be great for the older kids.  They are even in the preferred yarn of polyester.  The best part is that they cost as much as I would have spent on yarn.  So even though I am really cheating by not being in hand knit gloves I will still keep 2 sets of hands warm.  

That is my story and I am sticking to it.  

What do I do when Physical Therapy is canceled? Clean house of course. I have just about finished unpacking from our Trip to Prescott, Arizona. I have also just about finished putting away the things for the fundraiser for Eric's day program. I also spent part of the day sorting an estate donation to the knitting guild. Thursday would be an excellent day to attend if you are in desperate need of massive amounts of yarn on cones.

When will I know if this has made a difference in our lives? Right now I want to say in  about a decade, but it will probably be on Thursday when I over fill the Accord with boxes of yarn,books and magazines to take to guild. So if you know any machine knitters or weavers this will be their chance to stock up at a great price and make my husband extremely happy by giving him back his workshop.

I did not forget Eric's new washer either. I have the second load ready to go into the dryer, but I must get to the shower and changed before I pick him up or put the laundry in the dryer or the dust will surely make his breathing worse than Eric normal.

I Cheated

The challenge for knitting guild was suppose to be to knit one hat a day for 30 days. The challenge started October 17th. I just finished hat number 30 an hour ago on November 3rd. So I did the challenge in just 18 days. This is not earth shattering cheating by any means. With as crazy as this house gets sometimes, I just wanted to make sure that all 30 hats were done on time.

These hats are going to a place in Pinal County called Children's Closet. Their goal is to provide clothing for children so that they have clothing and shoes to go to school. Before this program started children in some areas frequently missed school days because it was not their turn to get to wear the 1 set of clothes or shoes that the family had for school that day. Winter clothing was not part of the outfit either.  I know that this effort will barely put a dent in the problem, but at least 30 little
 heads will be a little warmer this winter.

So here is the picture of all 30 hats. Each hat was 32 rows on size 13 knitting needles. So you will notice that the counter will go up by 960 rows on The one million row challenge. Yes this is double dipping but I am sure it will be OK.

A Really Good Day

I had a very busy day today. With Eric at his day program, I was able to go to knitting guild today. Barbara Moore gave a lovely talk about the history of hand knit caps. She also gave us a pattern for a quick hat for charity that is a real stash buster. It uses 2 stands of worsted weight yarn. With about 1 hour total knitting time this afternoon I am half way through with my first hat. John made a suggestion of making a whole bag full for the next guild meeting to burn through some of my stash. The question I should have asked was what size bag, before I said that sounded like a good idea and agreed to it. Since the hat is not my own design I can not post the pattern here.

I also think that I may have insulted a few people at lunch by asking one person at the table to use her inside voice when she started yelling at the top of her lungs during lunch. I was ready to crawl under the table because I was so embraced to be with someone that rude. Not to mention that the entire restaurant was staring at our table. Teri would have loved being a fly on the wall when another person who did not know all about Eric, commented that we should not let Eric be such a slacker (her words not mine). We needed to motivate him  to be more like his older sister. I told this lady who is new to our group that we were content to have Eric in his day program ( I could have not drop a bigger hint), and we had no problem with him staying home as long as he wanted. Not everyone has to go to college.  I think the final round of me insulting the world came about when the server came over to offer us desert and I turned it down for the entire table.

After lunch, but before afternoon car pool I also managed to get some lovely fruit for snacks this weekend and get a 20 minuet nap.

John and I also went to a retirement dinner tonight. It still seems odd at times to think that we are retired.  The speaker was a Retired Air Force Major General. It was a great talk, that was surprisingly short. I should have written down the name of his book so I could read it.  Afterward John and I went to Frost and had a nice walk to help me get to my 10,000 steps for the day.

It is time to call it a day so that I can fill my day tomorrow with knitting, cleaning, laundry and hopefully some spinning.

Stepping It Up a Notch

This morning was the knitting guild meeting and somehow I managed to irk a lot of people.  No I don't think it was the kosher for passover snacks and pre packaged utensils it. Maybe it was because I brought some stitch markers to sell, nope I did not sell a one. Was it that I was wore the nice pin that Candy made for me when I could not manage to knit with double pointed needles, I don't think so. Was it my noticeable loss of inches, maybe. Was it that I tried to give a link to Yumiko Alexander's web site and scarf pattern. I had also tried to mention that the Friday fun Knitters and I have already managed to donate 2 1/2 boxes of hand made items already, probably. Here is the link and if you have not made one just give it a try and send it to the address on the pattern.  http://dandoh.blogspot.com/2011/03/on-march-11-2011-japan-suffered.html 

There was a nice lunch with Nancy and Darlene. There is nothing like good food and good friends. I did manage to bring home lunch for John, he said that the hot soup hit the spot.  Then it was catching up on Nova's with John while spinning. When Eric came home he "helped" with the paperwork, bills and filling. I think he just wanted to hang out with me.

For my walk today I decided to try a pair of Earth Shoes, they were great on the down hill and flat straights but going up hill I slowed my pace down and could still feel the burn. If I am not walking well tomorrow it is because I stepped it up to fast.

Well it is time to go move my car before the pack rats attack and get dinner on the table. Have a Good night and enjoy your families. By the way I ask everyone to wish my mom a belated Happy Birthday, being that I am a bad daughter and forgot. Sorry Mom. Happy Birthday very belatedly from your very forgetful daughter.