The Alternative to Knitting

 There is an alternative to knitting.  It’s is called cleaning house.  I did not do any heavy duty lifting. Most of the carrying and lifting was done with my left arm. Most of my current works in progress and the next up to knit have been put away. All I ask is that you refrain from looking into certain closets.  They just might resemble something akin to Fibber McGee and Molly’s closet.  No things really will not fall down on you, but they are a little more full than normal. Each project has its own bag.  I will pull them out one by one when my arm is better. 

I spent part of the day looking for a larger flax seed filled heating pad.  Most claimed to be all natural.  I have yet to figure out how polyester, fleece and the various fillings are natural. Granted that cotton and flannel have to be woven into fabric but I do consider them natural fibers because than decompose in about a year if buried in your flower bed. I am not even sure what the half life of polyester and fleece are but I am sure that it is longer than a year and puts nothing good back into the garden.  

I will try one more place tomorrow to find a larger heating pad. If they do not have what I am looking for, I will buy some food grade flax seed. Take some muslin from my fabric stash. Measure, cut and sew the inside piece. Then fill it with the flax seed.  Sew it closed. Make the outer cover so that I can take it off to wash as necessary. Most of the ones that fit my criteria had a delivery date of 2 to 3 weeks out.  My time to make will be less than 2 hours. 

My arm felt better in the morning. As the day went on the pain got worse. Every time I put the heat on my arm, I  fell asleep. To that end I am going to microwave the small heating pad that I have and go to sleep.  

UFO Day and Wishful Thinking

 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.  

Can I Have Too Many Readers?

 Ok, I have to admit it. Since my cataract surgery I have turned into one of those people who have “readers” all over the house.  Readers are just portable magnifying glasses. I leave a pair on the kitchen table, in my knitting room, by where I knit at night, on my nightstand, and a pair in my purse. This is just so I don’t have to carry one pair everywhere.  

Am I wrong in thinking that I might also need to leave a pair by the computer too. Also, just maybe a spare pair in case I lose or misplaced a pair.  

The same goes with sunglasses too.  One pair in my purse. One pair by the back door for errands around the outside of the house.  I am not sure if I don’t need a spare just in case.  

I also started the knitting room reorganization today.  I had no problem filling the newly open space. I also moved on big basket to a new home.  Just a few more things to move before John comes in for the heavy lifting  

I am really close to finishing 3 more knitting  projects. I have figured out the pattern revision, now just new pictures and a bit of typing.  The sample for my next shawl just needs the ends woven in and the pattern typed.  I still need the daily nap so things are going a bit on the slow side.  Everything will get done in its own time.  

TTFN

By the way I have bought all the Foster Grant readers on my own.  His is my own personal opinion..I am not being paid for this blog post.  

98 Down 2 to Go

 I finished my 98th project of 2021 and actually thought it was project 99.  Oh well, 2 projects in 7 days easy peasy.  Much easier than getting served at lunch today.  We have a new to us outdoor patio dining. After a 20 minute wait the hostess seated us at a table outside the patio where we normally sit.  The only problem was that there was no server assigned to our table.  After 15 more minutes John got up searching for our server.  The bartender took pity on us and took our order and brought the food.  Does this happen to anyone else or do the crazies just seem to find me? 

We took a walk at Tohono Chul Park after lunch and actually found an area that we had not explored yet.  I wanted to look at the indoor exhibits but there were too many people without masks.  It’s not like we’re in the middle of a world wide pandemic with a variant that spreads faster than the measles or anything like that.  We wore our mask all the way through even though we were outdoors.  This also had the benefit of screening out the ragweed.  We could not believe the number of monarch butterflies that we saw today, just a few days before the end of the year.  The butterflies really should be down in Mexico this time of year instead of flying around Tucson.  I believe that this is all because of Global   warming. It’s the end of December and the high was 75 instead of the low 60’s.  I predict another very hot summer.  

UFO’s

 Well now that my knitting room is more put together I find myself looking for unfinished projects in bags, in the hiding place I put them. So from now until the end of the year I plan to finish as many of the projects as possible.  With the exception of charity hats which I knit when John is driving and charity scarfs that I knit when watching television, no new projects will be started.  I have started stacking the bags at the sides of the temporary work table and I don’t want to lose the table.  

This comes with a heads up. There is a good possibility of a lot of new knitting patterns that will be released next year.  I know of 2 without even looking in the bags.  

I have also figured out why some people only have on project bag for knitting   Am I headed that way? Don’t be silly, of course not. 

Wish me luck because I am so good at starting knitting projects, but so awful at finishing them.