The Poncho That Was Not Meant To Be

 About a decade ago I had decided to start an open work summer poncho.  I bought the required number of Juniper Moon Farms Zooey, a linen and cotton blend yarn.  I even bought a few extras just in case.  I was making it a little larger than the pattern. The calculations for making it a bit bigger worked out perfectly to the point other knitters used them and their ponchos came out perfect.  

I am not the best at knitting open weave knitting under the best of circumstances.  Theses were not the best of times for me.  Eric was in and out of the club which was code word in our house for the hospital.  He was also home sick an awful lot too.  This was not a sick room project like my pattern Count 1-2-3-4 was.  Count 1-2-3-4 was mainly knit in Eric’s sick room, the emergency room and Eric’s hospital room.  It was a simple one row pattern.  This was a pattern knit over many rows with many weird repeats. I was distracted and sometimes forgot to write what row I was on.  It was ripped out more times than I can remember.  

Then there was a nursing student from the University of Arizona School of Nursing that was stressed out over her finial exams.  Commented how pretty the yarn was.  I told her where to buy it. She said it did not fit in her budget as a student. When I left my knitting at the table to hold my seat she helped herself to a couple of skeins of the yarn.  She and the yarn were gone when I returned. That left me scrambling to find a couple skeins in the same dye lot and color.  

I restarted it after Eric died. I ripped out the whole thing.  Then started over. I lost my place yet again.  Then put it into the closet.   Last night I had an epiphany and decided that this needed to be a woven shawl. So today I am empty in the bag. Ripping out the shawl yet again.  Finding the odd balls of linen yarn and putting it in the queue to be woven.  

I have no regrets on giving up on this pattern.  In fact I feel very relieved. The yarn will be put to good use.  I will no longer torture myself with open weave knitting.  If I don’t like how it turns out I can either gift it or sell it.  I am free of the weight of trying to knit that darn poncho.  

More UFO Progress

 On my poncho I made it to the next project change.  I am checking every few rows to make sure everything is even. So far so good.  

On my scarf for my knitting guild, I have 40 of the 60 inches needed to complete my scarf. Hopefully by Friday it will be ready to weave the ends in.  

I did not work on my hat or other scarf today. 

I think I will start shopping for a more comfortable chair for knitting. I slide out of the current chair which leaves my back sore   

Below is a partial picture of he poncho.  

UFO’s Progress

 Today I worked on 2 UFO’s.  One was a charity scarf for and older child. Once the scarf is 60 inches long it will be done.  That way it can be folded in half and worn in a stylish fashion. This should be done by the end of the weekend.  

The other is a poncho knit in linen with lots of lace.  I started it when Eric was in hospice.  I have learned that there are 2 things in knitting that don’t go together, lace work and hospice.  I finished the first side, it was something besides a rectangle that the pattern had called for. I had to  Tink* the first half. Today I finally found my rhythm, it only took 2 years and a quite room. I almost finished 1 pattern repeat.  A week or so of quite knitting time and it will be finished.  *Tink is knitting backwards, in other words ripping out the 1st half.

I also have to say that the photos look great  under the Ott light.  They came out nice and crisp.  Also my attempt to shrink the sweater was a total failure.  It shrank about 8 inches in length and not enough in the width.  I put it in charity.  I am done with it.  

Mondays This and That

I seem to be having a hard time getting back in to the grove this year. I have to admit that after the cold from he-double toothpicks that Eric and I share at the end of last year, I was expecting a flare up. I just did not expect it to hit my hip. This has left me very out of sync and very cranky for the last few days. I still can not bend down to pick things off the floor. It has interrupted my sleep and everything else. Don't get me wrong it is getting a lot better, but it is a lot worse than having my hands flare up.

The new knitting project of a scrappy poncho is going well. The link to the basic pattern is in yesterdays blog.  In the last 2 evenings I have knit 11 inches. Since the poncho is 15 inches wide, I am almost a quarter of the way through it. I am double stranding the yarn using 1 strand of light yarn and 1 strand of dark yarn. I am really liking the way the color is flowing. When 1 skein of dark yarn is gone, I am just picking a random skein of dark yarn to go on. I am doing the same with the light yarn. Did I mention that I am going through yarn at a good pace. So far 1 full skein of black and at least 6 partial skeins of light and dark yarn. I really like this, it gives an interesting colorway. Pictures will follow when it is done, unless you want to see the work in progress, just let me know. It will also be nice and warm. I think the lucky child who gets this will like that it is so colorful.

I also went to my first over 50 fair today. The vendors were limited to assisted living, health care, insurance, wills and trusts, hearing aids, large button telephones. The bling was mostly pens. I don't think I like their version of what over 50 is. I saw none of the things that I thought should be there such as leading an active life style, travel, community involvement, or classes to learn new things. I was even told that I am the right age for senior living communities, yeah right. So I am going to ignore their version of life over 50 and go down my own path. I will only go back to one of these fairs if I need more pens.

I need to try to get some sleep now, but I am finding it hard after a long nap after lunch. Maybe a snack will help. Have a good night and enjoy your families.

An Uphill Climb

Today started out less than perfect for me. I did not sleep well. I also found a baby tarantula ( about the size of a silver dollar) in the bathroom at around 2am. I did manage to get him outside without waking the house. Although I think he was more happy in the house than outside. The question that still remains is how the heck did that little guy get all the way to the middle of the house? After that I found it hard to get back to sleep. So I woke up with a pre-migraine. I took my Tylenol and caffeine with breakfast. Around lunch time things started clicking for me.

After lunch I got the grocery shopping done. I also noticed something at the check out line today. When I save money with coupons the cashier usually says you saved x amount of money today. Today was different, I approached the $100 mark in savings with coupons. I did not even get to the 40% off mark. There were a lot of buy one get one free along with a few high value coupons. The cashier just looked at it and handed it to me. Then there was just enough time to put the frozen food away and pick up Eric from his program.

I added another 1 1/2 inches to the never ending poncho, I did make it to the second half of the second piece so that went well.  I also listed a few audio books on e-bay. Then went on to start stocking my Etsy shop Handmade~by~Sheri . John has mentioned that I have a little to much hand spun yarn hanging around and a lot of finished items. So it is time to zen the house a little. To that end I listed 13 items today with more to come in the next few days. To help things move I have added a coupon code for 50% off all items in the shop. Just use the code: "Husband" at check out. It will apply to your entire purchase through August 25, 2013. Please feel free to share the sale with all your friends. There is no limit on the amount of coupons that can be used. One coupon applies to the whole transaction.  The more that leaves the house the happier my guys will be, yes even Eric.

I almost forgot to mention that I have a new Face book page just for Handmade~by~Sheri where I will put all the shop updates. Just type in Handmade~by~Sheri in the search field. I would like to get to 50 followers of the shop by the end of the month, can you help me make that goal?

Well I think that it is time to call it a night.