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.  

Busier Than Usual

I spent my day recovering from a whirlwind day yesterday. I had one meeting all about Eric, which left me exhausted.  Eric’s aide had an early appointment so he had to leave early.  I missed seeing my Friday friends.

So today was spent spring cleaning. Guess what I found out today? John loves getting rind of bags of junk and will even carry it to the recycle bin.  John also volunteered to drive to Goodwill when I fill up my boxes. I also managed a 2 1/2 hour nap. Did some spot decluttering in Eric’s room. I just have 3 major areas to finish tomorrow.  As long as I sleep tonight that should be possible.

I also finished a visit from my older sister today.  Maybe a little less very rich food will help me feel better. Some how with my family it’s always over sized meals and not enough walking.

At this point it’s hard to call it an early night.  But if Eric let’s me I get to sleep in tomorrow.

Exhaustion

Exhaustion has set in. Eric is almost over P, but to do that we have a medicine that is given every 6 hours. That with extra suctioning and laundry on top of being sick and getting over a very bad cold.  Yes, the one that gave Eric P.  Today I slept through knitting with friends. I layed down for 20 minutes and woke up 2 1/2/hours later.

To unwind tonight,I spent 2 hours spinning. I finished a small bobbin for teaching plying. Then there was a 4 ounce blend of silk and mohair, it is in the sink ready to be washed. I also got the second plying spin on some lace weight yarn that I was given to make hats with.  In my very humble opinion it turned out gorgeous. If I can leave Eric’s room tonight, I will take a picture. See below., the lace weight was first Z plyed and finished off with an S ply.  Next it will get a hot bath to set the twist.

Now I am just waiting for Eric to settle in for the night. I have already filled the suction machine a 1/3 of the way up.  John emptied it before he went to sleep.  At this rate it will need to be emptied soon. Also the later I stay up, I get hungry.

Eric is Sick

When Eric gets sick he usually does 2 things. First he makes a not literal ton of laundry. Second he shares his cold.  Well he managed to fill the washing machine to the top 3 times in 12 hours with dirty laundry And had dirty laundry to spare. John called it an apocalypse of laundry.

He did manage to share the cold with me too. Since John was home I tried to sleep today since I was up with a Eric last night. The good news is I am already in an arthritis flare up so the cold is almost gone. The bad news is it will add about 6 weeks to the current flare up from Eric’s last cold. Let’s hope that John does not get it.  

This picture does not include the weekly load of bath towels that got washed before the start of everything going into the Blender. Also over 90% of this is Eric’s laundry.  Our young man certainly knows how to make laundry.

Victoria S95

I finally got box two today.   It has the backpack bag for the wheel and the art flyer.

Eric is feeling better but is still not sleeping through the night.  I am getting very tired.  For dinner tonight I wanted to skip dinner and just sleep.   And life goes on.  

Whiney Mommy

Now I don’t want to be a whiney mommy, but staying up most of the night without my full sugar, full caffeine drink is hard. No, I am not backing down on the commitment I made to myself on June 6th to  cut back on all sodas and 80% of my sugar intake.  It’s just the first time Eric has had a really bad night since then. For that I am truly grateful. To answer the most obvious question, yes I did have 2 full cups of tea this morning. That just does not equal 12 ounces off caffeine and sugar.

Just because I am tired does not mean that I am going to stop organizing and trying to complete the Zenning project that I started yesterday.  Yesterday I took all my weaving yarn and separated the warping and weft yarns to make it faster to start new projects.

Yes I am going to whine.  Whine. Whine. Whine. Now off I go to clean for a while. Maybe not as long as planed, but I had really planned a movie day, so what does it matter.

A First

I have experienced a first time event.  Since Eric was born, I have relied very heavily on caffeinated  soda with hfcs, artificial sugar and real sugar every time Eric gets sick.  You might think this is a lot of sugar and soda, it was. As you might recall from a blog earlier this month, I have give up soda and sugar.  This was a very big test for me. I passed it with almost flying colors.  I did not not have any soda and my extra sugar food was limited to a very small amount of dark chocolate.

The good news is I that Eric is feeling better.  I got tired but not like in the past.  Believe it or not, I seemed to have more energy.  I even managed to clean house while Eric was sick.  I did eat more fruit  and cheese or peanut butter.  Let’s face it, a long day with a sick boy is a long day any way you slice it.  So having a healthy snack as replacement for soda was a good move.

I tried to order a new bath seat cover for Eric’s bath chair today. I tried to pay cash to get it faster. Would you believe that they would not take a cash payment and instead I will have to go through the insurance company and bother the doctor for a script. It seems that my life is getting wonkier every day.  Well I am off to tag and bag hats.  Pictures to follow.

Thankful for the Smaller Things in Life

At least it’s not Monday night. At least I stocked up with good stuff to eat today while Eric was at his day program. At least I got to knitting today. At least I got to chat with friends today. You may be wondering where I am going with this. This is just my meandering way of saying that Eric is eyrpy tonight. Eric is also in making lots of eyrpy laundry, the wonderful people at P & G makers of Tide* should be very happy about this.

Eric and I will be home tomorrow. I wonder if I will get more laundry or knitting done. Does anyone care to guess.

*P & G makers of Tide did not pay me to say that I use Tide for my laundry. I have been using various forms of Tide since the mid 1970’s when one of my high school chores was doing the family laundry. Although I do love when I can get a good coupon or sale on Tide. Even with the super big LG washer I still do at least 15 loads of laundry a week. Which is much better than 25 or more loads. So I do use a lot of Tide.

Way Under The Weather

I have been sick since Saturday night, bronchitics , laryngitis, sinus infection, allergies and asthma. A little more than a perfect storm.  Eric got eyrpy on Sunday night. Herein lies the problem. Eric will not sleep when he is not feeling good, so Eric has been up since Sunday morning. I need my sleep to rest and feel better.  I am grabbing naps when ever I can, even in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping. Even though naps are good, when I am sick, they should not be my only sleep.

I want to thank Lisa W. at United Cerebral Palsy of Southern Arizona for getting me extra help on such short notice. She is the reason that I have gotten my naps. As you may have guessed from the company name we live in Arizona. The state has been very good at underfunding services for the elderly, school children and disabled. We have been in the news lately. This includes UCPSA who provides services for Eric. If you would like to thank Lisa W. for helping us this week consider making a donation in her honor so that UCPSA can continue to help families like ours.

Thank you. I will write more when we are feeling better.

The New Shawl Design

I just froged the new shawl design for the second time. Even feeling as awful as I did today, I just did not like the design. So try number 3 has been cast on. This time the yarn is really telling me what to do with it.

Both Eric and I are both sick right now. I have a feeling that his eyrpy night was do to breathing issues. My allergies got so bad that I lost my voice for a few days. I now sound like a frog. I also went to Urgent care on Sunday and have a bunch of stuff that is suppose to make me feel better.

I am really hoping againt hope for some early rain to cut the pollen levels. Until then we will be indoors as much as possible. Breathing is good. High pollen levels and particulate matter are not.

Weaving

Todays weaving. Each ball of yarn weaves about 1 foot of fabric. I am almost 2 feet into a 6 foot project. My arms are sore from warping this loom. I am sure it is because of the width. Each color stripe is 1 inch wide or 10 dents per inch. For the matching fabric for the skirt I will need a helper to warp the loom.

John made an adjustment to the loom which made it easier to weave. I had been thinking about the problem for 6 hours. He said that I was on the right track and had the adjustment done in less than 15 minutes. The loom is nowset up for a short person.

Eric is also feeling better and back on formula.

Life

Still on hold.

Alrhough I can highly reccomend sleeping through a dental cleaning. No drugs involved, just sheer exhaustion.

So Done With This

Apparently vacuuming up dust bunnies is very funny according to Eric. It had him laughing for 5 minutes. I honestly don't know how they build up under his bed so fast. His room was vacuumed and mopped on Saturday.  He is starting to feel better, but because of the medicine's side effects and a staffing in service he will be home until Tuesday.

I am at the point where getting out of the house would be super nice. Just some place nice and warm would be nice too. Only 6 more days to go.

Going into Week Three

Eric and I will be ushering out February and bringing in March together at home. Yes, another week at home. So if you need me, I won't be hard to find. At least I had time to get to Trader Joe's today for a few things. I am happy now that I left the cookies at the store, let's see how I feel about that mid week. Tomorrow I will try to get to Fry's to round off my shopping list. 

I will be completing knitting projects for me next week. Hopefully I can finish a few new hand knit items for me. Once those are finished I will randomly pull a new project off the shelf to finish it. I wonder how soon I can clear the shelf's in the craft room? Optimistically it will take a year or three.  It is time to go knit.

E = UW

I am so tired all I want to do is cry. Eric is still sick and started another round of another medicine. At least I can knit again for short periods of time. Some where over the rainbow there is life again.

More 3-D Printing

John’s latest 3-D printing project is designed to make my life easier. John designed and built a custom suctioning station. John the mounted it over Eric’s bed so that I could reach it. So no more running to the other side of Eric’s bed, then pulling Eric into suction machine range. Eric has already tried it out and likes it. If you think that this is cool, please let John know. Now to find some 18 ounce Hefty clear plastic cups so that I can see the water level in the rinse station.

I do expect Eric to be home for the rest of the week and maybe into next week. I do have plenty of knitting, weaving and spinning projects to complete, if I can find the time and energy. Mostly I have been trying to keep up with laundry and dishes, the operative word here is trying. Bits and pieces of house work are getting done in 2 to 3 minute spurts. Since I am not zenning the house it is OK that they are not 5 minute spurts.

Smiles

Eric gave us smiles today. It was the first time in over a week. I hope that this means that he is over the worst of the flu and all we have to deal with is the asthma. John and I are both exhausted. I tried to do to much with my hand tonight, I hope that I don’t pay for it tomorrow. I am behind in laundry again, so there is always tommrow to play catch up.

I Am Happy

Today I actually got some knitting done on U.S size 19 knitting needles. I still have to weave in the ends. I even have the perfect outfit for it. Things ended well today.

Eric is feeling better, but his asthma kicked in with vengence. That is manageable.

John even got the roof fixed and finished a new prototype for me to try. I just have to warp the loom.

Rain

With all that was going on with Eric this week I forgot to mention a big event in Tucson this week. We measured 1 1/4 inches of rain over 2 days at our house. The rain was gentle enough that the washes that I drove past today looked dry. This is a very good thing. It’s better for the plants and water table.

On the Eric front, he is not as cranky. I am hoping that this is a good sign. Only time will tell. I am even hoping for a good nights sleep tonight. Wish us luck.

Bored, Nothiing to Do

I honestly can not say what I did for all those years before I leaned to knit, spin yarn and weave. My hand is still  too sore to knit. Spinning takes no more than 30 minutes a day. Is it any wonder that I have had tension headaches since Eric got sick. To make matters worse they start any time after 3:30 am. I think that I am in a whiny phase.

An important note to myself is not to schedule and hand surgery 8 weeks before a holiday. Why? You may ask. Have you ever noticed that Eric gets sick around every holiday. The question is how do we break this habit of his and when can I start knitting again?

On the Eric front, he is doing a little better. His eyes are not glassy with fever any more and he is getting more responsive. Don't tell Eric, but he is also making a lot less laundry. I did not have to wash any of his laundry today. Just don't go and tell him. However, the post viral asthma has kicked in. Life with Eric is never boring.