My Latest Charity Project

 This scarf is my latest charity project off my loom. It is made up entirely from my own hand spun yarn. I used bits and pieces which by themselves were much too small to make anything.  I really like how the colors blended so well.  I think it was a great stash busting project. 

This scarf is destined for the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank.  It is my hope that the child that receives this scarf will enjoy wearing it as much as I enjoyed creating this bespoke scarf. 

The Minutia

 I am getting down to the minutia off the cleaning and stash busting project. I went through the last tub of yarn that was in the house.  I am actually going through stitch markers and getting rid of the ones that I don’t like. I will pass them on.  I am now actively searching out bags that I keep my knitting accessories in.  With the exception of the hat knitting bags, I am going to try to have one multi purpose roll.  Wish me luck on that.   

I lost one plastic tub do to the fact that  a bag of yarn I had in a tub was exposed to moth balls.  I threw away the offending 4 skeins of yarn.  I am going to try to remove the moth ball chemicals. There ere several methods to try. I have the first one going right now. I am trying to neutralize the chemicals with baking soda.  If that does not work I will try vinegar.  It takes about a week. What I was most surprised about was that I had de stashed so much yarn that losing the use of one tub did not make a difference. I did not have to go buy a replacement.  Since the offending tub was less expensive than the yarn we are more inclined not to get the chemicals of the moth balls out of the plastic and just toss the tub.  

In more exciting news I was able to move all of my hidden yarn into tubs. I moved it into other places that I can see it.  No longer have a larger wicker chest filled with yarn. It is also leaving the house.  I did forget one area of projects but I will finish that after the table is finished.  

Now even more exciting news I walked for over 10,000 steps while cleaning house today.  Since I have a room to finish tomorrow I think it’s time to call it a day.  

2 Out Of 3

 2 out of 3 fingers on my right hand are doing much better.  They are almost usable for knitting again.  I was able to go through some of my fiber stash and do a bit of stash busting.  I have a full laundry basket to go.   I managed to card 3 mohair batts.  I also reorganized part of my fiber stash closet.  It no longer resembles Fibber McGee and Molly’s closet. Nothing will fall down when the doors are opened.  I can even do some easy kitchen stuff.  Just don’t ask me to chop an onion  or do dishes by hand yet.

What I had a hard time with was drying my hair. Halfway through I needed to use both hands to hold the dryer wand, the kind with the hair brush built in.  My hair survived.  With the laundry sorting the wet clothes was easy as was doing the hand wash.  What I found hard was putting the wet clothes on hangers.  

I still did a lot of resting today.  This flare up has been less than lady like.  This morning it was 10 minutes of work and 30 minutes of rest.  By this afternoon it was an hour of work followed by a 2 hour nap and I am still exhausted.  I think the stress from the roof leaks, yes that’s multiple leaks and the dampness of the Monsoon was just too much stress on my body.  

I am not ready for knitting yet, however; if my hand feels better tomorrow I might try some weaving or plying some yarn.  I have a box of mini skeins and 4 bobbins that need to be emptied and plyed. The picture below is the latest update to the fiber closet.  I know it will still look very messy to most, but some of you will notice a huge change.  There are only 2 bags of fiber left on the top shelf.  

10 Inches

 I have noticed that whenever I warp any of my looms that I always stop at 10 inches of weaving the first day.  I also found that the British show The Great Pottery Throw Down, on HBO Max is a great show to watch while warping my loom.  So here is the beginning of my latest scarf which is going to the Flowing Wells SD Clothing Bank.  This is another of my great stash busting projects this year   I wonder how many scarfs that I can weave   

24 Percent

 With the last blanket being finished it means that I have 24 out of 100 projects finished for 2021. At this point I really wish that I had made a sizable dent in my yarn stash, but alas the answer is a solid no, not yet.  So the 3 blankets used about 27 balls of yarn.  With about another 10 blankets to go that another 90 skeins. So with 13 blankets it will only use about 127 skeins.  With another 14 skeins of yarn for the hats that brings it to 141 and I think it was 10 for the shawl 151 skeins used this year.  I was really hoping for a much bigger dent in volume of yarn around the house.  I thought I would have at least one empty yarn tub by now.  Sigh..

Have you noticed that the estimate of blankets left to knit keeps going up to?  With all that said here is blanket number 3.  By the way with the 1st box of blankets almost full, with a lot more to knit, John graciously agreed to help deliver them. I added a prayer shawl that I knit and a couple of blankets someone gave for me to donate to a good cause.   

In case you were wondering the pattern is one of mine called Modular Baby Blanket.  You can get the pattern at you local yarn store, www.ravelry.com and www.love crafts.com.  It will be under Sheri Karobonik Designs.  It’s a great stash buster project because each square can be a different color.  So far I have only knit this in cotton, although other worsted weight yarn will work also.  Just remember if you start with cotton all the yarn must be cotton. If you knit with wool all the yarn must be wool.  This would also apply to man made fibers too. 

Stash Busting Part 2

Another day another project completed. Today at lunch I started hat 11 - 2020 and finished it before bedtime. As long as I am home and curtailing my outside activities, to be read both The Tucson Festival of Books and the 4th Avenue Street fair have been cancelled do to concerns about the current pandemic.

I figure this is a really good time to knit, sew, weave and spin.  I know I will not completely empty my backlog of projects. I hope to make a sizable dent.  I also know that for somethings they will land in xxl storage bags for a few months until they are delivered. That’s ok, because they will be ready to leave the house.

It’s time to call it a night so I can be productive tomorrow.

Stash Busting

My goal this year is stash busting. Today was an exceptional day. I got two stash busting projects finished. So here are the details. Hat number 10 - 2020 was finished first. Followed by another shawl using leftover yarn from The NH Shawl pattern. I had 1 1/2 skeins leftover, so I made a 1 of 3 A Shawl Study using Neve yarn by Juniper Moon Farms.  On the shawl you might wonder why I pictured the shawl with a tiny bit of leftover yarn. This means that I won the yarn chicken game tonight and did not have to tink* out a whole row and re knit it as my cast off row.

This means that my 18th and 19th projects for the year are finished.  Since this is the 11th week of the year I might just make my goal of 100 finished projects this year.  This works out to almost 2 projects a week.

*tink is knitting spelled backwards.  To un knit a row of knitting.

The Next Challenge

My next Spinning and knitting challenge is to take these 2 tubs of lace and fingering weight yarns and reaping them to make a worsted weight yarn for charity hat and scarf knitting, and scarf weaving. There was a phase in my knitting where I actually thought I could find the perfect time to knit lace work.  After adding bits of lace to some projects I found that lace knitting was not fun and not for me.   To compound the problem well meaning friends gave me a lot of wool to knit with.  I just don’t knit with those weights of yarn.  

So the first part of the challenge will be to sort the yarn between super wash and non super wash wool.  The super wash wool will be plyed to make charity hats and scarfs.  The non super wash will be plyed to make woven scarfs.  The reason for this is that when a scarf is woven and washed there is a certain amount of shrinkage that goes along with the finishing process.  So I don’t have to worry that it will shrink. The shrinkage would be a major problem with hand knit hats and scarfs.  

The first photo is how the yarn will look like after it is replyed the second picture is the first stage of the challenge. Once this is finished I will move to odd balls of dk weight yarns. If you are a spinner and want to learn how to do this and just happen to live or visit the Tucson area just call Grandmas Spinning Wheel to schedule a class. I can schedule a class with anywhere from 1 to 5 students.  If your spinning group or guild would like to learn just contact me.   It is a great stash buster.  I even make art yarns with plying.

My First Project of 2019

Eric’s new hat for 67 rows. Now I need to knit a backup hat. Off to find more yarn.  

Stash Busting

I have 14 hats and 4 scarfs ready to go to the Clothing Bank, but with temperatures in the 100’s this week there is still time to knit and weave more things.  To that extent I have cast on another hat. I have picked the yarn out for the next hand knit scarf and will finish weaving another scarf tonight. If I have time I might even get the warping started for the next handwoven scarf done tonight.

It’s time to go play with fiber.

Being Creative Without Spending Money

My challenge this month for knitting guild was to come up with a very nice gift for our speaker without spending any money. To that end I cut up 2 pairs of worn out jeans, one from each of my kids. I then went on a fabric hunt through my quilting material to find larger scrapes of fabric that were the right color and size.  Then the pinning and sewing commenced. 

I have created 8 unique project bags for knitting, spinning or crochet projects. I also found 6 other larger pieces of fabric that could stand alone and made them into project bags too. 

Then it was off to the ribbon box to find the right ribbon or cording to finish the bags off. So after 2 days of sewing I have 13 bags for the speaker to choose from without spending any money. The rest will be sold off on a first come first serve basis. The project bags are all one of a kind. No 2 are exactly alike.  I like the fact that I could be creative with the bags. They are more artistry than production line ones too. 

The sad news from this is that I did not make a dent in my fabric stash. I only finished 1 spool of cording and only bits of ribbon. No spools of thread got finished either. I will have to work on that stash getting smaller too. 

Yes I know that 6 + 8 = 14, but I decided to keep one of the bags for myself. Here is a picture of mine at the top of the post. 

A Short Catch Up

It has been a busy couple of days around here. The days have been long and the results are amazing despite Eric not sleeping well.

Tuesday was a day full of appointments. Followed by an afternoon of making jewelry and packing up for Wednesday.

Yesterday was a big day for Eric's Day program, the Taglit group. The fund raiser was to try to earn enough money to fund the garden and nutrition program. The very good news is that the goal was achieved. There are still a few plants and hand knit cotton soap bags available. So Just drop by the JCC between 8 am and 3 pm. Monday through Friday.  Stop by the front desk and say that you would like to buy a plant or a soap bag to support the Taglit program.  Sixty three items left my stash of handmade items to help the cause. Just think about how much yarn was used from my stash.

This means I have a chance to create more items and will have a lot of room for them. My to do list will  go as follows:

1. Teri's shawl ( a home project ). 1 1/2 skeins to go.
2. Project Gratitude scarfs ( my on the go project )
3. Teri's queen size blanket that I started her 1L year. This project has gone a little slower than I would have liked. Yes Teri has finished 3 years of law school and passed the California Bar. But in my defense I did finish the pair of socks that I started when Teri and I were looking at law schools. Yes a very poor defense. ( a dining room table project ) 2/3 left to knit.
4. Some things for me that I have wanted to knit for me.
5. Adding some more shawls to my inventory. ( knitting with girls friends)
6. Knitting a few different style hats.
7. Make some more pretty jewelry and possibly make some shawl pins.
8. To card some of my own batts.
9. Type up and take photo's of new pattern designs.
10. Finish a few new designs.
11.  Last but not least to find some time to spin.

Since I spent the entire day at the Tucson JCC yesterday house cleaning started at 6 am today. I am so lucky that John did the windows and all of the polishing. This let me do the laundry and other work that I needed to do. I got the last skein of Yarn for Teri's shawl wound, but I was much to tired to knit today. Tomorrow will be full of cooking and cleaning. Since Eric is asleep I think I will end the blog post here tonight.