Life Happens

 Well this week has been interesting to say the least. Friday I dropped my favorite tea cup when my silly arthritic hands lost my grip on the cup. Apparently it dropped at the perfect angle to fracture into many pieces. The fantastic news is that is was empty at the time.  I will also never have to wash it again. The question remaining, is will I be able to “Keep Calm and Carry Yarn”? The cup has permanently retired from carrying tea. I think it will be hard for me to stop carrying yarn.

Speaking of tea, yes I was speaking about tea. I have discovered that at my current age I will no longer be able to drink caffeinated iced tea with dinner. It called for Tums tonight. Maybe I should just carry some herbal tea with me and ask for hot water and a cup. Otherwise it will be iced water with lemon. 

I also figured out while I was having trouble with my spinning wheels. The very good news is that is was not me. It was a positioning problem. With my Cubii2, I needed a 2 inch cushion on my spinning chair to be in the best position. The only problem is that my spinning chair is the perfect height to spin with , without the cushion.  Yes, that’s why they call it a spinning chair. So today I removed the cushion. I filled 1 bobbin with merino wool. I then plyed that bobbin with raw silk for a beautiful skein of yarn. 

This is my first skein of yarn for Spin Together 2022. Since I used a commercial raw silk yarn for the plying I could only count the 366 yards of the merino.  You will notice that it is a thick and thin art yarn. I have 2 more bobbins to ply that won’t count for Spin Together 2022. The yarn will be a Shawl with the pattern  Count 1,2,3,4. Yes it is one of my designs. You can get the pattern from Raverly, LoveCrafts.com or your local yarn store. Have a good rest of the weekend. 

My New Golding Drop Spindle

 Today I did manage to get to 2 different grocery stores, the post office, fill up my car before and put the groceries away  before my breakfast caffeine wore off.  I garage door broke when I came home.  Last time this happened there were spider webs in the tracks. So I vacuumed the tracks to try again. Still no luck.  The service man comes on Wednesday.  

After starting the laundry I decided to close my eyes for 5 minutes, you all know where this is going. So 2 hours later I woke up freezing.  I started the tea maker. Hung up some wet laundry and put a little bit in the dryer.  Started the next loads. Had my hot tea and apple, that did the trick.  It’s weird that sometimes I don’t feel hun, but get really cold when I need to eat.  

I did a little bit of knitting. I really wanted to try out my newly refurbished Golding Drop Spindle. Tom Golding did a fantastic job at a reasonable price.  The turn around was much quicker than I thought it would be.  I just happened to have some silk on the table that I had been meaning to put away. So I started spinning the silk instead of putting it away.  The spin was awesome.  As you can see by the picture below that I was able to spin a very fine thread.  I can always spin silk finer on a drop spindle.  I think that I will spin some more to go with some sock yarn and make a shawl.  

I was too tired to list and of my spindle herd on Ravelry. 

Crazy Times

It has been so crazy around here the last couple of days with Eric being sick, that when a bird flew into to the house and got trapped in the living room on Saturday morning it was just one of those oh well moments. Thanks to Eric's aide Nicki we got the bird to walk out the front door. That is just about the least crazy thing happening around here. Eric has been making laundry like crazy, 3 full loads today which would have been 12 in the old washer, and I did not even get to my clothes.

I went to my local Tevana store to pick up some of their new Bellini flavored tea that has been available on line for about a week only to be told that I can't buy any locally until tomorrow. I asked if they had it and they said yes but we can't sell it until June 27th. A really bad marketing move on their part. They have sent an email every day this week touting this new tea, yet they won't sell it to me 1/2 mile from my house.

I bought a smaller loom with a narrower profile so that I could weave in Eric's room when he wants company. That means that I need to sell my Gilmarka 19 inch ridged heddle loom. This has lead to funny things like someone actually telling me that looms were used to design knitting patterns, so since it was a business item, I could not sell it on a particular page. I really can't make this stuff up. I then had to explain looms were for weaving fabric like for blue jeans and knitting needles were used for designing knitting patterns.  I think selling the loom might be a little harder than I thought. Do you know anyone that wants to buy a loom?

I actually ran out of Tylenol for Eric on Saturday, which lead to my Ganga for the week. With 1- 25% off coupon and 3- $5.00 coupons from the store for prior purchases. I was able to pick up 2 bottles of Tylenol for Eric for 32 cents. Ganga is Tucson speak for a really great deal.  I have not gotten a deal like that in a long time.

It has also been a little over a week that I have not been able to knit. My hands should have fixed themselves by now.I am really going crazy.

Another Long Day

Eric had a very rough night last night, which resulted in 4 loads of laundry today.  It's been a very long time since I did 4 loads of laundry in one day. The good news is that Eric is back on formula tonight. I on the other hand feel very tired. Not much got done today, but that's ok.

I am still managing to go without cola even when Eric is sick. My drink creation today was Moroccan Mint Tea with 1/2 tablespoon of peach syrup per cup. Over ice of course. Not quite the sugar and caffeine rush of cola. Not the same crash either.  I also resisted my early morning urge to bake a coffee cake, just because I did not want to do the clean up. If I am too tired to clean up, then I must be to tired to bake.

I still can not do a lot of creating because of my hands. The less I use them the less they hurt. I am still waiting for the swelling to go all the way down.  I did not touch any knitting needles today. This is bad because I am in a very creative period and feel as if I am sitting on my hands. I also use the summer to do a lot of my charity knitting, to read lots of small projects like hats and scarfs for kids. I also have a few new designs that I am in the middle of knitting. As a result, I am bored and playing too many video games.

I think I am also going to try a different haircut that is not as fussy as the one I currently have. With my current hair cut I either have to blow dry it or fall asleep for a few hours then brush it out to make it look good. I want to go back to comb, fluff and go. 

Day 2 2016

As I was guzzling a glass of luke warm tea after 5 pm tonight, I briefly thought of banning any one getting sick for the rest of the month. It is really putting a major crimp in my day having to start the laundry in the wee hours of the morning. Getting no more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. I am starting to fall behind on commitments.

On the other hand I think I am so tired that I am stuck on knitting hats. I am almost finished with the second hat of the year. Maybe if I get some more sleep, If I can get some more sleep maybe I can finish the Dream In Color Cowl. 

Be Careful How You Ask For Things

Yesterday Eric had me up at 4 am, because he kicked his covers off and was cold. So I asked Eric last night before he went to sleep not to wake me up at 4 am again. He followed my instructions to a 

T.   He did not wake me up at 4 am, but instead at 3 am with the wild eyrps.  Yes, I know it was not 4 am and that being eyrpy is just a fact of life. I still wonder if I had said don't wake me up before 6 am if the results would have been different?

On the bright side, I am caught up with all the eyrpy laundry at the moment. I also got to sneak out of the house for 30 minutes to pick up a Brugers Bagle breakfast sandwich and a cuppa tea.  I also picked up a hot Starbucks treat too, so that I am in the tea this morning.  It still won't be enough to keep me awake, but it's a start. Did I mention that it started raining at 7 am? And because Eric is sick today, that I will not have to get Eric and his chair from the car to his day program while trying to keep us and the chair dry.  

So today I will knit and do finishing work. Then I will count rows in the finished basket for the one million row challenge on Raverly. Then try to get as much as possible in plastic bags and containers because the demolition on the kitchen starts Thursday morning.  So anything I don't want to be dusty will have to be in the craft room or in plastic containers. Yes, I will take you along for the  journey, sometimes with just pictures.  

The Blender

Today was one of those completely awful days, by 6:08am my day had already hit the blender.  Eric's morning aide was a no show,  luckily John did not have to work today. Between the 2 of us we managed to get Eric out the door at a reasonable time.

On the way to program the tire pressure light went on on the van's dashboard. So as I was getting Eric out of the van I checked the tires. Thank goodness none were flat, they just looked a little low. Eric was also very disappointed that his one on one advocate was out sick today. So as soon as I found out who had Eric, I gave my usual how he slept and what was needed for today.

Then it was off to get gas for the van at Quick Stop, I got a quart size cup of unsweetened iced tea because I thought that seemed like a good plan at the time. Then it was off to Jack Furrier's Tires to get the tires checked out. Thank goodness I brought my knitting, I got 4 inches knit on a hat, while I was waiting and also borrowed a plug to charge my phone which was almost out of battery.  The good news is that there was nothing majorly wrong with the tires. They were just 4 pounds of pressure low. So I would like everyone who is reading this blog post to get their tire pressure checked out this week as the weather changes. Thanks in advance.

Since I was so close to Trader Joe's, I picked up some things for dinner. I put the groceries away. Then I finished my 2 loads of laundry for the day, I really had more but decided to go on strike. I thought the same with house work too.

I also have to start looking into a lift system to get Eric in and out of bed. Right now we are grandfathered in with the agency, but I don't know how long that will last. Eric is quite a few pounds more than the 50 pounds or so that is now acceptable for lifts. So I am going to look into something called helping hands.

After leftovers for lunch, I decided it was time to do a little weaving to zen out. That did not last long. I got a call that Eric had thrown up at program. So I stopped weaving. Asked John for a mommy time out, by this time I really needed one, he just laughed. So I went to pick up my sick boy. Yes he will be home tomorrow too.

I went to Target to get a few things that we needed, I used my paper coupons but forgot to use the cartwheel app at the register, I lost about $1.00 in savings. Oh well there is always next time.

While dinner was cooking I went back to weaving. I had to refill my shuttle, so I did not get the scarf done today. I am hoping that the tension headache that turned into a migraine goes away soon, I know its going to be a long day tomorrow with Eric home, but it will be a better day.

Eric Shared His Cold

Well if the cold is bad enough Eric usually shares it with me. Today was no exception. I did not even have enough energy to get the bare minimum of 2 loads of Eric's laundry finished. The last load is still in the dryer, its dry so it can stay there a few more hours or days. It is not like there is a shortage of chucks and face wipes.

The high light of my day was drinking Christmas Blend Black tea with honey. After the 5th cup I changed to Sprite for 1 bottle, don't worry it is the imported kind so it has no HFCS's. In between napping and drinking liquids my only real accomplishment of the day was finishing 2 charity hats and getting a 3rd one cast on.

Pattern Alert On today's hats I changed up the hats to a 2 x 2 ribbing for 8 rows, so the cast on was in multiples of 4 + 1. I do this because I knit the 1st and last cast on stitch together to elimate the jag that knitting in the round sometimes produces. Followed by 4 even increases in row 9. I then knit in the stockinette stitch for 4 more inches. For the decrease I evenly spaced the 4 SSK"s. At 8 stitches left the hat was finished and then weaving in the ends and casting on the next hat.

I am leaving John in charge of dinner and plan on spending the remainder of the day resting. I hope I beat this bug soon, tomorrow would be nice John is thinking longer grrr.

Bits-n-Pieces

W onder
E rrands
D rink tea
N ap
E at
S pin
D ream
A nswer
Y arn

t-sac

I like to use loose teas sometimes but I hate to clean up the mess of the tea leaves in the filter. Not to mention the mess it leaves in the sink during clean up. Or the small bits of tea that escape the plastic filter in the tea pot and land in my tea cup. If you like small floaters of tea leaves in your tea you can stop reading right here.

OK so I decided to try the t-sac's that Teri left at home when she went away to law school. She bought the size 1 filters which are designed for a single cup of tea. I found that each bag can comfortably hold 1 tablespoon of tea, so I use 2 bags for a 4 cup pot of tea. They work very well at containing the tea leaves and I could not tell the difference in the flavor of the tea. Best of all there were no floaters left in the tea. Clear tea at last for loose leaf tea. Did I mention that the clean up was very easy.

For the environmentalist they are chlorine free and compostable/recyclable according to the package. They come in 4 sizes with size 1 meant for a single cup of tea to size 4 designed for 12 cups of tea. The price is nominal. The ease of use is great including a very fast clean up.

*Disclaimer: I did not buy the t-sac's, my daughter left them at home when she went to school. This is not a paid review. The opinions are my own. If you decide to use the link to order the t-sac's Amazon will pay me a nominal advertising fee.