A Very Long Day

 My day felt so long that by dinner time I felt it was Friday. My days with physical therapy are always long.

  Some knitting for kids got done. Nothing was completed. A couple of color changes happened on the next 70 inch scarf . I am using up a lot of smaller skeins. John even got a peak into the box of yarn that I want to use up. Even though I made a dent in the number of partial skeins, I still think there are about a dozen 70 inch scarfs left in the box. I really hope that I am wrong. 

I really think that measuring my yarn use in gallons and pounds means that even after 4 big destashes this year meansI still have a lot of yarn.   The good news is I finished 2 partial skeins tonight.

Some knitting got dropped off at the Family resource center aka the Flowing Wells Clothing Bank. They were very happy with an XXL Ziplock bag full of knitting and socks.  I try to find the fun socks because I know it is a rarity that the kids get the fun socks.  

The winter visitors are here and the supply chain has not caught up with them yet.  Target was was out of a lot of things I needed.  They had a lot of people stocking the store as I shopped. They no longer ask did you find everything, because they already know we did not.  

51

 As of today I have completed 51 knitting projects this year. I think I am well ahead of my project 8.3 projects completed per month I projected in January. I am disappointed that I have not used more of my stash yarn up. Well there is always June.  This hat marks my 51st knitting project of the year.  This is also my 28th hat for the year. I should reach my yearly goal of 5 dozen hats knit for the clothing bank in no time.  I have been know to knit more hats in any given year. 

So Much Yarn, So Little Time

 I spent most of the day knitting while trying to get my body back in sync.  I am currently working on 2 different blankets, a scarf and a hat.  I have promised myself that I will finish one blanket before I start the next blanket. No matter how good the pattern looks in my head.  

Also I think I seriously misjudged how much yarn I really needed to get me through a pandemic.  I think that is understandable because prior to COVID19, I have not been in a pandemic.  For future reference that would be enough yarn for 25 to 30  small to medium sized projects every quarter.  Also I have found out that lots of people and stores are still selling yarn.  My hands are not as young as they once were.  I am slowing down.  

Finding Calm

 I have finally found some calm in my life. This current political cycle has been brutal and combined with COVID19, it has been too much for me. Since I can’t knit until next year I have started weaving again . So far I have finished one scarf . Have one scarf drying and  awaiting finishing work and one scarf on the loom.  Once I fill up the bag that I started, I will drop them off at the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank.  I am sure that they can find homes for every scarf I weave.  

When my hands got tired, I organized my warp  bowl. I have a lot of odds and ends so I will be making some very colorful scarfs. I also filled up my weaving basket with more yarn.  I don’t know if this will make a dent in my stash the 102 knitting and weaving projects I have completed so far this year lead me to believe that I might make a dent by the end of 2021. Just don’t hold me to that. I don’t feel that 102 projects made much of a dent so far in 2020. I want to see more empty bins and everything in less space. 

Dilemmas

I woke up early with a headache. So I made a cuppa chai and tried to relax as I sipped it. Just as the headache was beginning to fade Eric woke up needing a complete change out and breathing treatment. After settling Eric back to sleep, I then realized that it was 3 am.

This being Black Friday in the United States, where the stores have historically turned the books from red to black. There are always sales. Most start really early. I was awake so why not go shopping and get some great deals.

Then I thought about what I needed. The answer was nothing. What was left on my holiday shopping list. The answer was nothing. What did I want that was on sale? The answer was nothing. So after an hour of deliberation I was finally sleepy.

Later in the day I was going to go shopping for yarn for a project, but decided to go stash diving instead. I found enough cotton yarn to make 2 to 3 chemo caps for a friends brother. Now I just need my hands to be less stiff so that I can knit them.

I then found time for a walk and some weaving. I took my loom outside and enjoyed the unusually warm late November day.

Changes

The remodeling has brought about a lot of changes real and imaniged. Real changes included Eric's nebulalizer over heating to the point it could not be used any more. The dead nebulizer is pictured below. So I pulled the spare nebulizer out today. Yes, we keep a spare nebulizer, doesn't everyone?   I have also been throwing away old preschool and elementary school arts and crafts projects. Yes all the old and dusty relics have made it to the bin.  I  would like to point out that I really can throw things out. I will spend more time going through the rest of the shellfs tomorrow so construction in that area can begin on Monday. 

I also spent the afternoon clearing multiple craft project off the large couch.  I will try to keep project on the couch to a minimum.  Shelfs had been ordered to help organize the craft room.  We now have room to put in shellfs since the treadmill has been moved out.  Yes, I have lost a hiding place.  

The imaniged changes include a stack of yarn boxes in the garage from my last yarn stash reorganization a few years ago. Since clutter is disappearing at a good rate, they are now visible.  Please do me a favor, if you are a fellow knitter and have gotten yarn out of one of those boxes or you remember me putting them there, please let John know that they did not move in to the garage this month.  Another imaniged  change was on my part. I thought that we could not move forward with the remodel until the tv was relocated to the other side of the room. This is actually going to result in the tv being moved.  John has ordered parts.  After that happens we will need volunteers to help John move the furniture around. 

So ther you have it, the real and imaniged changes for the week. 

A Good Day

Today was a good day. I even got out of the house to go to knit with friends. I finished two hats and cast on another one for the to go bag.

Eric made it to his day program. It was Friday so they went swimming and he even fell asleep in the pool. One of the advocates was holding Eric so he was okay in the pool even though he fell asleep. But he was glad to be back with his friends. The first thing Eric did when he got home today was go to his room to take a nap. He wanted company so I sat and did some knitting why he's slept.

I am making a dent in my yarn stash. I think sometime this week I'm going to have to reorganize the yarn in the house. I think I might even be able to take some out of the garage but that might be a push so I can't guarantee that quite yet but I'm getting a lot knitting done. Baskets that were full of yarn three months ago are now half-empty I think that's a good sign. I am averaging finishing two small projects a day. Most of them are hats so they leave the house as the weather gets cold and go to charity. I know it's spring so I know it's a few months till they get to leave the house but maybe I can persuade one of the charities to take the hats earlier if I have a full bag. 

This week we started training three new aids for Eric. So things are going to be kind of crazy around here. We might not have as much freedom as when we have  fully trained aids for Eric. So if I seem a bit distracted don't worry about it everything is going fine here and we're going to call it an early evening tonight. 

101

No we are not talking about Dalmatian's. That would be a major copy write volition and I am sure the fine Lawyers at Disney would have a taken down notice out pretty fast. What I am talking about is the number of hats that I have knit for charity and people in need in Southern Arizona.

This adventure began on October 17, 2013 at knitting guild. There was a presidents challenge to knit 30 hats in 30 days for The Kids Closet, an out reach program run by the retiree's in Saddle Brook. So I came home from knitting guild and gathered some odds and ends. Since the pattern required 2 strands of yarn it did not matter on the weight or amount of yarn. After all I was using US sized 11 and 13 knitting needles. The thing that I learned about kids hats is that the more colorful the hat the better. I had the first 30 hats done in 19 days.

Since I had more yarn I kept knitting hats. I thought maybe another 5 or 10 hats with the yarn I had. Then John gently suggested that I remove all the yarn from Teri's room before her visit and add it to the yarn for hats. That added 5 more bags / baskets of odds and end yarn to the project. 2  bags have since been used up.

I then knit up 23 hats for the kids in the Flowing Wells School District. 2 weeks later I dropped off 28 more hats and 11 scarfs. Then there where 2 more hats knit for Eric's Day program charity event for a local shelter. Today I dropped off another 13 hats at a stuff the bus event for kids in need. 4 went to United Cerebral Palsy of Southern Arizona and 9 went to Child Protective Services. Then there were another 17 hats that I can't quite remember where they went, but rest assured that they are out of the house and hopefully keeping some little head warm this winter.

There are 3 more things that I should mention. First I really thought that today's hats brought the total to 101 hats since October 17th, but in actuality there were 113, but 101 sounded far better as a title. It really made a better intro too. I also can not keep a running total in my head like my dad use to do. I Secondly at Thursdays guild meeting 2 dear friends sent me home with another bag of yarn for hats. Thirdly with every other project I finish there is a little more yarn that is going to the hats. So I will be knitting hats for quite a while. Even averaging 1 skein per hat I still have a lot of yarn to use up. At least during the colder months I will try to find them homes instead of a neat pile somewhere in the house.

For those keeping track of my stash down challenge, the sad news is that even burning through 113 skeins of yarn in the past 67 days it has not made much of a dent in the over all volume of my stash. Although it has added quite a few rows to The One Million Knitted Rows challenge on Ravelry.

Hats Away

These are just a few of the 113 hats that I have knit since October 17th. Just 67 days.  

Busier Than a Bee

It has been crazy busy around here. I have holiday guests arriving on Wednesday. I really think that it was a very good thing that I started cleaning 3 months ago. It gave me time to really go through everything. I know that I have not reached perfection by any means, but I consider it a major victory to only have 2 boxes of things that need to be dealt with instead of a whole room going into the garage.  

I will have 30 hats leave the house tomorrow for the knitting guild challenge. I have also found a small local school district that is very willing to give out more hand knit items to their students through their family resource center. I have 5 gallons of yarn for that project. I have 21 hats finished for that project. That means I have finished 51 hand knit hats in the last 30 days. Sadly even with 51 hats knit this month, it has not made much of a dent in the yarn stash. Just to give you an idea of how much yarn was used. Each hat took the equivalent of 1 skein of yarn which equals about 51 skeins of yarn. Of course I used a lot of bits and pieces to make the hats more colorful. 

I have run out of some of my design mojo for now. I have been asked to design and sew up some project bags for other peoples knitting. I am really thinking that after Thanksgiving would be a better time  to start this project.  I will feel less rushed and will come up with something way better if I wait. 

We'll I have another crazy busy day tomorrow so it's time to call it a night. 

A Lazy Sunday

We had another lay low day today. Basically we did not leave the house, but that did not mean I was not busy. I have been doing laundry today and basically Eric made as much laundry as I did today so that was a wash so to speak. I got a newsletter article written. Knit 2 more hats toward the guild challenge, yes I plan on getting it done in less than 30 days. I see nothing wrong with getting something done early.

Speaking of hats, I organized part of my yarn stash today. I sorted the projects and yarn to make more efficient use of my space. I found among the stash yarn in various piles that just said "I need to be part of the hat project".  I just love it when the yarn knows where it is suppose to go and what it wants to be made into. Some yarns take longer than others to get to this stage. I put all my works in progress together, I have less than last time I did this. I also put new kits in one bag and shawls in another. I put in a solid hour and got this portion a little over 50% organized. I also now have 4 empty project bags, I know that I should not pull new projects out and refill them. Tomorrow the organizing should be finished.

Yes, the day of rest did Eric a lot of good. He is looking much better than he did at this time last week. I am really hoping that Eric has a really good week so I can finish organizing the craft room. Finish some work in progress sewing projects. I also need to find a time to work on Teri's blanket, ply some yarn and wash some wool.  Can someone please invent a longer day for me so that I can get all that I need to get done and want to get done, done.

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and productive week.

Life on Hold

It is very early on Sunday morning, Eric has been sick since Thursday. It started off as a cold and morphed into hell if I know.  I just opened the last bottle of pedialyte, I almost ordered it on Amazon earlier but it would not get here before Tuesday.  So I guess I will be making a run later this morning. 

Eric has been hanging on to the baby Elmo that Candy knit up for him a few years ago. Out of the more than 90 quarts of Elmo's Eric, has this is the go to one when he is not feeling well. It's the little things in life that make the difference.  

I am tired enough to say the heck with laundry, except for the eyrpy stuff. I know it will come back to bite me later but I really don't care at this point. 

Breakfast consists of Belvita breakfast cookies and Raspberry Riot tea from Tevana.  This tea is suppose to have more caffeine than coffee. I know I got 5 1/2 hours of sleep last night, but I am still tired after be being up the better part of the 2 previous nights. John took Eric for most of last night.  I am really tired so I am having trouble being upbeat right now.  So to try to be more positive I will say that I have completed 3 rectangles for the knitting guild presidents challenge.  It takes 2 rectangles to make a poncho so I should have the second poncho done later today.  Right now my goal is to make as many rectangles as possible and use as much yarn up as possible in doing this.  I am wishful thinking that I can make a dent in my yarn stash by making lots of ponchos.  

Well I think it is time to start burning through some yarn now.  I wish everyone a very happy and productive day.  Please take time to enjoy your families this week. 

A Contrast in Opposites

This weekend was a contrast in opposites. Saturday Eric was a little under the weather and slept most of the day. John had a very restful day too. I spent the day working ( knitting) on Teri's blanket and managed to get 3 modular squares (41 rows per square) done and the 4th one of the day started. I am slowly but surely approaching 200 squares done which should be at about the half way mark if you consider the boarder in the knitting.

Today on the other hand was a very busy one. I spent the morning cleaning house and doing laundry. I stopped doing laundry for the afternoon when it hit 103. The official high at the airport was 107, but it got to a little over 108 at the house today. Instead of running errands this afternoon I tackled my yarn stash in the closet first. What surprised me the most was that I had very little yarn in the closet stash that I did not love. Only 6 or 7 skeins needed to be put in drawers. About 6 skeins I was willing to part with so I will be passing it on to Corina. I do have about 1 1/2 empty drawers but I think I will wait just a bit longer before I move more yarn in.  I then headed to the craft room and went through my knitting bags one by one to clean them out. I pulled a few skeins of what was I thinking and added them to Corina's bag. I also started a bag of smaller balls of yarn that I will use to teach a weaving class to part of Eric;s summer program friends. I found all kinds of knitting needles out of place and put them away too. I know that none of you are surprised that I found a stash of UFOs, some with only a few rows left to knit.

So very early tomorrow I will do my running and get the laundry started. My to do list is already made. When the heat of the day hits I will do more knitting. Hopefully finishing some UFOs in the process. I want to start some new projects, but I really need to get the projects that I have started finished. I think I will put on one more load of laundry tonight and call it a night.

Stash Busting

Sometimes the realization hits in my stash busting journey just how many hats and scarfs for charity I will have to knit before an area becomes yarn depleted. Don't get me wrong I do love knitting and I need to knit to keep my sanity some days. If you have ever watched kids programing for 18 hours a day while taking care of a sick kid you know exactly what I mean.  But I am just 2 scarfs shy of knitting 2 trash bags full of Joann's Sensations Licorice in the past 2 months.

Today's cleaning and organizing yielded yarn for at least 24 more scarfs and some where between 50 and 70 hats. I know I will enjoy knitting each and everyone of them. I know that in this economy every one of them will find a home and be out of my house in a few months.  Then it is off to the next area, and the next. 

I am slowly knitting down my yarn and have even passed some on to new knitters. I can say that I have no more yarn in the storage room or the living room. Yes the living room does look much neater.  I have 2 areas still out of control the craft room and the area in the garage with 6 - 96 quart boxes of yarn. I hope some day to have my entire stash in my closet not overflowing the storage containers. This I hope will also include the fluff. When I stopped buying yarn I replaced it with fluff sprees. After all you get more bang for the buck by spinning then knitting it. Right?

 I know I will never be one of those people who buy one or 2 projects at a time. I know this because I have been know to knit 2 scarfs in a day and start the third. But how exactly do I determine how much yarn is the right amount for me. Don't expect an answer today but sometime in the next year or so. After all I come from a family of pack rats. How do I know this? Well there are still a few boxes, still sealed from a move in 1965 in my moms garage.

I don['t know if I will ever be as organized as John or Teri but I am really trying my best. Well It is time for more kids programming and knitting . Maybe another couple of scarfs will get finished.

A Little Catch Up

Well it has been a little over a week since I last blogged. A week ago Monday I got Eric out the door to school and spent the next 3 days running around town like a mad lady trying to get everything under the sun done.

I found a new home for the 2 knitting machines that were in need of a lot of work. They went home with a nice couple from the Midwest. They joined us a knitting and had breakfast with us. Afterward they moved their car by mine and we whooshed the machines to their new home.

I did get my 2 rather large boxes off to Vermont. The final count that I sent was 30 back packs, 25 scarfs and 23 hats. This should actually read that I got about 50 to 60 skeins of yarn plus some backpacks out of the house. Some of the scarfs took multiple skeins. The sad part of this is that other than reclaiming a shopping bag I personally don't think I made much of a dent in my yarn stash. I will keep knitting up a storm because winter is coming and I know that the need will be great this year. I think I will make my motto "Have yarn will knit"

When it gets a little cooler, to read in the mid to low 80's. I will get some help to move yarn around the garage and see if the stash has gone down. This is when I plan on doing some more decluttering. I have found that the garage is like Fiber McGee's closet only larger and less prone to fall on me.

Not one bit of spinning has gotten done since last Friday.  Although John has discovered where the newly spun yarn takes a short rest after being boiled and thwacked. His only comment was "more yarn".

John and I did manage to get out of the house for a bit of "us" time this weekend. I would also like to add that at the party we went to the hostess graciously accepted one of my hand knit hats hot off the needles so I did not have to take the finished object home with me.  Can I count that as 1 more skein out the door? Yes I do take my knitting every where.

Well it is time to end this post so good night all. Please enjoy your families.

Very Busy

I have been very busy this week trying to get over the cold Eric shared with me,cleaning and running errands. On the cleaning front I now have polished wood on not one but two desk tops. I have organized some more of my yarn and was able to combine two boxes of yarn for charity knitting into to one box. This leaves me more room to bring in more of my stash yarn from the garage. I am also wondering if I will be able to knit 52 items for charity this year? I know one object a week does sound very ambitious.

I have finished more charity knitting and am trying to get more of my UFOs finished. Yes I will even weave in ends this week as my finishing basket is very full. My spinning is coming along nicely. But I do have one question. Is there a very good book about spinning I have the basics down pretty well but want some technical knowledge.

With any luck Eric is now asleep and I can get some more sleep too.

A Breif Catch Up

I did not think that John paid much attention to my knitting or yarn in general, but I was wrong. Over the weekend when I started winding some yarn for hats his comment was that he hoped that the yarn was for charity hats and not for my Art Fire Studio. Yes the next batch will be charity hats. I still have a lot of hats in my studio.

I also found 4 sets of knitting needles on Friday as I was digging out a knitting bag for a new knitter. I wonder how many sets of knitting needles I would have if I had finished all my work in progress projects. When I went into the tub to pull out the empty bag I also pulled out 4 projects that were still on the needles that I had not worked on since before the remodel. Everything was gathered and put in 96 quart containers to get them out of the way and out of the construction dust.

I have also started writing out the baby blanket with mixed blocks that is knit in one piece. This also includes the boarder being knit as you go so the little ones can't rip apart the squares. The pattern will be in my studio after I finish writing it up.  The blanket has been spoken for already but the pattern should be here soon. So you have something to look forward to.

Well I have to get back to my to do list. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Knittng and Winding Yarn

I have found that if I wind the balls and hanks of yarn into cakes, they tend to get knit faster. So earlier in the week I took a nice piece of pottery put a vase in the middle for knitting needles and started winding. I only put the needles in the vase for the weight yarn I had wound.


The progress was great, 4 scarfs were finished this week and the pot started to look empty. I think that it helped that Eric was home sick from school on Friday; because I knit 2 scarf’s on Friday. So today I went into my yarn stash and pulled out 8 more balls of yarn and wound them. I also wound 8 more skeins for Teri’s blanket which John has dubbed my enormous project of the year; I have passed the 34 skein mark and will knit a little more each night. You can see the work in progress. The blanket is 17 modular squares across.

I really know that I have made progress in my stash reduction process. The 2 closets that I had full of yarn no longer have the yarn in them. Yes I know that this involved filling another 95 quart box with yarn; but I am being more honest with the amount I have and am working hard to stash down. In case you were wondering it was the box of yarn that I knit through earlier when I went through 95 quarts in 3 months. So no new boxes were purchased.

Well it is time for Eric’s breathing treatment and time to make dinner. Yes multi tasking is essential. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Teri's Blanket, A progress Report.

This is a picture of Teri’s new blanket in progress. The first row is done and I am on the second square of the second row. As you can see it stretches across most of the den floor. This is going to be a queen size blanket with 15% more added for the shrinkage the yarn package tells me will happen with the first wash. I want to thank John for calculating the size increase otherwise it would have been too small once it was washed.

This is a stash busting challenge from My 8 Kids Mom otherwise known as the counting Sheep Farm.   http://www.countingsheepfarm.com/ It was started a week ago.

The blanket is being knit on size 7 needles with Lion Brand and Pakucho 100% organic cotton yarn. The great thing about these yarns is they are grown in the colors as shown and will intensify with washing. This makes it perfect for a busy student and should last a long time.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Playing Catch Up or As We Know it My Life.

OK so it has been quite a while since I blogged. So what has been going on in my life? Well here goes.

Since I blogged last Eric has been sick twice with two near all nighters, He is doing better today and I really slept last night. I have been playing catchup with the laundry. Did I mention that Eric can make 2 loads over night when he is sick. I want to thank all my laundry folders. In weeks like this I abide by my motto:
"Laundry is like fine wine, no laundry shall be folded before it's time."

I have agreed to teach knitting to Eric's friends at school, they will be making a wash cloth and a scarf. My inclination is to go for a square wash cloth and a thin rectangular scarf. I want the things to be useful for them. So today I went through my stash and picked out 10 skeins of cotton for wash cloths and 10 skeins of wool and rayon for the scarfs. I have 7 of the 10 set of needles that I will need, the knitting guild has not come through for me so I will take my coupons and buy the last 3 pairs. I will be using size 7 and 8 straight needles and am using metal needles so we don't have breakage to deal with.

I have gone to 2 white elephant holiday parties and have manage to get the white elephants I received out of the house. For the 1st white elephant I gave away 10 skeins of yarn and a knitting bag that I did not like, but the recipient was very happy with them. For the second one I gave away red mobius scarf that John did not like on me and I could not sell. For the Guild holiday party I might just do the same thing and fill another bag with yarn ( but don't tell anyone).

I gave up Diet Coke and aspartame cold turkey last Saturday and have had a few headaches and feel really weird, but so far this has been the only change in my diet and I have lost 3 pounds since Saturday. This is all due to my friend Kay sending me an article on the effects of aspartame/diet coke on auto immune diseases. It too soon to tell if it is making a difference, but I will keep you updated.

I finished the shawl pattern and got it to the beta testers and I still need John to take a picture of it on me, it does not look good flat, but on it's wonderful.

We have a new 96 Gallon recycling bin on wheels and it is very easy to fill so the house is a little less cluttered. Monday night we put out twice as much recycling than we did for trash. Yeah us!!!

So I think even thought it has been hectic I have made headway in de-stashing yarn(30 skeins by my count), and getting rid of clutter. Not much knitting has been done, oh, well there is always later.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Destash Progress Report

Well dear reader I have made some progress in getting the stash yarn from my garage. I have knit at least a couple of dozen hats most for charity, although I did manage to sell 2, and at least 2 dozen scarfs all for charity. I don't send them all to the same places but when asked and I feel its a good cause I send things along.

The process is going slower than I thought it would be, with Eric being sick so much and have a lot of really long nights I have not done as many projects as I had hoped would be done by now.

Today I took 2 partial boxes in the house and combined them, that allowed me to move a box of purse yarn into the house. With more drawer space open in the roll aways I fill with yarn I was able to bring in the giant zip-lock bag.

That leaves me with a paltry 7 large storage bins of yarn in the garage.

I have noticed that strangest thing though the more I declutter and get things out of the house the more organized I am becoming. But I would not let the professional organizer worry over this, I still have a long way to go. We have been in this house for 15 years and I am a born pack rat, just ask my mom she still has at least 1 box in her garage from a move in 1965 that has yet to be unpacked. I started zenning the house a little over a year ago, it is a slow process but it is getting done. For those of you who are not familiar with the term zenning, it is simply a fancy word for decluttering.

When Teri gets home for winter break I will let her give an unbiased opinion in a guest column of how the progress is going. Teri is a very strong advocate for a clean and orderly house, she must get that from her dad. She is very good about getting rid of things and will drop almost anything to do a Goodwill run or a Bookman's run.

In honor of today's achievement I will be having another contest. Just give me your best decluttering tip and Again I will have a 3 person panel to judge the contest. The prize will be something from my stash that will help me decluter and give you an new project.

Have a good afternoon and enjoy your families.