Relaxing

 I spent the day relaxing.  I played chicken with a bobbin of yarn that I was plying and won.  I washed enough hand spun yarn for a nice woven shawl.  I spent a lot of time spinning.  I am thinking of using the lighter colors for a sweater, but do I start it now or when I reach the next size down?  I even found time to knit a little.  

Our big treat of the day was a trip to the post office to mail some letters.  When then drove around to see what was still open.  We lead such an exciting life.  

New Patterns

 I published 2 new knitting patterns this week. They are available on Raverly and LoveKnitting.com.  

The first is called Square Dance. Pictured below.  This is a scarf with 3 special yarns dyed by Lily of Merinoyvino on Etsy.  Only one skein is needed unless you want a longer scarf.  

The second is called Trisha’s Shawl. This started out as a table runner but morphed into a shawl for summer.  The yarn is called Anne and is available at Grandma’s Spinning Wheel in Tucson, Arizona. If you don’t live locally in Tucson, Vicky will ship the yarn to you.  

These are fun and easy projects that would make great holiday gifts.  

 

Worn Out DPN’s

 Well it is that time again.  I have worn out another set of U.S. size 13 (9.0mm) rosewood double pointed knitting needles.  Because I knit so many hats a year my wooden knitting needles tend to wear out fairly quickly.   I like rosewood because they last longer than the much less expensive bamboo needles.  I usually can get 50 to 60 hats out of the bamboo knitting needles.  I can usually get a 2 to 3 of years out of the rosewood knitting needles.  

By worn out I really mean that the wood is splintering.   No amount of sanding or beeswax will fix them at this point.  I really hate splinters and I don’t want the kids to get them either.  So I pulled out my spares and will throw out the much loved double pointed knitting needles.  Then I will look for a good sale to replace my spares.  

Hats and More

 I am busy knitting scrappy hats for the kids. I decided not to pull a big tub out for the small leftover bits of yarn this year.  When I reached 2 project bags full of small balls of yarn it was scrappy hat time. I am almost 3/4 way through the first bag.  I finished my 75th hat for the year tonight and have 3 more in progress on the knitting needles.

I am also on a spinning binge. I am currently using the last of my Louet Victoria bobbins. I suggested to John that he make me a few more. He gently suggested that I ply and skein up the yarn to get more bobbin space. So after I finish filling my last bobbin, I will set up my Louet Victoria for plying.  

You all know that this will lead to more weaving of shawls and scarf's. I am not sure what I will do with most of them, as I do not see any art shows or gallery showings in my future.  Oh well, it's not like we have any travel plans in the near future.  I have got to keep myself busy.  Besides shawls, hats and scarfs take up less space than fiber or yarn.

Even More Hats

 The next 15 hats are finished.  This brings me up to 70 hand knit hats for the year, of which 65 go to the kids clothing bank. This batch is all cotton. 

More Hats

 I was not on my game today. So my solution was to knit and get up and walk every few hours to walk around the house.  The end result was three new hats for my favorite charity and 10,000 steps.  So I made the best of a bad body day.  

Bingeing Again

 Well I am bingeing on hats again. It was over 107f today.  What else can I knit in the heat? I am knitting at least one hat a day. I also have 3 hats currently in progress. One in the knitting room. 2 in the den. All the hats are being knit on different sized knitting needles with different yarn weights.  Which begs the question, do I have enough 16 inch knitting needles in enough sizes? Double pointed knitting needles are not a problem, I have 2 boxes full of them.  The answer might just be no.  

The Knitting Room is Back

 The knitting room is back. I knit hat number 58 of 2020 while listening to The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason on audiobook. This is a great summer read set in Victorian England. 

Waiting for Supplies

 I am spending about 2 1/2 hours a day cleaning up the mess I made by wanting a second shoe rack and storage boxes.  Today I organized my shawl collection, I really think I need to knit other things. I found a place on the shelf’s for my double pointed knitting needles. Put smaller project bags in a repurposed hanging shoe bag. 

In addition to cleaning, I filled up the back of my car with snacks for Eric’s old day program and dropped them off. After lunch John and I made a Goodwill run.  The the rest of the day was spent on laundry and knitting.  

All and all a good day.  

The Dangers of Shoe Racks

 If you give a mom a shoe rack.

She will find that not all of her shoes fit.

She will want another shoe rack.

So she will have to clean her closet to make room.

She will have to find a new home for her drop spindles. 

Then rearrange another closet before she can move things.

She will find enough stuff to fill three boxes for charity.

She will make the dad drop it off that very day.

Then she will have to organize two baskets full of fiber and a three drawer basket cart full of fiber.

She will find a missing Turkish Drop Spindle.

This will lead to a bedspread needing to be washed, but that's another story.

The cart fits where it is supposed to go. Happy dance!

But wait, there is a pile of stuff that needs new homes, both in and out of the house. 

After two and a half hours mom is too tired to move.

There is still not enough room in the closet for a shoe rack.

One room is clean.

One room is a big mess in progress, watch where you step and turn on the light before you enter.

Just who's idea was it to let mom have a new shoe rack anyway?

We might as well let mom have the second shoe rack.

Let's just wait and see what leaves the house to make room for the second shoe rack. 

More on The Dangers of Shoe Racks tomorrow. 

Zenning My Closet

 Today I tackled part of my closet and put a new and bigger shoe rack in.  The sad news is all my shoes did not fit. So tomorrow I will do another round of zenning to see if I can make room for another shoe rack.  In the meantime I have filled another box for Goodwill.  

My drop spindles have found a new home along side or rather above the computer  I really think I need to order some wood conditioner for them too, some are in need of a good polishing  

I am feeling a little better each day.  I have tweaked my diet again.  I think it is working, although I should really give it a solid month to know for sure. 

Doing Better

I am finally feeling better. This is the best day I’ve had since I got food poisoning last month. I spent the morning doing errands. I picked up my remaining scarfs from the art gallery because it is closing at the end of the month.  Although it’s still scares me to leave the confines of the house I did wear mask and gloves. This afternoon I spent doing some organizing and made a lot of progress. My new rolling cart for the craft room came today and John assembled it for me. I am now ready  to work again. 

I hope to have an even better day tomorrow. I’m calling it an early night.

Feeling Yucky

I am still feeling pookey and tired, but I managed to do a little cleaning and my 10,000 steps.  

Finally

We finally got rain today. The bulk of the rain fell in about a half an hour. In that half an hour we got an inch and a half of rain and by dinner time the total was 2 inches of rain. It was a little bit too muggy to do any knitting today. So I spent the morning vacuuming up the dust bunnies and doing some deep cleaning. A lot of Zenning was started. This afternoon I worked on organizing the craft/storage room. I found some yarn that I didn’t even know I had. I also found a couple of projects that I lost. I started a new load of stuff for Goodwill too.   I am sure that I have a volunteer to drop it off for me. Tomorrow I’ll get out the big loom and start a shawl.  

Spinning Wheel Problems

I feel screwed right now.  On top of going crazy being stuck at home due to COVID19, I have managed to break both of my spinning wheels.  On the Louet Victoria I broke the footman connector, it snapped right off. It broke into pieces.  The Lendrum has footman problems, the squeak so much it’s impossible to spin with John in the room.  It squeaks at the wrong frequency for him.  Nothing to do but wait for parts.  Sigh. 

Spinning Again

I feel out of shape.  My hands and shoulders are tired after only plying one bobbin of yarn.  It’s either the months long hiatus from spinning because my hands did not work followed by a long recovery.  It also might be the Sojourns flare up cased by food poisoning last weekend. All I know is that it is going to be an interesting journey with lots of pictures.  There also might be a few redesigns of yarn on the way.  The yarn I plyed tonight was supposed to be a fractal spin, but is was so long since I spun it, I plyed it with turquoise silk in a 2 / 20 weight instead.   It came out wonderful.   

Pictures tomorrow.  

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Last night we thought it might be a good idea to skip cooking for one night and help a local Tucson restaurant.  Although the food tasted great and we only ate a small portion of the food we bought, hours later both John and I were sick.  It might take a few days to recover.  So much for doing the right thing.  Sighs.  A day of napping. 

How Much is to Much?

How much knitting is to much right now for me. Apparently 3 hours.  Don’t get me wrong my hand did fine.  It just that my last arthritis flare up left me with some sore tendons in my right shoulder.  Spinning seemed to helpful, but I can not figure out why my Lendrum DT has squeaky treadles. I am wondering if I have worn out some parts. I may just have to Google that one.  Although if you have the answer please let me know.  Otherwise, I might have to spin in another room.  

More Deep Cleaning

Today I did what every empty Nester should be doing. I went through a box of old paperwork and got rid of it. Don’t tell John but I plan on using the empty box for fiber stuff.  I landed up filling five bags of recycling and getting it out of the house. If you are an empty Nester, I challenge you to get rid of all your old paperwork and shred it.  After all do you really need the donation letters from when the kids were in elementary school or high school?

I really couldn’t get into knitting or spinning today. So I guess deep cleaning was progress of some sort.

Wrapped in Love

I know it was 113f outside today. I was still cold and achy.  So I wrapped myself in the Virus Shawl that was made for me by my friend Inge and took a long nap.  I felt like I was wrapped up in love.  I felt better afterwards.  

I am still not at 100%, and flare ups have a way of making me tired and achy.  So having a couple of extra naps today was great.  

The Virus Shawl pattern is available on Raverly.  

The Arthritis Won Today

Sheri 0 - Arthritis 1.  To make a long story short by the numbers.  Laundry 2 loads. Naps 2. Steps 10,000.  Nothing else got done today.