Buttercup Yarn

 I have finally finished spinning the buttercup roving and plyed it with Ito raw silk yarn. Here is a picture of the last 2 skeins in the middle.  I have not counted the yardage but I am sure that I will have enough to knit a shawl.  The single skein I finished yesterday is on top. The one I finished today are in the middle. The top one was photographed on a light grey table with an Ott light.  The middle 2 skeins were photographed on a brown couch with an Ott light. This is a perfect example of how background color can modify the look of any yarn. The gray brings out the yellow tones while the brown brings out the white tones and mutes the yellow. 

I skeined the yarn tonight during the Lord of the Rings Trilogy fight scenes. I know fight scenes are part of the book. They are also part of the TV show. That does not mean I have to watch them. Skinning each bobbin took up one fight scene. 

The bottom photo is the start of 4 ounces of super wash BFL. It is obviously still on the spinning wheel.  It is not going to be an art yarn. Since it is a super wash wool, I will be using it in charity hats.  My rationale behind this is that a few hundred years ago this was the normal thing.  It will also give me another one of a kind hat.  Just because the kids may get them from the clothing bank does not mean all the hats have to look the same.  The teachers usually get to pick the hats out for the students, so I try to give each on a unique personality. 

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. 

Reading Glasses

 We went to Costco today to buy another 3 pack of Foster Grant reading glasses.  I now have them placed at all the Strategic locations around the house. I even have two spare pairs. Still getting used to not wearing glasses all the time.

I Cooked Dinner

 It was a very slow day around here. Don’t look so schocked, I have not forgotten how.  I have just been super tired. Not to mention 2 eye surgeries this month.  I did make dinner.  I made taco salads with extra lean ground turkey ,let me know if you want the recipe.  It’s another quick cook one red pot meal that makes 4 to 6 servings.  Low fat, low carbohydrates and tastes good too. 

Lashana Tova - Happy New Year

 For all of you celebrating please have a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful New Year. I did not get to go to services because of COVID19. I am afraid that it will impact most of my fall and winter this year, yet again. 

I know in my heart of hearts that COVID19 will be around in some form or another for at least the foreseeable future. I base this on the fact that the 1918 Flu is still in our flu shots sometimes.  I am not sure of the exact science behind this, it has to do with constant mutations though. 

I have yarn so don’t worry about me. 

A Work in Progress

 I have 1/4 of my knitting room just how I want it.  Elmo is even supervising my progress.  

I finished another scarf for Operation Gratitude today. It is now in the basket to go to Knitting Guild next month. All I have left to do is add a small note.  It is pictured above. 

Redesign Progress

 A lot of progress has been made in my knitting room.  If you were here on Monday, by today you would not recognize it.  I will take some pictures tomorrow.  John did all the heavy lifting. All the space created by the donation to our community food bank is now filled with yarn. This s makes my yarn more accessible.  I have moved every single roller to a new spot in the room.  

When I went to get my afternoon snack, it turned out that it was dinner time. How did that happen? So while dinner was cooking I did some organizing and straightening in the dining room.  It was a good day to get rid of clutter too, John was kind enough to take that all out for me and Roomba the knitting room while we cooked dinner   

I spent the evening knitting.  Only 1 project got finished today. My 19th charity hat for the year.  Another operation gratitude scarf is a few rows from being finished. You guessed it, I cast on another charity hat too.

Can I Have Too Many Readers?

 Ok, I have to admit it. Since my cataract surgery I have turned into one of those people who have “readers” all over the house.  Readers are just portable magnifying glasses. I leave a pair on the kitchen table, in my knitting room, by where I knit at night, on my nightstand, and a pair in my purse. This is just so I don’t have to carry one pair everywhere.  

Am I wrong in thinking that I might also need to leave a pair by the computer too. Also, just maybe a spare pair in case I lose or misplaced a pair.  

The same goes with sunglasses too.  One pair in my purse. One pair by the back door for errands around the outside of the house.  I am not sure if I don’t need a spare just in case.  

I also started the knitting room reorganization today.  I had no problem filling the newly open space. I also moved on big basket to a new home.  Just a few more things to move before John comes in for the heavy lifting  

I am really close to finishing 3 more knitting  projects. I have figured out the pattern revision, now just new pictures and a bit of typing.  The sample for my next shawl just needs the ends woven in and the pattern typed.  I still need the daily nap so things are going a bit on the slow side.  Everything will get done in its own time.  

TTFN

By the way I have bought all the Foster Grant readers on my own.  His is my own personal opinion..I am not being paid for this blog post.  

Good News

 The good news is that if I put the back seats down in my car I can get 17 bags and 2 boxes of donations in the back of my car. Yes we did have just a little bit of room to spare.  Yes, we did overwhelm the drop off site. If we would have used the boxes that they were hoping to be filled we would have filled them up and then some. Since our donation was nicely bagged and boxed we just put it on the side of the donation boxes.  I am sure as the holidays get closer more people will donate too. 

You also know what this means, don’t you? Of course you do. With all that empty space we will be doing a knitting room redesign this weekend. I will get all the light lifting done first and then bring John in for the heavy lifting and rolling. 

Also today at knitting guild they did not care that the gloves were store bought, but I did trigger a lecture for the whole group. No a bad one. Just a don’t feel guilty if your are sick or can’t do the monthly challenge, it’s a suggestion not mandatory. Good to know. 

TTFN

Cheating

 Yes, I am going to cheat tomorrow at the knitting guild meeting. I was supposed to knit a few pairs of gloves for the Navajo Project this month.  Somewhere between 2 eye surgeries and my hands looking a little Craigy from all the stress I am cheating.  In a good way through. I will not disappointed any child.  

Tonight John and I walked over to Tuesday Morning while waiting for an outside table that never materialized, but that’s another story.  I found 2 pairs of gloves that would be great for the older kids.  They are even in the preferred yarn of polyester.  The best part is that they cost as much as I would have spent on yarn.  So even though I am really cheating by not being in hand knit gloves I will still keep 2 sets of hands warm.  

That is my story and I am sticking to it.  

15

I am purging  my house of processed foods in an effort to get healthier. For the last 2 days I have been working on this. I am trying to go back to the way my great grandparents ate. I am not sure all this processed food is having a positive effect on my health.  Although in the short term it has left my body very sore. 

If you have been following my blog for awhile you will remember that in 2009 I give up all artificial sweeteners and all diet soda.  This made a very positive change in my health.  I have my friend Kay of blessed memory for leading me to this change.  It was not easy and I had withdrawal headaches for 2 weeks  

In 2017 I gave up all sugar sweetened sodas.  That made another positive change for me. Although it did make those 48 hour work days next to impossible.  

Now I am making the next step in this slow set of  steps. I am trying to give up processed foods.  In some ways it is easy, we do not eat much fast food.  Bread, bagels and tortillas are going to be a little bit harder. Although, as I went through our 2 pantries I was really amazed at how much processed foods we have in the house.  So much so, that I am down to 1 pantry.  That one pantry even has extra space. Did I mention that this leaves more room for yarn. Maybe I can consolidate some of the yarn I have around the house to 1 or 2 rooms. It is worth a try. 

This has lead to 13 bags and 2 boxes heading to the community food drive this week.  See the picture below for the bags.  The boxes are up on a shelf.  

This and That

 I have worked on 3 of my knitting projects today. Nothing got finished.  I did however find a very delightful cast off in the Picot Edge Style.  There are countless ways to make a Picot Edge.  As usual I have found a simple but elegant edging for my new shawl. It only takes one extra length of yarn at the end. 5 lengths of yarn versus 4 lengths of yarn for a stretchy bind off. 

The next clue in my new pattern design is as follows.  

1. Knit 2 stitches on to the left hand needle. 

2. Bind off 4 stitches 

3. Slip the remaining stitch on the right hand needle back on to the left needle. 

Repeat steps 1, 2, & 3 until the bind off is complete. 

Weave in the end.  

For left handed knitters just reverse my instructions to read:

1. Knit 2 stitches on to the right hand needle.

2. Bind off 4 stitches.

3. Slip the remaining stitch on the left hand needle back to the right hand knitting needle. 

Repeat steps 1, 2, & 3 until the bind off is complete.

Weave in the ends..  

who is ready for a new knitting pattern?

Yes, I did manage a few chores. I am also wondering when the bruise from Wednesday’s surgery will go away.  It is looking nasty. Did a little more deep cleaning.  

Yarn Chicken Time

 I am at the end of a very large shawl. It did not start out that way. I started with a 3 stitch wide key. After the key was completed I increased by 6 stitches every other row. So the rows got very long very quickly.  I have been playing yarn chicken for a while, since I am just awful at the Geometry needed to calculate how much yarn I would use per 4 square inches. Then figuring out my yardage divided by the yarn used in 4 inches. Then factoring in the 6 stitch increase every other row.  Then when to stop when I hit a certain gram weight of the yarn. The designers I know that are mathematicians, engineers, physicists and science types have the easiest time with this.

Yes, I know that they have computer programs that figure all that out for you. Personally the artist in me thinks that is cheating.  It take the spontaneity and creativity out of the process of designing. So I put Yarn chicken. This is also why I give the gauge for before and after washing. I really know that is Quirky of me.

Since I am doing a picot edge on the shawl, I want to make sure that I have enough yarn to complete the edging. If I have a little extra I’m fine with that. I mean the rows are so long and the shawl is deep enough that a row or two wouldn’t matter. It’s better than ripping out a few. On this shawl it’s a demon. I already ripped out 20 rows mid shawl to fix a mistake. 

I want to make sure that I have enough yarn to complete the edging. If I have a little extra I’m fine with that. I mean the rows are so long and the shawl is deep enough that a row or two wouldn’t matter.

So tomorrow I pull out the stitch Bible and find my edging pattern and finish the shawl. By the way here is how much yarn I have left. 

2 Down 0 To Go

 I had my second cataract surgery earlier this week. Everything went well. I am healing well too. There are some things that I have noticed. First being that sometimes I can even read with out the readers the eye doctor recommended.  Things are definitely brighter and I can’t go outside without sunglasses. So I keep a pair in my purse and a pair by the back door.  I have also noticed that the colors are more brilliant. Today’s trip through Costco was amazing. I made John go up and down every food aisle even if we did not need anything on the aisle just to look at all the colors. The packaging was an amazing Kaleidoscope of colors. I am not sure if it was dorky or my inner artist coming out from a years long nap. 

The strangest side effect of the surgery involves the scale. As of this morning I have lost a total of 8 pounds. Strange right?  I am not craving sweets or other carbohydrates. I am not eating to keep myself awake. If I am tired I take a nap. I am actually happier than I have been in a long time. It’s almost like I got rid of the cataracts and my body is coming back into balance. I can’t wait to see where I go with this.  

I woke up from a nap and reached for my glasses and they were not there  it took me a few minutes to realize that I did not need them anymore. Well except for my readers.  I now have four pair and I know that a day will come when I can’t faint a single pair. So I have them strategically placed around the house.

I have not wanted to do any fussy knitting like hats, gloves or shawls.  Instead I am working on 2 different Operation Gratitude scarfs. One for the car because I am still not driving.  I can also knit these with my eyes closed if the sun is at a bad angle. I need to give my eyes time to heal and balance out.  The good news is that I figured out what I thought needed a small revision in a pattern and will fix it as soon as I feel like taking pictures and editing a pattern. 

It’s getting late so it’s time to call it a day.  

Oops

 My day did not go as planned. When I went to seam the new gloves, I was missing 1/4 of a glove. So back to the knitting room I went. First things first, I had to find a second pair of US size 6 wooden knitting needles. Thankfully I have at least 2 pairs in each size. I think that everyone should have at least 2 pairs in each size. Your local yarn shop can help you with that. You don’t have to buy them all at once. Save up your coupon money so it does not have to come out of the household budget. I am also grateful that the second pair were not on a project. 

Forty five minutes later it was really finished. So while dinner was cooking I wove in the ends and clipped them together for seaming. I was too tired after dinner to do any sewing. So I choose to relax and watch another the Moon is going to crash into the earth movie. Of course the astronauts saved the earth at the very last minute.  They always do.  

So below is a picture of my oops.  

Getting Ready

 While I have been busy recovering from my first cataract surgery, I can say I think it is going well. My distance vision in my right eye has ne going back to my 30’s.  I have an up coming check up to see if my right eye is healed enough to do my left eye.  Wish me luck.  

Meanwhile I have been doing a lot of napping.  I gave up stress eating.  I gave up eating when I am tired and have opted to take naps instead after all I am retired.  I have been doing some knitting, I have only finished 2 small projects this week.  I have gloves to seam, I have a shawl, 2 scarfs, and a third pair of gloves to finish.  I am also throwing in random acts of cleaning, not too much though because I am still supposed to be resting. They Obviously did not write those instructions with me in mind.  

Sorry for any misspellings, I am doing this with out glasses because my eyes are tired.  So I guess it’s good night. 

The Gathering

 This morning I went to World Market and bought a medium sized glass jar for my stitch markers. I starting the gathering of stitch markers after I came home.  Please be aware that I do have more stitch markers hiding in various knitting bags around the house.  I have stitch markers that range from lace knitting sizes all the way up to size 35 knitting needles.  I do not have any for the size 50 knitting needles, I don’t think that they make them, since very few people knit on size 50 or larger knitting needles. At this point I would say I have well over 300 just in the jar.  

Some of the stitch markers are hand made by me, they are mostly the beaded ones and the ones with charms. Some are from events that I have gone to. Some come with yarn and fiber orders.  I do realize that I could lose a stitch marker a day for a year and still not run out of stitch markers. Please send more. Perhaps we could swap some. 

I have stitch markers from New Zeland, Australia, The United Kingdom and of course the United States.  I even have some that my husband printed on his 3D printer. 

I did make a choice to remove about a dozen stitch markers in a style that I do not like and will pass them along to other knitters.  I also found one that is in need of repair. One that is broken beyond repair that will go into the trash.  

As I consolidate my knitting and notions bags I am sure that a lot more stitch markers will make their way into my jar. I always switch out the stitch markers so that they all get used.  Here is the best picture that I could take today.  Unfortunately I have so many that they could not be photographed individually.  

Stitch Markers

 I know I have a really bad stitch marker addiction. I have stitch markers all over the house and in multiple knitting bags.  So tomorrow I will buy a small cookie jar to stash them in. I will not include the ones I make for gifts and the ones people want duplicates of some that I can not part with.  Yes, I make more stitch markers when the mood hits. 

Day 2 post surgery I was still tired and spent most of the day sleeping.  I added a little bit of cleaning while I was sitting down.  A little bit of knitting, yes I fell asleep in my chair while knitting.  I did not do any damage to the glove I was working on. I still have big rings under my eyes too.  Just think next week I get to do this all over again.  

The Downside

 There is a downside to almost everything.  Take cataract surgery for instance. We all know the upside, better vision, possibly no more glasses, the ability to read printed books easier with cheaters in some cases.  Being able to read smaller print again. The list goes on and on.  

What they don’t tell you is that what you though was light brown hair with a touch of gray is actually very gray hair with almost no brown hair left. That the walls that looked perfectly cleaned are really a few hour scrubbing job to get them to what you saw before the surgery.  Which will have to wait until I recover from surgery. Dust bunnies that were too small to see before are now very much in need a chasing. 

The downside of stress cleaning is misplacing things. Take my clips that I hold seams together with when seaming found in a hat knitting bag. The U.S. size 8 by 16 inch knitting needles that I needed to do the increase for the hat at the top of that same knitting bag actually had a hat that was 2 inches away from the crown decreases. That is just a snap shot of the things going on around me. 

The superwash wool from a major yarn manufacturer that Felted resulting in 3 relatively new gloves being given one final wash before going into dog pillows   I am in the process of knitting the replacement pairs.. I am at 1 pair complete. One pair in progress. One pair that I will stash dive to find some yarn. 

I hope you experience more of the upside of life. 

A Knitting Hack

 My next pair of Maxi Fingerless Gloves are almost finished. I am sewing the final seam. You will notice that my seam clips are missing. Yes, I reorganized everything and forgot where I put them. However these movable stitch markers placed in strategic places long the seam work just as well. I have one gloves finished and just the thumb to seam. 

I will have nice new gloves to keep my hands warm tomorrow.  Of course the leftover yarn scraps will go to fill dog pillows.  

Knitting Humor

 The second Maxi Fingerless Glove has been finished except for seaming. I have cast on the first glove of the pair. I always try to finish the second one first because it is so easy to forget to knit the second of anything. The yarn is from Merino Y Vino.  

 The yarn for the second pair arrived today so I can start the next pair very quickly. I also got yarn for a matching shawl too.  This came from Gingersnap Yarn