I figured out why I was in pain and cranky. A lovely little tendonitis flare up in both hands and one ankle. The solution was simple. Both hand braces and an ankle brace. A lot of sleep. And I feel a little bit better. I will brace my hand’s again tonight.
I listed a whole bunch of weaving books on my Ravelry books for sale page. I might have just sold a few this evening. Wish me luck. Also more shelves of books to go through.
TTFN
This is progress at a snail’s pace. I started spinning this beautiful Masham dyed by Indigodragonfly before COVID19 when I was still teaching drop spinning. I found it during the organizing of spinning baskets. I decided it must be finished. I spun it on 5 different drop spindles of the same weight by 3 different spindle makers. Today I finally finished the first spin.
Now to get it off the spindles to ply the 5 skeins.
The spindles from left to right: 2 Foresters, 1 made by a midwestern maker, 2 Kurdants
This afternoon we went to a “juried” art show. It was interesting to see what was actually acceptable to the group. Since it was billed as a “Fine Arts Show” I personally expected something a little more upscale. About 50 percent were truly artistic and had really nice work. Really one of a kind pieces with thoughtful consideration in to what and how the items were made.
Then there was the “artist” who went to sip and paint workshops. I say this because they all have a certain style to them. A customer was trying to get his motivation behind the paintings. They reply of it just came to me did not quite cut it with the potential buyer. The potential buyer started asking more in depth questions. The “artist” was out of his depth and could only come up with it came to me. In my humble opinion this did not reflect well on anyone. There is always a plan for a project. A note on a scrap of paper. A crude drawing. A photograph. A note on the phone. Colors that are calling to you. Unless of course you just like throwing buckets of paint on a very large canvas and call it modern art.
Then there were the jewelry “designers” who bought partially pre made beads and added an earring fish hook. I find it amazing that someone can do so little work and call it original. Spend maybe fifty cents on parts and sell it for $45.00 or more. I guess it’s what the market will bare. This takes away from the actual jewelry artist who hand craft each piece..often working for less per hour, but making beautiful one of a kind pieces.
On the way out I over heard a buyer telling her shopping companion that she did not particularly need more jewelry. Was not that fond of the piece. Here comes the, But the artist was nice and needed the money. I will just give it away later. No one has to know. Really. I just don’t know what to say
I find it amazing what a group will do to fill its coffers. To string people along both the artists and the buyers. They have to do better.
On the bright side it was a nice day to walk around an outdoor mall.
We got out today. We headed down to the Kino Sports Complex for a Tucson Gem and Mineral event. I did get 2 shorter silver chains for 2 pieces that John got for me on our last vacation. I also found a little mounted stone to make into a stitch marker.
What I did not find were any great deals like in the past. Charms that used to go for 5 or 10 dollars a scoop of about 20 were at the low end $1.00 a piece today. Thank you big oil for raising the shipping costs, thus the overall cost of everything.
We found a new out door lunch spot. Seis on River Road off of Campbell. They had a salad called a Rustic. I then added some squash and chicken. I of course left off the salad dressing. I could eat that salad a few times a week.
*Edited to correct the restaurants name
I am trying something different to try to change my perspective on life. I bought a journal today at Target, actually 2. I just could not decide which I liked better. My goal before bed is to write down something positive that happened on that day. I got the first entry in. No, I will not be sharing most of them.
I have got to climb out of my COVID19 burn out. I have got to work my way safely out of isolation. Maybe with an outdoor knitting or spinning group. Unless the looms are smaller, it might be hard for outdoor weaving. Even the smallest looms can be awkward to carry around. Maybe just going to the park to knit or spin with a drop spindle might be in order.
I am working on getting healthier and more active. To be totally honest I don’t make my walking goal every day. I came really close today, even adding a loop around Target before shopping today. Although I did skip my favorite Starbucks tea and replaced it with a tangerine and cashews. They are about the same number of calories, but nutritionally the tangerine and cashews were a better choice. No processed foods of any kind involved. Everything in my life is about baby steps right now.
Has anyone else ever noticed that when clothing goes on sale they always have many more options in the size you are not looking for? Yes, it was shopping for smaller size pants today. So far it has seemed to hold that for every 5 percent weight loss from my original weight, I go down 1 pant size. At least tops and dresses are much more flexible in sizes, so they get replaced less often. Usually after about a 10% loss.
I guess I expected something a little different when I hit the 20% weight loss. I was really not envisioning trudging through 2 different malls across town from each other trying on loads of pants and only coming home with 3 new pairs. Which means that I will be wearing more of my dresses and washing dark dress clothes more often. In addition to being tired, sore and hungry.
Let’s me explain the hungry part. I no longer eat fast food. That leaves out the mall food court. In addition to that, I still do not eat indoors. I always wear my mask inside. I have yet to figure out a system where I can eat with my mask on. So it was a quick packet of peanut butter and ice water in the car before I went shopping for dinner. Yes, I keep a few packets of peanut butter in my purse for things like today. Then it was home for a very late lunch.
Tomorrow is almost here so TTFN.
If you want to know my origins of TTFN you will just have to read When WeWere Very Young by A.A. Milne. A Fun fact. On January 1, 2022 the original Winnie-the-Pooh series entered Public Domain. Although Disney still holds rights to its versions of Winnie-the-Pooh.
This week I hit a milestone stone in my weight loss journey. Since January of 2022 I have lost 20 percent of my total body weight. My reward is going out to buy smaller pants. I have also eliminated a lot of medication and cut the amount in half for 2 others.
They say the first 20 percent is the easiest. I still have more work to do. Let’s see where I am next January.
I am following the book “A Pound of Cure” available on Amazon. I will not get a commission on any books sold. I just like the theory behind the lifestyle changes. Please consult your medical professional if you want to follow this program. Not every program is right for everyone.
TTFN
The Award for Lack Luster Quality Control in a Mid Range yarn goes to Cascades Yarns, Eco Cloud. For a mid range yarn going for $14.95 a skein when I bought it. I give this award in the spirit of everyone gets awards for everything now a days.
Please note the store I bought it from is no longer in business.
With a 75% failure rate. I bought 4 skeins for a shawl. Only 1 skein had no breakage. It was stored in a plastic tub. There are no pets in my home.
Let’s be clear about something up front. The yarn industry standards allow for up to 5 knots per skein. I only had 1 knot in the 4 skeins. Which is very good. It exceeds industry standards. I am not sure of the industry standard for the number of loose strands of yarn allowed per skein. I will have to look that up someday when I am not so frustrated. In my small sample it ranged from zero to 4. As seen in the picture below.
This yarn gave my squirrel cage a hard time today. I have never seen yarn knot in the middle with my squirrel cage. I have never seen so many loose ends in a single project worth of yarn. There should have been a total of 8 ends, instead ther were 26. Yikes. That averages out to 3 separate pieces per skein. I even had pieces of yarn fall to the floor. I sure hope it knits better than it caked up.
I will spend a lot of time doing European joins so that I have less ends to weave in.
Please be aware that this is my opinion of the yarn. I bought the yarn because it’s so soft and natural. If you have had a better experience with Cascades Yarns, Echo Clouds please be sure to tell them.
After a busy day of organizing yet again. Some day I will finally be organized, I hope. Then listing things no longer needed on eBay, Raverly, Facebook and Instagram. Then selling and packing the boat shuttles that I just listed. It was time to listen to a book and knit. I am currently listening to Glass Houses by Louise Penny. I am not listening to the books in order from the library, I just get them when I can. They are very good books. There is also a Television series on Amazon Prime called Three Pines which I highly recommend.
You know if you have been reading my blog for a while that I am obsessed with knitting The Stash Dive Scarf by Summer Lee Designs. So I have mid sized basket of smaller skeins and bits. Single skeins too. Since I am using 2 strands of yarn I am making the newest one as colorful as possible by blending colors. Letting one yarn go through several smaller colors. The central portion of the scarf will be longer color ways. The ends will be very colorful to say the least. This is from the last 2 days of knitting. I think I am going to break it down into 2, 24 inch segments at the beginning and end with the center section being 26 inches. These are more or less measurements depending on the yarn in my basket.
I have been knitting for 3 days now. Not more than an hour a day. Just what am I going to do with the other 23 hours? Just kidding, I am starting more projects around the house that have been neglected. I am using U.S. size 11 knitting needles to make it easier on my hand. I have some fabulously soft 100% cotton yarn that I am using. This is the start of my holiday knitting for charity this year. Yes, I knit all year long to make sure as many kids as possible get gifts.
As you can see I am working on a broken rib pattern. This is one of my favorites to knit. It takes a little counting so it is not boring. If you would like to knit along with me, just cast on in multiples of 4 plus 1 extra stitch at the end of the row. Then it’s knit 2 Purl 2 across the row ending with a knit 1. Repeat this row until you have the desired length or run out of yarn if length is not that important. Cast off in the pattern for a nicer looking finished piece. Use the knitting needle sized for your yarn. If you are a loose knitter go down one needle size. If you are a tight knitter go up one needle size.
If you knit this scarf for Operation Gratitude it should be 4 to 6 inches wide and be 48 to 50 inches long. It should be made of nice washable yarn. If you do use super wash wool, please label its wool content. Also include a small card say that you made this for them and appreciate their service. You can get the mailing address off the web.
Yes this is really 3 days of knitting for me. I am starting off really slow. Really, really slowly. It should take about 7 to 10 days to finish. I am using knitting as part of my physical therapy for my hand. This scarf is going to the Flowing Wells SD Clothing Bank.
Do to yesterday’s over use of my right hand it was a rest day. It was also very cold by Tucson standards so we decided not to go out to lunch in 50f weather. We still only do outdoor dining and I thought it was a little too cold, even with a heavy coat, mittens and a blanket for my lap. We did wait until it warmed up this afternoon to the mid 50’s to dash out and resupply my fresh fruit and vegetables. It’s supposed to be even colder tomorrow, with a chance of snow depending on where you live.
Even my small looms have not been warped. I was voted down 2 to 1 on starting a weaving project. Knitting will have to wait until I can hold a U.S. size 19 knitting needle in my right hand. Spinning is going very slowly.
Basically I am bored out of my mind and in pain. Not a very good combination. I am trying to keep an even keel, but I don’t think that I am succeeding in the effort.
TTFN
I over did my hand before lunch. I guess I am not up to hanging a full to the top load of wet laundry. Nothing else got done today.
My recovery from this latest round of hand surgery is right on schedule. It is always slower than I want. I am doing the usual post surgery hand therapy several times a day. Now that the stitches have healed, I am also working on minimizing the scar tissue.
I am at the stage where I have big plans for the day. These plans go as scheduled until my hand gets tired, sore or both. That usually means stopping progress dead in its tracks for a rest until my hand feels better. John and I used team work to make an awesome turkey chili for dinner. I love how the onion is cut in perfect squares. He is also on opening cans and bottles right now. The best part is we only made 1/2 a pot so it’s a 2 night meal.
I also managed to wash and fold almost 2 loads of laundry and get it put away. I say almost because I ran out of bend in my hand to finish folding the socks. I put off load 3 until tomorrow.
Tomorrow I plan on warping the loom before every chore but starting laundry. If I wait until I finish my chores, my hand is too tired for precision work. That way if my hand is too tired to spin, I can always weave while watching television.
My hatchback and back seat are loaded with fiber and yarn to give away tomorrow at knitting guild. There is not any room to put anything else but my purse and drop spinning for tomorrow. Everyone knows that it is coming. It seems to me I go through this cycle a lot. Like every time I have hand surgery. Yes, I seem to have a lot of hand surgery. I seem to get more realistic as to what my hands will be able to to. Thank goodness I did not choose Pottery. So I send it off to people who will enjoy it.
The antibiotic is really kicking me in the behind really well. Instead of warping my loom I rested most of the day. Since my Thursday has been rearranged I guess I will try then.
TTFN
The stitches came out today. My hand is still sore. No schedule date for the next finger. No knitting for a while yet. So tomorrow I will warp a loom with a 12 dent heddle. Take some Cascade lace weight yarn and weave myself a shawl. I have a truly awesome idea in my head. It will be a one of a kind creation.
I also listed several books and magazines on Ravelry for sale in the Destash and ISO Library group. I will add more. All books are 1/2 the retail price plus postage. Other things will be added when I take their pictures.
The day did not going according to my plan. I got up early to go to an out doors artist market and museum activity. By the time I was finished with breakfast, it was raining. So on to plan B. I went through my fiber closet and decided want I no longer wanted to spin. This will be divided between two friends. The extra empty bags will go to the knitting guild.
Well one thing lead to another and I decided to go through the rest of my inside yarn stash. The net result is more craft bags leaving the house for other people to knit charity projects. One empty 36 quart tub. I also managed to get both larger suitcases in the cleaned out spot. The smaller one is stashed in the larger one and tucked into the corner of my closet. This took one thing off John’s to do list.
Did I mention the best part yet? I guess not. I will be having a stash down sale in different areas of Ravelry. There will be books, weaving shuttles, 2 Turkish drop spindles, knitting kits and yarn. Most will be priced to sell fast. These are things not suitable for Bookman’s or Goodwill. I hope to start listing things tomorrow. My excuse for today is the antibiotic wiped me out. After this morning’s cleaning spree and lunch I took a nap.
I had the energy to do a mini cleaning spree this afternoon. So I can say 4 storage tubs are gone. Well actually 3. One dropped and cracked and since it had no recycling number on it we threw it away. So I guess it is actually 4. I have 2 more bags of quilting material, mostly kids fabric going to a friend who works with 3 different church quilting for charity groups. Spinning fiber going to 2 friends. Yarn going to a bunch of people. Also 2 more boxes are ready to go to Goodwill.
It feels good to share. I want to get my projects down to a reasonable level. The arthritis in my hands is not getting better. So I will make the transition to work on only things that I want to do. Yes, I will still knit charity hats and scarfs because they bring me joy. I get to create pretty things and send them into the world. What could be more joyous than that?
I found a tub of yarn for my charity scarf project too. Knitting will have to wait a bit longer though. The stitches got infected. I did go to the doctor and have to take antibiotics until the bottle is gone. We caught it early before much harm was done. My hand is a little more sore this afternoon.
I am also going to de stash 2 more spindles. These are pretty Turkish spindles in layered wood. They are going to be looking for a new home too. They have been lightly used. They are pretty and spin well. They just don’t fit in to my herd anymore. I just have to figure out where to sell them and determine the price.
I still have stitches in my right hand, in a very awkward place. So if I forget and use my right hand I have quite the opposite of instant gratification. Things like opening doors are really designed for right handed use. Things like brushing my teeth, I find that I tend to miss different spots unless I am very careful.
Since I use both hands interchangeably this is usually not a problem. I do notice that I am breaking more fingernails than usual on my left hand. I still can’t try knitting until the stitches are out. That is until round two this time. So spinning it is for now.
It is not a good thing that I have a small 3D printed Turkish spindle in a “me time” bag hanging from my purse. I have one project on my knitting room table. I have a full basket of half done projects for television watching time. I think I am just as bad with spindles as I am with knitting needles. This means too many projects going on at once. I have managed to complete 3 spindles up until the point of needing to ply them. This is a plus. I also have one less spinning basket. I put yarn for a knit along that starts this Saturday, what was I thinking? I will try to use my very limited daily spinning time to get as many done as possible. This means that more spindles will be leaving the herd soon. I will not be able to ply, wash or thwack them until the stitches come out.
*TTFN.
I think the hand surgery went well on Friday. The compression bandage came off today. I also started spinning old school today because I cannot knit until the stitches come out. I will just keep filling spindles until the stitches come out. I cannot ply or do much housework yet, but I can play and read.
I have set up a basket to hold all the filled spindles until I can ply.
Today was definitely a spinning day for me. By the numbers. One bobbin skeined, washed and thwacked. One very heavy bottom whorl spindles project was finished. I could not spin more than 6 inches before it stopped spinning or the weight was too much for the yarn. I need to research this type of spindle more. By the way the yarn was skeined, washed and thwacked. One skein of cashmere was plyed, skeined, washed and thwacked.
This evening I went on a spinning basket hunt. I found 5. Yes 5 spinning baskets. One small basket was left with a project and multiple spindles. The other four baskets were brought to the den to empty and sort out. I landed up with 2 empty baskets. Then I went on a hunt for sampler roving and batts. I found 4 bags which were all put into a bigger empty basket. My plan for this fiber is to pull out different colors that will go together and make one of a kind skeins of yarn. My first one is yellow, pink and green. I should be amazing. The fiber that is not spin able will go to do pillows. Life is to short to spin crappy fiber. I also landed up with 4 more empty bags.
I also did more spinning to night. I have just a little more fiber to add to this before I ply it, skein it, wash it and thwack it
The empty project bags better be careful or I might just fill them up with yarn and send them to new homes. I am not kidding about this.
The picture below is the heaviest of my drop spindles. I mentioned it in the first paragraph. If you know anything about the maker or spinning on a spindle like this let me know.
