Zenning and gifting

I was able to zen the house and gift all at the same time, awesome right!  I gave a younger mother of 4 my electric carder.  I gave her daughter a Spinning Wheel that mother and daughter can work on together. I know the Wheel is going to a good home and will be loved.  I also gave a few bags a fiber to go along with the carder and spinning wheel.  My daughter would not be surprised at my request as part of the young spinners commitment to the Spinning Wheel was to learn about the new to her Wheel and do a few minor repairs. This should help keep her busy over summer.

I got the benefit of 3/4 of an empty shelf in my craft room and more room in the garage.  The guys seem very happy too.   I got all this done despite my flare up and sleeping for 3 hours after dropping Eric and staff appreciation treats dropped off.  My gifts from Mothers Day. Well it is time to call it a night.

Project Number 101

Project 101 is a hat. The 16th hat I have knit this year. 14 of the hats have gone to my favorite charity project. Yes, the next hat has been cast on.

Eric has been giving me very little sleep.  I really hope that he sleeps tonight.  I am so tired that my skin hurts. So I close with a picture of project number 101.

My Watch

My watch started losing time today. It was behind a whole  half hour by pick up time today.  So I did some research tonight. I learned that crystal quartz watches need a near constant temperature to function properly. The human  wrist is almost perfect. There was a cool equation on Wikipedia that I understood most of it, yes I am just as shocked as you.  So I reset my watch and put it on. It has not lost time since I put it on.  

I think I will have to add back one on the links that I took off 11 years ago when I got the watch or just get a new band. I think I keep taking it off because my wrist is a bit larger than it was 11 years ago.  Imagine  that. 

Apparently my watch needs more Sheri time to.  I think I need a sign up list for who needs my time.  

What to Do With Lace Weight Yarn

For those of you who know me well, you know that after 20 years of knitting I still don’t have time to knit lace or socks. This should read that I usually need mindless knitting.  So I decided to ply my lace and sock weights yarns into yarn for charity hats. 

An elegant solution to having too much lace weight yarn.  I took 2 skeins of lace weight yarn and did the 1st spin in an S ply. It was still to thin to knit hats with. So I wound the yarn into a cake and Z plied from both the inside and outside together. Tomorrow I will skein it and give it a hot bath to set the twist then track and hang dry. Below is a nicely balanced 4 ply yarn. The sock yarn will only need to be plied once. 

Normally I do my plying on my Louet S15, but in this case I used my Louet Victoria for the second round of plying because it was easier on my right leg.  The S15 is a single treadle Wheel, while the Victoria is a double treadle Wheel.

Project 100

Another charity hat.  Project 100.  Off to do more knitting.

Projects 75 to 99

The next 15 projects include 12 hats and 3 scarfs.  They all went to The Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank.  There are also 18 pairs of socks that I got from trade in credit at Bookman’s.

Timing

I think my timing is a little off lately. Take today for instance. I spent 3 hours this morning typing up a new pattern and getting it posted to 2 on-line shopping sites. I really thought my timing was excellent with Saturday being National Support your Local Yarn Store Day. My feeling was this would be a great time to post a pattern so people could go and buy the yarn and purchase the pattern.

Not so much. It turns out that the large yarn companies are sponsoring trunk shows across the country and giving away Free Patterns with a yarn purchase. If this is not a head desk moment than I really don't know what qualifies.

I have tried the free route before. It does not work for me, wait for it...I am not a large yarn company that can recoup the free pattern cost by selling the yarn. Even worse when a pattern is given as a small promo, everyone ignores the copyright and makes zillions of copies to give to their friends who were not part of the promo. Thus leaving a whole city of knitters who don't need to buy the pattern. With comments such as if you enjoy what you are doing why should we pay you? Or better yet, it's not like you are doing real work and you owe it to the knitters of the community. I am pretty sure that these are the people who copy patterns and don't pay the designers for their work.

Please remember that small independent pattern designers, who self publish must buy their own yarn to knit the design that pops up in our heads. So for a small item like a washcloth, 2 patterns must be sold to just cover the cost of the yarn. The costs only go up from there. Today's pattern will require 6 patterns being sold just to cover the cost of the yarn. Then there is design time, knitting the sample to see if what is in my head works out. Then and additional 3 to 4 hours to photograph, type the pattern and get it published.

So if you are looking for a moms day, fathers day ( yes, men do knit ) birthday or holiday gift for a knitter please consider this pattern,  2 of 3 A Shawl Study and a skein of yarn to go with it. Thank you and happy knitting.

Old Hands

I think my hands are getting old. After only 4 hours of knitting they are very tired and don’t want to do anything else for the day.  I am not sure how to build my hand stamina up to be able to knit for 8 or more hours per day again. Does anyone have any suggestions?  

Spoiler Alert

This is a spoiler alert for Game of Thrones.  The season 8 episode 1 is so good that it makes knitting and spinning impossible.  What? You were expecting me to give plot information. No way.  Watch it for yourselves.

I have been busy trying to put store throat and it’s aftermath behind me.  I have not caught up yet.  I still have a few patterns to type up and take pictures of. I also have a few designs in the process, yes I am taking good notes.

I am also getting a lot of Spinning and art yarn spinning done.  I am trying for a couple of skeins a week until my fiber stash is smaller.  So if you need art yarn for a project be sure to check out Grandmas Spinning Wheel in Tucson for some very 1 of a kind skeins.

I have a slew of knitting that needs the rows counted and added to Raverly too.

Well it’s time to call it a day.

Projects 68 to 74

Here are the next 7 finished projects.  All are hand spun yarn. 4 are art yarn. All are going to Grandmas Spinning Wheel in Tucson on Friday. They are all one of a kind skeins of yarn. They will be in the hand spun yarn by local Tucson Fiber Artists section of the shop. All will be priced $34.00 or less.

Projects 37 to 67

You will notice that you only see 28 items, not 30. The simple explanation is that 2 pair of earrings are hiding in my bedroom.  I just loved 2 of the pairs of earrings so much that I could not part with them. These are all for the Taglit fundraiser tomorrow morning at the Tucson JCC At Alvernon and Dodge. From 8 am until noon.  Please come out and support Eric and his friends.   Thank You.  

Friday’s Fundraiser

I did not have the energy to do errands today. So after my eye doctor appointment I came home and made a lot of earrings for the Friday morning fundraiser for Eric’s day program.  I only have 5 more pairs to make for my promised 2 dozen.  Let’s just say I really prefer more than 2 weeks notice for making things for fundraisers.

Also since I can’t  commit to a full day Friday, the fundraiser will end around lunchtime.  All my earrings will be priced at $5.00 and the bracelets at $10.00.  This will be a good time to pick up something for mom and help a good cause.

The fundraiser will be at the Tucson JCC at the corner of Alvernon and Dodge.  That is unless you come in on the back side and use River Road. There is not a hard start time, but around 8:00 am to noon.

Also Eric and his friends made some great greeting cards and other art projects to sell. So please try to stop by and make it a sell out.  Usually the money goes to scholarships and supplies.

As usual 100% of the sale price for my jewelry will go to the day program.  Also if you have any tabs for Eric’s charity project they can be dropped off too.

Feeling Better

After sleeping most of the day, I am happy to report that I am feeling better.  I will still try to keep things on the light side though. So this afternoon I designed 4 pairs of earrings, 1 of which I am keeping.  I plied 3 skeins of art yarn.  To top the night off I started knitting a new hat.  I expected that my creative energy will be all over the place for at least a few days.  I really can’t wait to see what happens.

25 to 36

A dozen new bibs for Eric. He likes them very much.  They don’t have the been washed over 100 times feel.  They are still nice, fluffy and  very soft. The pattern was published in 2010 under key word bib.

Bad at Posting

I have been very bad at posting pictures. I have not posted since project number 24. Since then there have been almost another 24 projects completed. I will try to post some pictures later.

I am still sick, although feeling better. I have knit 2 hats in 2 days. Pictures later.

Wher Did March Go?

I am ending the Month of March sick and resting.  I don’t know where the month has gone. There has been a lot of knitting and spinning. A dozen new bibs for Eric. By the way he loves them all. They have the soft not washed a hundred times feel.

What I have not accomplished is writing the 2 new knitting patterns.  The finished items are folded on the table in need of blocking.  Taking photos of the new patterns.  So my goal for April is to get 2 patterns self published.  Finish knitting 2 more shawl patterns and completing the process. To get that done I will stop writing and go to sleep.

A New Design

The new design with Mary Gavin’s yarn is coming out better than expected.  Only 10 zillion rows to knit, just kidding only about 300 rows to go.  youcan ask for her Measyarn at your local yarn shop or go to MartGavinYarns.com.

No Carpe Deim

Not all days are a Carpe Diem kind of day around here. Some days my standards are very low as long as everyone is alive at the end of the day and the laundry is not above knee level, I will call it a win.

I did get some Spinning done. This is going to be plied as an art yarn.  Pictures will follow when finished.

I did barely manage to get my 8,000 steps today.

I had a very enjoyable day. I went to the n4th Avenue Street Fair today. All my usual parking places were gone. I truly mean gone. The church parking lot is now a building under construction. My others were filled with vendor booths.  So I parked at the Tyndall garage at the University of Arizona and walked down hill to the street fair.  I did do a little shopping but skipped the street fair food.  I picked out a few things for my birthday while I was there.

It was a very good step day with over 10 thousand steps.  Just before bed my body decided what it thought of all the days activities. Let me tell you that it hates me at this moment.  I am hopeful that a good nights sleep will fix everything.

Failed Parenting

Eric has not slept for the last 2 nights. In my extreme tiredness I decided that Eric would not get his afternoon television time. So instead he came in the sewing room with me. I am in the middle of making a dozen new bibs so we can retire the worn looking ones.  

It did not occur to me until his afternoon aide came that it looked to her like he was getting a special treat.  Extra time with me and brand new bibs to boot. This is an epic parenting failure.

In my defense I did try to nap today, but every time I fell asleep the door bell rang.

Busy

Despite Eric wakings me up every 2 hours last night, I got a lot done around the house.  I did not finish the laundry and only did 2 loads.  Other chores were done instead

On the fiber side of my life Eric did help me start and finish 4 new bibs. I really don’t think he quite understood how many steps there are to making his bibs.  I only have 8 more to make and we can then retire some of the worn out bibs.  I cast on a new hat and got the first 1/2 inch of ribbing done. Only another 6 1/2 inches to go before the crown work.  I added another inch to the hand spun sherbet shawl on Raverly.   It was pointed out to me that I might just need to rewrite the pattern for a zourball. As not everyone can look at a basic pattern and just decide to use different yarn and needles and know it will come out.  Last but not least I got my Louet S15 out and started spinning some rolags from The Wooly Witch on Etsy. I am getting an nice fine spin.  Once plyed it should be a sport weight yarn. It has been on my to do list since the spring of 2017.   I am still on the first rolag.  See the yardage so far.