13

It' been a long day, but hat 13 is done.

12

Hat number 12.

11

A very long day. Our first rain of the summer was last night. A nice lighting storm. I finished hat 11 today.

10

The 10th hat of the month. Also a lot of sewing.

Cleaning

I spent most of the day cleaning. I did a little deep cleaning too. When I was too tired to do anything else I srarted sewing pillows for Eric. I have 2 out of the 5 that the program requested. To try to deter pillow theft this time in red permanent marker I wrote "Stolen from Eric K" on the pillows in spots where they can not be covered up. They only question remaining is how fast they will be stolen from Eric this time? On the knitting front I finshed hats 8 &9. Hats 10 & 11 are now cast on.

Record Breaking Heat

Today we broke a heat record set when my dad was a kid. It was 111f. I also caught up on sleep. Because of the heat I picked Eric up early from his program. We watched the movie Home, which Eric wants to watch again. i finished spinning one roving from www.intothewhirled.com and started the second one of the same color way.

After 2 hours of spinning, it was time to finish another hand knit hat. So far this month I have finished 7 hats with a goal of 31. Making one hand knit hat every day in July. This will accomplish 3 things. First making a small dent in my odd balls of yarn. Second making me happy and productive. Last but not least it will give 31 kids who would not have warm hats next wimter a warm hat. If I excede my goal it would be very nice, but I need to get to 31 first. As usual I have one cotton and one wool hat on the needles.

I Took Time Off Today

This last flare up just won't go away. So I took some extra rest time today. I spent the morning after dropping Eric off at his program with my feet up finishing hat number 4 for the month. I then cast on another cotton hat, so the knitting needles would not get lonely.

I did do a few chores but skipped the laundry because it was well over 100f by 10:30am. After lunch I started readimg a new book until I fell asleep. I woke up just intime to pick up Eric. I got my Tour de Fleece spinning in while we caught up on yesterdays concerts and fire works.

John was wonderful and brought home dinner. After dinner I finished hat number 5 for the month and cast on another wool hat. I am rather happy that i am knitting so many hats, but I swear the next person who was born in the snow belt that says "it's not cold enough for winter clothes in Arizona will be sent home at the first sign of snow..

Tour de Fleece 2017

My first spin of this years Tour de Fleece was 8 ounces of Superwash BFL dyed by Into The Whriled in 2012. I love the roving that they dye, so here is the link, www.intothewhirled.com. Yes i am stash busting for this years Tour de Fleece. I was trying to spin a fractial, I did not quite make it. Since it took almost an hour to skein and photograph, I am counting it towards the first 3 days os spinning.

Tinking

I have decided that it is a little bit more than silly to need a charity hat and a size one knitting needle. So I will be tinking the hat can and then use is in the Yarn double stranded in another charity hat.

Hats

In June I knit 17 hats for charity.

In The Blender

Eric had a rough night last night and I don't even remember what time that I got him settled down for the night.  All I know is that 6 am came much too quickly. Eric's bad night lasted for most of the day. So,Eric skipped his day program and helped me sort the double pointed knitting needles by size. I now can say that I know where most of my double pointed knitting needles are. I think that I can lose quite a few before I have to run out and buy replacements. Of course there is still the odd one floating around the house and a set with each hat knitting bag. I keep one bag for knitting animal fiber hats and one bag for plant based fiber hats. The are no bags for petroleum based fiber hats, as I feel that no one should be forced to wear clothing made from a non-renewable resource.

I think that I will be putting all my knitting accessories in one spot too. I have not decided what I will put all the accessories in yet. That and single pointed straight knitting needles will be done on Friday. I find it kinda of odd that after over 30 years of marriage that I am finally starting to understand my engineer's mind for organization and that sometimes less is more.

I usually do not run the washer and dryer after 100f, but I got a late start at  laundry today. Even though I was finished with the laundry by 10:30 am it was over 100f already. It did feel on the cooler side today at lunch time it felt a bit chilly at 105f with a light breeze after last weeks 115f and 116f days.

I also found time to start knitting a new wool hat tonight and am halfway through with it. I think that is is time to go do some reading.

Circular Knitting Needles

Today I started organizing my knitting needles starting with the circular needles. I had the knitting needles in 3 different areas. Hopefully having them in one spot will make things easier to find the right knitting needle when I need one for a project. They are also off my closet floor. The needles, are sorted from U.S. size 0 to size 50. They are also in a container that will not allow them to fall on the floor.  I really like the idea of my knitting needles not falling on the floor. Of course this does not include the knitting needles on projects. I must have a lot of projects on sizes, 6, 7, 8 and 11's.  Tomorrow I will work on the double point needles. I will save the straight knitting needles for Friday. As you can tell my deep cleaning has slowed down quite a bit, but I am down to the knitty gritty of the job so things are going much slower pace. 

I also managed to finish knitting 2 hats and casting another cotton hat on. I like to keep a cotton hat for knitting on the go and a wool hat to knit at home. I still need to cast on a wool hat. At a year post hand surgery I am still limited by my hands in how long I can knit each day, but at least I can knit again. 

107f

I have lost count of the days it has been over 105f in a row so far this summer. Yet I know that winter is coming and the knitting of children's hats and scarfs is on going, besides they don't sit in my lap as I knit.

I am really enjoying having a huge washing machine. I can wash most of Eric's clothes every other night as it has been too hot to run the machine during the day.

Still Hot at 116f

We are deep into a summer weather advisory here in Tucson, this just means that it will be over 110f. It also usually means that afternoon flights will be canceled in Phoenix and Tucson. I personally love this summer weather, but Eric on the other hand can not handle the heat. So he is going to program in the morning when it is still relatively cool like the 93f  drive time temperature today. By lunchtime when I pick him up it was 109f, a very warm temperature for Eric. When we got home we sat under the ceiling fan until I was cold.

As with yesterday I spent my time preparing fiber and knitting while we watched PBS kids all afternoon. As of now it is back down to 109f at dinner time. It is trying really hard to rain but I don't think we have enough humidity yet. A best we might get some lighting and thunder. By bedtime it will be cool enough to run the washer and dryer.

On a different note, this issue always seems to be coming around and just will not go away. I know that there are a whole lot of groups that like hand knit items to give away for their charity projects. They want a certain yarn or pattern used.  I think that this is a kind and wonderful jester. However, and this is a big however, I knit what I want in the fibers that I want. The Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank gets the bulk of my knitting, John and I are fine with this. I take care of children in my own community. Their students like my very colorful hats and scarfs, made with cotton, wool, nylon and alpaca.  I know that people that live in the snow belt will not agree that around 70f is cold enough to warrant giving the children winter clothing. Did I mention that it was 116f today? I do think that a 46 degree drop in temperature is enough to warrant the use of winter clothing. So as John put it so nicely at dinner tonight, "Knit what you want to knit, unless it is a paying job. Then they can have what they pay for," So before you badger me to knit for your group, please remember that I already have a group that I knit for.

What To Do When It's 115f Outside

Hats are my favorite thing to knit in summer. They are small . They don't sit on my lap. They are like M&M's, I just can't knit one. My goal was to knit a hat a day for the whole summer. Right now I am only knitting 5 hats per week. A little short of my goal. You do know that winter is coming and I won't look so silly then.

Life

It has been a bit on the busy side here. I also have a post elbow flare up. So I am trying to keep up. I might just hit brake even this week instead of being 3 steps behind. With record breaking heat expected here this week I will get my chores done early and knit the rest of the day.

Knitting Needles

After changing out the knitting needles for the fourth time today, I got some smooth and quick knitting on a project that has been driving me nuts for months. I landed up using a retro pair of mismatched needles from the 1960's that were passed down to me. I thought that I would never use such ugly aluminum knitting needles, but they did the trick.

I also have to find some fine sandpaper to repair one pair of needles that were ruined by using them to knit silk with. I have learned not to knit silk on wooden knitting needles. I guess the right needles for each yarn is very important.

Need Sleep

Eric had a bad night last night and I did not get much sleep last night. Then Eric thew an hour and a half hissy fit because I would not take him to his day program today, which was closed for the holiday. I really need to sleep tonight, so I am praying that Eric sleeps tonight. Good night all.

A Slow Day

The house painting was finished today. I also finished knitting 2 hats. I am not sure why i am so tired.

Putting the Pad Down

Today I did not feel like cold leftovers. Still not up to going out though. So I decided to put my pad down and see how many UFO's that I could finish. It started off well until I found some very pretty yarn that was saying you must drop everything and play with me. So I now have one more UFO. I will see what I can finish tonight.

I also went on a drop spindle hunt tonight. I have decided to thin the herd. So I will be spinning on almost all of my drop spindles in the next week or so to see which are staying and which are leaving. Just so you know in advance none of the Forresters, Bosworths or Goldings will be leaving the herd. I have to draw the line somewhere. After that is finished i will start on the knitting needles.

Round 2

My elbow did not finish healing after the first round of medicine. So tonight I started the next 10 day course of medicine. This means that i will not have earth shattering strength for the next 10 days. This is to read that I will be mostly resting on the couch or napping. The side effects of the medicine have already kicked in.

Since Eric has no program for most of the next 10 days I think what we are going to be hanging around the house. Maybe Eric will be supervising naps.

Mostly Sleeping

I am still on the antibotic for the infection. My elbow looks better, although I am sleeping a lot. Not a lot is getting done around here but sleeping. We have delay our Mothers Day for 1 week. This gives us the advantage of me feeling better and the University of Arizona graduation hoopla will be done.

Have a grat week everyone.

Feeling Yucky

Things have slowed down here. I landed up getting sick. The doctor got me in earlier today and I am finished with day one of the meds. Only 9 days to go. I hope that I don't get hopelessly behind, as I was really starting to catch up.

May the 4th Be With You

As I write this post the ultimate sci-fi fan day is about to come to an end. I am still up with the end of a migraine and waiting for Eric's numbers to stabilize. Crashing at night seems to be the new norm around here.

We are also celebrating Ice Break Day here in Tucson. It is the 1st 100 degree day of the year and the ice has finally broken on the Rillito River. It is time to get that fishing gear out. It is time to going fishing for the legendary Sand Trout that inhabit the mostly bone dry river bed of the Rillito River. Although I have to say this is a strange beginning to summer as it is expected to snow at the higher elevations here at the beginning of next week. They are also still skiing at the Flagstaff Snow bowl. Global warming sure makes the weather really weird.

I will post a spinning wheel for sale this weekend. Look for it on FaceBook and possibly Ravelry. Other goodies might be listed also. 

Music and More

Eric wanted more music in his room. So I spent 35 minutes today cleaning up Eric's dresser and chasing down electrical cords. I landed up with an extra power cord and a charger for a phone brand that we don't even own. I don't even know who left it here.  The remote control needs a new battery, but John will take care of that tomorrow. Eric spent the rest of the day listening to music, with the base to high. I guess he does not like most of whats on TV this season. 

I also found another box of crafts that had been in the garage. In it I found my favorite knitting bag, 2 unfinished knitting projects with no patterns. I think that I can finish without the pattern, the other one not so much, it might just be tinking* time. I also found more fabric to make Eric some more blankets, not that he needs anymore blankets at the moment.  One bag full of yarn, I took what I wanted and will bring the rest to knitting next week. 

I have also decided that I have too many big project bags. So I sorted through a pile of them. It looks like after the first cut 20% of the will leave the house on Friday. I also have too many yarn storage bags and a few of those will leave the house tomorrow. The deep cleaning is still on going, but at a better pace for my body. 

*Tinking  is Knitting spelled in a somewhat backward state. 

I Really Said This

This morning I can't believe I used the line, "but my daughter is a lawyer" when someone got a little too "I am feeling sorry for you because your son is in an adult day program. I am very lucky that Eric is in an adult day program. There is a nationwide shortage of adult day program slots across the country.  I am very lucky that my local JCC cared enough about our family to create an adult day care program that Eric can go to and hang out with his friends.

Now I want everyone to know that I Love my children equally and am very blessed to have both of them in my life. They have each taken me down a different path in life. They have both taught me about life in their own way. I am very grateful that they let me come along for the ride.

It has not always been an easy path. I feel that at times I was not the best at my job of mom. I might not have given it my all to both Teri and Eric all the time. We manage to muddle through it somehow. We are a close tight family so I know that I did somethings right.

So I would like to say, Thank You to Teri and Eric for giving me a chance to be your mom. I would also like to say Thank You, to John for joining me in this adventure.