Walking More

Today I was able to walk 9,419 steps which is a bit under 4 miles for me. It is still easier to take long walks in 2 inch high heels. The bulk of the walking was done in 1, 35 minute walk this afternoon.  That covered 1.5 miles. Long gone are the days when that only took me 20 minuets  to cover the same distance. I hope that these numbers will get better.

Dismal

This week has been absolutely dismal. I can’t even estimate how far back this week has left me. I am exhausted and overwhelmed. I am ever the optimist however, so things can only get better from here. With that in mind I am turning in early and hope to get everything thing that should have been done this afternoon done in the morning.

The Boader

I am on round 3 of the broader on Teri’s blanket. The front looks so much better than the back. I still have to weave in all those ends. In other knitting news hat number 66 for the year was finished today. I am happy that I am on my way to hat 67 , which has already been cast on. 

12,751

12,751 is the current number of rows in Teri’s blanket. I will continue adding rows around the outside of the blanket until I achieve a balanced look or I run out of yarn.  As you can see by the crochet hook, the edging is being crocheted on. Then I will weave in all the ends.

Best Layed Plans

John and I had plans to get away for the weekend.  All I can say is there is a tummy bug going around Tucson now.  So we will be having a staycation at home.  So we went to the movie Crazy Rich Asians. We both loved the movie, but no one told us that we would need Kleenex.  In my humble opinion you don’t need to be rich or Asian to understand the family dynamic.  Then it was off for lunch and then home to relax.

Tomorrow we will be combining relaxation with a few chores.  Well it’s time to watch Dinosaur Train with Eric before bed while I knit for a little bit.

Last Square

I started knitting the last square of Teri’s blanket today. You know the one I started when she was a L1. You have all probably heard the story of how she picked 10 skeins of yarn and we both thought that it would be enough for a queen sized blanket.  Boy were we ever off in our calculations.   It turned out that 1 skein made 3 blocks. So I had enough yarn for 2 rows of blocks.

Then there was a frantic search for enough yarn to finish the blanket.  I think I will have enough yarn leftover to knit a sweater for me.  But I am digressing.  At Thursday’s knitting group at Grandmas Spinning Wheel we have an aggregate knowledge base approaching 200 years.  It’s a great place to discuss the merits of various finishing techniques.  So the plan is to chrochet the boarder. Yes, I will be bracing my left hand for this.  Not to weave in all the ends in one sitting.  Do the final trimming after the first wash.  Try to figure out how to fit it in my carry on luggage.

This evening I was doing the mommy multi task thing.  Finishing cleaning of the craft room.  Washing more eyrpy laundry.   Taking care of the eyrpy boy. Getting my final 5k step for the day. Giving Eric his medicine.  Plus near constant suctioning of Eric to keep the gunk out of his lungs.  Now I am just waiting for Eric to fall asleep.  I think I will leave the tv on all night so that I can sleep.

Short Thoughts

I finally got to see the movie Black Panther from the, I believe to be 1960’s comic book by the same name from Marvel Comics.  I can honestly say that with the exception of the fight scenes the movie was to good to knit through. I would like to thank all that made this great movie possible.


 Sorry Teri, I only knit half a block today.  Oh yeah and we got about a half an inch of rain today.  Not the massive storm that the weather service warned us about.  I guess living in the desert the weathermen get bored and have to do something for fun. Look at all the alerts that they got to send out.

Tradition

It would not be a holiday around here without a certain someone getting sick.  At least he has a day off tomorrow. This means that he can help supervise laundry, knitting and cleaning.  I am not quite sure when it became a family tradition, I personally think that it was so last century.

At any rate, Eric is starting a trial of formula and I will knit.  All this happens while Eric’s tummy is determining weather he will be totally sick or not.

Teri’s Blanket.  In other news, there are only 4 more squares to knit before the next measurement.  Hopefully I will be weaving in ends and adding the broader soon.

Eric’s Question

Eric rarely asks questions let alone say anything. This afternoon I am working on Teri’s Blanket. The queen size on on U.S. size 7 knitting needles. That’s 4.5 mm needles in the rest of the world. This is he blanket that I started Teri’s first year of law school. The assumption was that if I can knit a twin size blanket on U.S. sized 13 needles in a month, it should only take 2 or 3 months to knit a queen sized blanket. Not so much.

This lead to Eric’s question..”Why isn’t it done?” He spoke so clearly that John heard him across the room. Along with that he gave me the I am disappointed with you face. You let my sister down. Being a less seasoned knitter 10 years ago I over estimated my abilities and how boredom could set in on such a large project. So it will sit on the kitchen table becoming my soul knitting project at home. Until it is done. Did you notice all the ends that need to be woven in too?

Unintended Cleaning

I was already to go and finish cleaning the craft room today.  I got a little sidetracked and organized my fiber stash instead. At least I can see the difference.

Well there is always tomorrow to clean the craft room.

The Whole Warp

This afternoon I spent a few hours getting my charity warp organized. This involved going into a very hot garage and sorting through bins of yarn. I do not recommend doing this when it is over 100f degrees outside. Then winding the hanks into cakes. The skeins ranged in yardage from 50 to 260 yards per skein. I got through 80% of the winding before: 1. My arm got tired. 2. It was time for dinner and we needed a the table.

You might ask how I acquired so much warp yarn. There are various answers to this question. The answers are as varied as the colors and brands themselves. They include: 1. Someone got the yarn while traveling and it is not cost effective to return the left over skeins. 2. The yarn shop no longer carries this brand and it can not be returned. This should read they started the project a long time ago. 3. I know you do a lot of work with scrap yarn so I thought you could use it up for me. 4. If I get this yarn out of my stash, I can buy more yarn. I personally like this one. 5. Make something for the kids for me. 6. From a Knitter’s or weavers estate. The saddest one of all is number 6. My Local Yarn Shop closed, so this could not be returned. Please support your lys so this does not happen*. These of course are not all of the reasons but are the main ones.

I figure if I weave 2 to 3 scarfs a week and acquire no more warp this should take about a year to use up. Not to mention all of he non superwash Wool that will be use in the process.

* Almost 50% of Local Yarn Shops have closed in the past decade. Please support your local yarn shops.

Stash Busting

I have 14 hats and 4 scarfs ready to go to the Clothing Bank, but with temperatures in the 100’s this week there is still time to knit and weave more things.  To that extent I have cast on another hat. I have picked the yarn out for the next hand knit scarf and will finish weaving another scarf tonight. If I have time I might even get the warping started for the next handwoven scarf done tonight.

It’s time to go play with fiber.

5 Day and Counting

My ankle has recovered enough to start walking again.  If I can maintain my 8,000 steps per day for 25 more days I will increase my step count goal by a slight increase in steps.  I have even starting walking around my neighborhood. This means that I can walk up and down small hills. It is still easier to walk down hill than up hill. I have also found that it is easier to warp the small loom too. I will try warping the larger loom later this weekend.

Eric was up to his old tricks today. He faked sick at his program.  When he found out that daddy was going to pick him up he instantly got better.  His aide tonight and I figured out his con job.  In some ways I am very happy that he got his point across.  That he was bored and wanted to go home  In some ways I had thought we had left this bad behavior behind us.  Some days I just want to throw up my hands and say enough of this Eric and hide out in my local yarn shop.

Moving Down

Today I got into a pair of blue jeans that have not fit for a long time.  That made my day.  Then to out do myself I made my step goal for the 3rd day in a row. So all in all it was a good day.

Whiney Mommy

Now I don’t want to be a whiney mommy, but staying up most of the night without my full sugar, full caffeine drink is hard. No, I am not backing down on the commitment I made to myself on June 6th to  cut back on all sodas and 80% of my sugar intake.  It’s just the first time Eric has had a really bad night since then. For that I am truly grateful. To answer the most obvious question, yes I did have 2 full cups of tea this morning. That just does not equal 12 ounces off caffeine and sugar.

Just because I am tired does not mean that I am going to stop organizing and trying to complete the Zenning project that I started yesterday.  Yesterday I took all my weaving yarn and separated the warping and weft yarns to make it faster to start new projects.

Yes I am going to whine.  Whine. Whine. Whine. Now off I go to clean for a while. Maybe not as long as planed, but I had really planned a movie day, so what does it matter.

Black Yarn

We all have some black yarn in our stash. Weather it has been bought or gifted. We all know it is a pain to knit with. Well my solution is to weave with it. I managed to weave 12 inches in one TV show. This scarf should be ready for tying off tomorrow. Back to weaving and watching TV. 

60

Without futher ado, here is hat number 60 for 2018.

Determined

Eric is determined that this knitting bag not go back into the craft room until the bag is empty. I on the other hand was done knitting this style of hat for the season. I was getting ready to put the bag back back into the craft room Closet. Then Eric had a temper tantrum. Guess who won? Yes, Eric won. I cast on another hat this morning. By the way the current hat count stands at 59 with 5 more hats in some stage of progress. My guess is that this bag has at least enough yarn for 20 more hats.

Surprise!!!!

Today Eric has me up at 5:30am. What else was there to do but clean the craft room. So I finished winding so yarn and the went on to try to organize some craft bags. I put all the weaving projects together in on bag. Then it was time to organize the UFO’s of knitting projects. I found a lot of lace and sock weight yarn projects which were put in to a project bag together. I also found 2 more hats in progress, in separate knitting bags, which explains the shortage of 16 inch circular knitting needles earlier this year. The yarn has the equivalent of at least 5 more hats. So instead of sixty hats it looks like it’s going to be more like seventy hats or 6 dozen hats with the yarn currently in my hat knitting bags.

I really think that I need to trim that down to just one bag with hat knitting supplies instead of 3. In some cases I think 1 is better than 3. So the Zenning of the craft room continues.

Bits and Pieces

I surprise myself today. At knitting Inge brought her sister who is visiting from Germany.  I took German in the 7th grade and have not practiced much since then.  I did remember how to say guttentag and ein bitta  with the correct pronunciation at the right time.  By the way my spellcheck does not like to check my spelling in German.  So I am truly sorry if I misspelled anything.

I was too tired to shop for clothes so I went grocery shopping instead.   I managed to save about 30% of the total bill with coupons.  The bad news is that I ran out of time to get everything out of the van and still eat lunch before I had to pick up Eric. So I put the perishables up front and everything else in the rear hatch area. Yes, the Popsicle's made it into the freezer before they melted.  Eric was picked up on time..  Eric then supervised the unloading of the van.  John got home just in time to help.  As of now not everything is put away yet.

Eric had a bit of a rough day.  We managed to catch everything before he went full eyrpy.  He is ow on pedilyte and I will go to sleep when he gets to about 30 mls per hour.  He will be home with me tomorrow.  Hopefully he will be up to a car ride and my physical therapy secession. I know they say no kids allowed, but he is older than some of the staff so I am going to bring him along.

Purging and Shopping

Last night was the first night that Eric decided to stay up all night and wanted to play.  I kept putting his covers back on and giving him stuffed animals to play with.  I did not let Eric stay home, but instead sent him to program and took a nap, which lasted until the gardener, construction workers and the noise of running water woke me up.

I went through another section of my closet today and went through all my tank top.  4 made it to the Goodwill box and I put a few on probation.  When the probationary one get to big they will go to goodwill too.  I will go through other areas in coming days

This has lead to some areas of my closet with not enough selection for more than a few days between washing clothes.  I have not lost enough inches to go to the next size down in my closet.  That will take 2 to 4 more inches off my waistline.  I have only managed to get 4 inches off my waistline since June 6th. So I went shopping today. I must have hit the sales just right. I got 1 long cotton skirt, 1 long sleeve top, 1 light cover up and 8 tank tops for $100.  They also threw in all the hangers too.  So all I need now are pants and skirts.  My well deserved Ganga* for the day.also I did not have to go to the plus sizes for anything.

If you think. my day could not have gotten any better. Care stopped by and helped with my personal de stash. She left with 1 bag of yarn to make blankets for foster babies.. and another bag to make gifts for her “step kids”.  John was very happy. I also finished hat number 48.  Eric is asleep so it’s time for me to go to sleep. Night all.

*Ganga is Tucson speak for a great deal.

More Progress

Each hanger represents a pair of pants or skirt that is now to big to wear. I am mainly losing inches right now which is OK with me to.

My diet has eliminated all high fructose corn syrup, corn sugar, artificial sweeteners and 80% of the sugar that I use to consume.

Breakfast is dependent on my schedule with Eric, but usually cereal and tea.

My lunch and dinner plates now are in the 25% lean protein, 25% starch and 50% vegetables without margarine or butter. My snacks are vegetables, fruit nuts or a spoonful of peanut butter.

This is not the fastest way to lose weight. Although I think that replacing cookies and soda with vegetables and water are a better choice for me. Please check with you doctor before you embark on this or any other diet.

Random Acts of Cleaning

I find it simply amazing that such a random act like packing can lead to a random act of deep cleaning. Tonight while refreshing my kit, I noticed that my toothpaste had expired. So in my search for a good tube of toothpaste I inadvertently cleaned out a drawer.

What lead to this, is that I am leaving the guys home to go to a fiber retreat this weekend. I will be at Sheep Thrills in Prescott Arizona. Hopefully doing a lot of knitting,Spinning and relaxing.

Progress Maybe

I went shopping for a light sun cover up today. Instead I bought 2 new shirts. I was at J.Jill and the shirts were a size large in the regular J.Jill line. Not my usual large in the  Pure Jill line, which is their plus size.  I am not sure how many sizes down that is and I don’t care as long as the clothes are smaller.  By the way they did not have any sun cover ups that I liked.

Hats 50 and 51 are now complete.  The next 3 hats are on the needles.  What else do you knit when it is 109f out side?

Oops

While getting ready for this years Sheep Thrills Fiber Retreat, I found the 5 skeins of yarn that I spun last year. I had forgotten that I put them in my sample box. When I got home last year I was just so tired, I put the box in thn garage. Then as I was getting ready for next weekends retreat, I found the skeins.

I have started washing and setting the twist tonight.

Plying

I spent the day plying art yarn for the retreat next week. I plyed close to a thousand yards of art yarn today, with my largest skein being close to 300 yards.  I have a few more samples to make so tomorrow I will be spinning again. Pictures to follow as soon as I am finished.

More Hats and Spinning

The next 11 hats for 642 rows. These will go to the Flowing Wells SD Clothing Bank. Below that will be yesterday’s spinning.

Summer Harzards

There is an awful lot of construction going on in our neighborhood. Since we are one of the few houses with no young children or pets we have some interesting new wildlife in our yards.  It seems we have more lizards than usual, this may just be the reason that the new succulent plants have been eaten to the ground in just 2 days.  We also have at least 2 new non poinsions snakes in the back yard. All I ask of the snakes is that hey eat as many pack rats as possible.  The lizards are doing a great job in keeping down the bug populations.

All these new wild life friends lead to strange summer behavior such as knocking on doors before I go outside. Or walking down the walkway saying human coming. This gives the rather shy animals a quick  spaces

Journeys

I really think that I like my doctor's office scale much better than the scale that I have at home. It shows that I am 2 pounds lighter than my scale at home.  With that being said, I have lost one sixth of the weight that I want to lose. I have only 2.5 pounds to lose before I reach my 1st goal of losing 5% of my body weight. I know it is all about baby steps and moving more. With that being said I have exceeded my daily step goal by over 2,000 steps today.

I have finished knitting another hat today and am closing in on 4 dozen hats knit for the year. I was lucky to be able to book my Stitches West 2019 classes and hotel today. I only had to live through 2 computer server overloads. Thank goodness I called and entered my classes when registration opened this morning. By this afternoon the hotel was booked and 1 class that I am taking is filled.

Well it is time to call it a day. Have a very productive day tomorrow.

45

Hat number 45 for the year was finished tonight. With any luck and a little time I just might be able to knit a decent number of hats this year. I currently have 3 more hats in progress. I even managed to make the ugliest shade of blue look pretty by combining it with other yarn.  There is no use trying to get rid of this cone of yarn either. Every time I try some one hands it back to me.  I think I have about 6 hats left on this cone of yarn.  Then I am done with it.

Zenning went well today, I managed to get 5 bags of recycling and 2 bags of trash out of the house.  I have also divided books to go to some of my knitting friends which should leave the house this week.

Physical therapy left my foot stiff and sore.   Hopefully I will be done with this soon.  Although there is one exercise that I can not figure out and neither can the therapist.  Three different therapists have said this one exercise is done differently.  Oh well.

I finished my knitting weekend with 5 hats completed and 3 more hats in various stages of completion.  I finally got Eric in for his haircut and 3 inches came off. It should be much easier to wash his hair for about 4 weeks and then the haircut fight will start anew.  I should have started this earlier but Eric was fussy. So I will leave the blog in the same state as my chores, incomplete.

Day Fail?

Things did not go as planned today. I was up with Eric for 2 1/2 hours because of a bad thunderstorm. There was an awful lot of thunder and lightning, but not much rain. So this is my excuse for only knitting 1 hat today.

Although I did manage 15 minuets of Zenning and a little house cleaning.  I am heading to bed early.

More Hats

I have filled a project bag the size of a large size grocery bag to the top with yarn. I have pulled out U.S. size 13 knitting needles.  I really want to see how fast that I can knit my way through this bag of yarn.  I think that I am off to a good start today with 2 hats from the large craft bag and 1 hat from the small craft bag finished today.  In the small carry along bag I am using U.S. sizes 6,7 and 8.

I want to see how many projects I can finish this summer to burn through my yarn stash.  My definition of a project is one item finished no matter what the size.  Although the larger the projects the more yarn is used.  Wish me luck in this adventure.

While John was taking his after dinner walk I spent that time Zenning the craft room. If I have the energy after dinner I think that I can make decent progress in tiny bits of time.

The Mad Hatter? Perhaps Not

Besides physical therapy and chores, today was all about hats. I bagged and tagged 9 hats for charity. I cast on 9 hats, yes I really have emough 16 inch circular knitting needles to do that with out using all my 16 inch circular knitting needles.

So I am really not crazy. I am actually teaching a technique called the jogless join at knitting guild tomorrow. So instead of taking out my work over and over again I cast on 8 hats, one set for each demo. They will go to my charity project.

if I am indeed mad, at least there is a method to my madness.