Going Batty

 This afternoon I carded over a dozen batts form bits and pieces of fiber. Some were just the leftovers from other spinning projects. Some were samples of various fibers. The only things that they will now have in common are they are one of a kind batts and once they are spun up they will be going into handwoven scarfs for the children’s clothing bank in the Flowing Wells School District here in Tucson.  

I am very thankful that Vicky from Grandma’s Spinning Wheel in Tucson was able to get me new drive bands for my Louet Victoria even though they were not in the catalog.  Vicky is simply amazing.  My Victoria is 2 years old and this will be the first drive band replacement.  Just remember when your drive band starts to get loose it’s time to replace them.  

Here is a very small sample of the mini batts. I think that this is box 2 or 3.  I used my Ashford Art Drum Carder.  Vicky carries those too and can ship to your house.   Another few days of carding and I will move on to spinning these.  The bits and pieces that are not relevant to any color way will go into a box to be carded later.  I will empty the last of 3 laundry baskets tomorrow. By the way a laundry basket can hold a lot of fiber.  This is a very small part of my deep cleaning projects. Make it useful or dump it.  

My Body Hates Me

 My body and I have not been in sync for a few days now. I really have been slowing down. I am doing a lot of reading and resting. Which is what my body wants.  My mind on the other hand wants to go and keeping things rolling at a moderate pace. I have about 3 really good hand hours a day, which is not to my liking. The pace of my crafting has slowed way down.  Also not to my liking.  Maybe it’s time to get some outside consultants to weigh in.  

Well it’s time for breakfast and to see what my body and I can negotiate today.  

The 3rd Time Was The Charm

 Let me start off by saying that I was having a very bad dyslexic day.   So starting a new pattern was not my best idea ever.  The words and numbers were jumping all around the page.   Somehow my mind translated “Size 9/5.5mm” into Size 11. Don’t ask, I would not be able to explain it.  So I started with U.S. size 11 and the knitting did not match the picture.  So I went down to U.S. size 10, but luckily I moved my pink marking tape over that one line, totally by accident.  I was able to save the second cast on and just replace the needle tips.  Luckily I was using my LYKKE interchangeable knitting needles.  

Because I was having such a hard day with numbers, I put a stitch marker after evert 10 cast on stitches until I got the right amount of stitches   I highly recommend this when adding more the 25 stitches to a project   

So now the next row is 5.   I love the pattern “Hermosa Tee” by Grace Akhrem.  The yarn I am using is Alumco in color 10 by Araucania Yarns. If your local yarn shop does not carry this yarn you can always use my favorite local yarn shop, Grandma’s Spinning Wheel. They have a new on line store too.  

My progress so far.  

P.S. I would like to make a personal recommendation to pattern designers and yarn companies with the fore knowledge that every Millimeter on the pattern page counts. By adding just two spaces you could make a pattern so much easier to read. For example instead of 9/5.5mm, try 9 / 5.5mm. You can see the correct knitting needle size right away. I know that this is a decades old industry standard most likely set up when print pages were set by typesetters.  Now that most everything is done electronically this should be very easy to accomplish.  This is my 2 cents worth on the subject.  Thank You for listening.  Have a wonderful day.  

An FYI

 Just so you can plan for it. This is my vain attempt at humor.  When a crown that is over 20 years old falls out, it will require a check for cavities and re shaping of the tooth. Lots of numbing medicine is required.  This then requires a new crown.  Then the rest of the day is spent cranky and tired.  I would recommend a nap.  Then in two weeks I get the new crown and hopefully it will fit. 

Tomorrow must be a better day.  

Just Another Summer Day At Home.

 My hand is a little better, but still wonky. I did manage to knit a little on U.S. size 11 knitting needles.  There is a scarf that I am knitting out of hand spun for a holiday present.  The rest of the day was taken up by chores, napping, carding batts, finishing a book and starting another book. We did get to talk to our darling daughter and she and her husband are doing well. Work is keeping them busy. 

It was a record breaking month for the monsoon rains in Tucson for July.  At least it has not rained for a few days.  The roof seems to be drying out a little.  John is busy interviewing roofers.  

The COVID19 rate is up in the county.  So for the most part even though I am vaccinated I will wear a mask in public.  Because the virus is more active in the afternoon, I need to finish my errands by noon.   I think I am going back to parking lot pick up for most groceries.  I am trying to make the best of things and may finish deep cleaning the house.  I moved another tub of yarn off the stacks in the garage and onto the shelf’s.  Progress by inches.  

2 Out Of 3

 2 out of 3 fingers on my right hand are doing much better.  They are almost usable for knitting again.  I was able to go through some of my fiber stash and do a bit of stash busting.  I have a full laundry basket to go.   I managed to card 3 mohair batts.  I also reorganized part of my fiber stash closet.  It no longer resembles Fibber McGee and Molly’s closet. Nothing will fall down when the doors are opened.  I can even do some easy kitchen stuff.  Just don’t ask me to chop an onion  or do dishes by hand yet.

What I had a hard time with was drying my hair. Halfway through I needed to use both hands to hold the dryer wand, the kind with the hair brush built in.  My hair survived.  With the laundry sorting the wet clothes was easy as was doing the hand wash.  What I found hard was putting the wet clothes on hangers.  

I still did a lot of resting today.  This flare up has been less than lady like.  This morning it was 10 minutes of work and 30 minutes of rest.  By this afternoon it was an hour of work followed by a 2 hour nap and I am still exhausted.  I think the stress from the roof leaks, yes that’s multiple leaks and the dampness of the Monsoon was just too much stress on my body.  

I am not ready for knitting yet, however; if my hand feels better tomorrow I might try some weaving or plying some yarn.  I have a box of mini skeins and 4 bobbins that need to be emptied and plyed. The picture below is the latest update to the fiber closet.  I know it will still look very messy to most, but some of you will notice a huge change.  There are only 2 bags of fiber left on the top shelf.  

Doing Better

 My hands are doing better today. I am doing my hand exercises 3 times a day instead of once a day, that is helping.  I am starting off with the small stuff like laundry, which is going well.  Then putting things away. Just maybe a little bit of weaving or carding.  I will post again tonight.  

It’s Official

 Well it’s official, I am going into a tired hand phase.  This means that I will be cranky for a few weeks of no knitting.  Knitting withdrawal is hard every time I have to slow down.  I will still do a very little bit of weaving, but it is no more than 30 minutes once or twice a day.  

So I will spend my time reading, cleaning and the dreaded relaxing.  I am a go go type of girl.  I am like the energizer bunny I go until I stop.  I am doing this to delay hand surgery.  This comes at a bad time too with COVID19 Delta variant rising fast.  I have started wearing my mask in stores, well I never really stopped.  

Maybe I will catch up on pattern writing.  Stranger things have happened. 

A Wonky Hand Sorta Day

 It was a weird sort of day for me.  There is a small leak in the roof above my bedroom, with the rains this left the room damp with a funky smell, so I slept on the couch last night.  I know that this has nothing to do with my couch surfing last night, but it took over an hour to get my right hand moving this morning.  I am hoping that this is just the damp weather and not more hand surgery.  My right hand spent the day being wonky.  So no knitting got done.  

I managed to warp the loom and start another scarf.  I was not happy with 2 of the yarns so they made it to the goodwill box.  Better there then me forgetting that I don’t like them and trying to use them again.  By the way that topped off box one and another box is ready to go.  I did manage to get 2 loads of laundry done.  I did a couple more stages of finishing work on the scarf I took off the loom last night.  

Making dinner was interesting tonight.  I made my version of Turkey Taco Meat.  I would strongly suggest that onions not be chopped on a wonky hand day. That onion thought it was on a slip and slide, I even managed to feed the floor some raw onion. Once the onion was in the pot I added everything else with ease.  I just squeaked by on my carbs. John found a wonderful low fat tortilla under the Kroger in house label that was very low fat and tasted great too, so I made my fat by .50 grams of fat   

I even found a great Ganga , which is Tucson speak for a great deal.  I had a handful of coupons from my last shopping trip to the pharmacy, they allow you to stack in house coupons, so I got a 16 ounce jar of Skippy peanut butter for 10 cents plus tax.  I have not done that in a while, it felt good. Yes, I know we pay a lot for our medicine, so the is my version of a mini claw back.  

Well it has been a long day and we are going to get up early to try to patch the roof.  Wish us luck. 

Leaking Roof

 I might have over done my cleaning spree yesterday. I had a sore back most of the day. So not much got done.  With rest I was feeling better after dinner.  The rain also stopped long enough for John to check the roof. He found 1 leak and not the other. The leak he found was right where I thought it was. Now the question is when can we get a roofer out.  

With any luck I will sleep and have a better day tomorrow. I have the yarn for the next scarf picked out. I need to do the finishing work on the scarf that came off the loom tonight.  

The Good and the Exasperating

 The good news is I finished 3 more projects so far today. This brings me to 73 out of 100 planed projects completed. If you are thinking like me then you will agree that there is no way I am going to stop at just 100 projects this year.  The only question is how many over 100 I will get finished.  

The bad news is that after so many days of rain, as of right now 4 inches in less than 2 weeks the roof is leaking yet again.  Today I even emptied a closet of fiber to check for leaks.  We found a thermal difference , but not enough to show a leak.  So now it is time to put the fiber away.  

Theo will spend so much needed fiber and relaxation time.  Below is my 73rd project of the year.  A handwoven scarf that will be someone’s holiday present.  

A Rainstorm

 I know it rained a lot last night, we got 1 1/2 inches at out house.  This brought our season total at out house to 3 inches of rain.  I know it is monsoon season here in the desert southwest, but I have a hard time calling it a monsoon rain.  From my earliest memories as a kid the rains would come in the afternoon, drop a lot of water and would be finished by dinner time.  It left the evening a little cooler.  Lately the summer rains come at all hours of the day or night. That might be because the National Weather Service decided in all its wisdom the the monsoon season had to have a beginning/ ending calendar day that was the same each year   When Mother Nature was in charge we would look at the dew point level. It took 3 days of the dew point above 50% which meant it was time for summer rains. Easy peasy. 

Last nights storm hit right at bedtime for us. The thunder and lightning were loud and shook the house.  The wind was blowing the rain every which way.  The rain was loud and plentiful.  The storm did not calm down until the wee hours of the morning.  So we got very little sleep. And of course the roof decided to leak and drip water into the bathtub   The roofer has been called  

So today was a tired hand and body day for me.  No much got done. I am hoping for sleep tonight.  

Goodbye Mr.Adams

 Today we said goodbye to a dear friends husband. Albert Adams was an incredible man. He served our country for 25 years in the United States Army. He was always helping everyone in his neighborhood rom dog walking to household repairs.  He was in better shape than I am in , always walking around his neighborhood talking to everyone   

When ever he stopped by our knitting group he left everyone smiling. My friend Inge as so lucky to have such a great husband.  Al cared about his wonderful family with 2 kids, grandchildren and a great grandchild.  In his last request of us he asked us all to plant a tree in his memory.  I think this is a wonderful way to repair the world for our children.  If you would like to plant a tree or two in his memory and would like me to pass on a message to Inge where in the world that the trees are planted just drop me a note and I will pass on the information.  Every area of the world has a different need on where the trees need to be planted so take you pick. 

Al you may be gone but you will never be forgotten.  

Final Drying

 These two scarfs got washed in very hot soapy water and roughed up today. I moved them into the house to take better pictures.  In the back you can see the really weird skein of yarn that was recently spun.  Half of the skein turned out perfect, the other half turned out highly energized.  My solution for this skein of yarn is a handwoven scarf. Highly energized yarn weirdly enough makes a wonderfully textured fabric.. You might notice that I have hangers hanging from the bottom of the skein.  I do this in hopes that the skein will balance out while drying, this time I don’t think it worked.  

Tomorrow the scarfs will get their final trims and touch up.   They will then go into the bag for the children’s clothing bank.  My handwoven scarfs are always held aside for the older kids for holiday gifts.  I know I can’t make one for everyone who needs one, but I will make as many as I can without burning myself out   

I really don’t know if I will finish the scarf that I warped last night finished tonight.  I started it out with some sock weight yarn which is very thin.  Most of my other scarfs have been woven with worsted or Aran weight yarn.  I just love taking bits and pieces of yarn to make one of a kind scarfs, that don’t look scrappy.  

More Organized

 The 3 boxes that I washed yesterday were put to good use today.  The boxes held just shy of 4 roving braids. The area used to be crammed to the bottom of the closet shelf and I was not always sure when I opened the closet door if everything would fall down.  As you can see the bottom of the closet shelf is not even visible.  I will count that as a win.  As I get more projects done I will be able to tackle more of the closet, 1/4 down 3/4 to go.  Just taking baby steps with my 5 minute Zenning style. I give myself 5 minutes, then choose to stop or work more.  I find myself working more now than when I started 5 minute Zenning.    I will be passing the vinyl bags to a friend of mine who doesn’t have to worry about things falling down, she has lots of space.  

As you can see the boxes look a lot neater with the added bonus of holding more.  I thought it would take me a couple of hours to do. I was done in 45 minutes. So after I see if I can order food to cook for dinner or will have to run out, I will just have to find something else to deep clean or craft.  

Another Way to Measure My Stash

 Another way my family measures my destash challenge is to count the empty storage tubs.  Between using stash inside the house and doing a whole lot of knitting, spinning and carding of batts I managed to empty these 3 boxes so far this month. I emptied 2 more boxes in June so I have 5 less boxes in the garage. They will be put to use in my Fibber McGee fiber stash closet.  In order to reuse them in the house I washed them inside and out.  The insides were really clean, but the outsides were dirty, with the one being in the garage the longest being a little muddy. They are now drying in Eric’s old shower, which was a great place to wash them too  

Starting many projects at a time and finishing one at a time, will mostly empty all the boxes outside.  The boxes inside will be pared down in time too. I can not see my self as a finish one project buy yarn for the next kind of knitter. So there will always be stash yarn in the house, just not a store full  

My mantra through this whole process has been “The one with the smallest stash wins in the end.” Plus it makes they family happier. 

70% Done

 I set a goal of finishing 100 projects by December 31, 2021.  Today I finished project number 70. Another charity Hat.  The only question now is when I will reach 100 projects, but how many over that I will complete. I am only counting knitting and weaving for this challenge.  No spinning or sewing, although I am still doing those too. You can peek at my Raverly projects page to see all the completed projects.  

The Baskets

 

These are the 2 baskets I was talking about last night.  The one on the left is mainly filled with small samples of yarn spun on one of my herd of drop spindles.  The one one the right is filled with odds and ends of warp from years of weaving.  Between the 2 baskets I am hoping to weave a lot of one of a kind scarfs. My hope is that none will be exactly alike.  By the end of summer I hope that both these baskets will be empty.  

I originally got these baskets for knitting projects because they are so roomy.  With a whole lot of weaving and a lot of luck that will happen again. You may also notice that the basket on the left has color coordinated  bags of yarn. If I have just a little yarn left after a scarf or 2 is finished, I can just add the next color pack to my working bowl of yarn.  

Scarf number one is finished and in the to go to the clothing bank bag.  I am almost finished weaving scarf number two.  Of course I am using weaving to break up my knitting, spinning, carding and chores.  I am hopeful that this will prevent body from burning out.  

Following My Hands

 I let my hands lead the way today. When they were tired I stopped and rested them.  I did manage to finish one more hat. Hot water treat and was a new handwoven scarf. The bonus of the day was warping the loom and starting another scarf. I have a basket of yarn and a basket of warp that I want to empty by the end of August.  That is if my body agrees with my plan.  It’s been a real roller coaster.  

Off the Loom

 This is my first scarf off the loom this year.  I am hoping to make a few dozen more for the clothing bank. 

Now you need to look at the fab.  See how nice the fabric is with the variegated warp verses the plan gray warp.  I think someone should be happy with it.   Now to tie the end wash in hot water with agitation, thwack, dry and trim.  Then wrap in tissue paper and put it in a box.  Repeat until my weaving baskets are empty.  

Arthritis Pain

 Some nights no matter how much I want to sleep, sleep does not come. Every toss and turn just brings a little more pain. I try to distract my brain with music or sleeping with the lights on.  Sometimes all that brings relief is more aspirin.  So I am hoping it will kick in soon as I have a busy day tomorrow.  

So I will just try to relax while I wait for the asp to kick in.  I will probably fall asleep on the couch, which is not goood for me but I will take sleep wherever I can find it at this point.  Wish me luck.  

Just Puttering Around

 Today was spent doing errands and puttering around the house.  Nothing massive got done unless you count an overflowing basket of hand spun yarn sorted into bags by color to add to the scarfs I am weaving with 1 off and partial skeins of yarn.  The ideal is to make the scarfs as color cohesive as possible and still be one of a kind works of art.  The mini hand spun skeins add a pop of color between larger skeins of yarn.  These should make nice presents for the kids   The clothing bank usually skims off my hand woven scarfs for holiday gifts. Since I know it will be the only gift some kids receive I try to make them special   

I have started a new hat today and am almost finished with the brim   

I still can’t figure out this COVID19 mask thing.  There are so many different numbers floating around and cases are up in our state.  So when out in public, I will continue to mask up even though I am fully vaccinated.  In matters of health and people being sick in public, is that if I had a nickel for every time someone got sick at home from an allergy, I would be rich.  

10 Inches

 I have noticed that whenever I warp any of my looms that I always stop at 10 inches of weaving the first day.  I also found that the British show The Great Pottery Throw Down, on HBO Max is a great show to watch while warping my loom.  So here is the beginning of my latest scarf which is going to the Flowing Wells SD Clothing Bank.  This is another of my great stash busting projects this year   I wonder how many scarfs that I can weave   

Winter is Coming

 After yesterday’s food debacle when the restaurant deemed that 11% fat was a low fat item, By the way my body says it’s not.  All I had the energy to do was 2 loads of hand wash and 2 washer and dryer loads.  Then it was a day of rehydration and knitting. 

 I am hoping to enough energy to spin some of my new mini batts tomorrow.  I would also like to do some more drum carding of fiber.  I also want to warp the loom and get some scarfs started.  As long as we stay home with the temperature heading upwards of 109, maybe higher. I will be staying inside. I hope I have enough energy for everything   

The hats pictured below are the 2 hats that I finished today.  Don’t worry the knitting needles are not lonely as I started another hat and a scarf   

Hyper Drive Knitting

 I have moved into my hyper drive knitting for the summer.  I am knitting with 2 strands of worsted weight cotton held together.  I use US size 13 knitting needles, so these go super fast.   I can finish between 1 and 3 hats a day.  These usually go to the younger children.  I hope by the time I finish this spree I will have one more empty storage box.   This one is 48 quarts and almost empty.   I do get a little crazy with the colors, the kids like bright and colorful hats. 

I usually use some cone yarn with the scraps of yarn from these hats going into regular hats for older kids. By the way, this is the 37th hat of the year.  I also have a full tub of 4 to 6 ounce skeins that I will use to add variety of these hats. 

Would You Believe?

 Would you believe that carding batts is this weeks strategy for cutting down my fiber stash. If it is not ready to spin it is harder to use up. Today I spent enough time to card a dozen batts using bits and pieces of fiber to make many one of a kind batts. I also did two bundles with 3 batts each that can be spun together for more yardage.  I have a feeling that I will be changing up my Louet Victoria to accommodate the smaller bobbins for the one of a kind batts. These batts will be spun up and used in scarfs for the clothing bank.  My carder needed a short break so I took a picture of some of the action.  

This is a batt of mohair.  The mohair might not go into the scarfs.  
 

Two Visitors

 Yesterday we had our first in the house visitors since last year.  My older sister and brother-in-law came by for a visit.  We had a nice chat, a couple of meals out. We also did a lot of knitting, the girls only.  The guys just talked.  All in all it was a very good visit. 

My Drum Carder

 I had to clean my Ashford Drum Carder after dinner.  I usually use a needle nose pliers, however tonight we used some of John’s 3D printer tools. I must say that they worked very good. So next time you need to clean your carder find someone with a 3D printers tools.  They made the job faster.  It is so much nicer using a clean drum carder.  

The End of an Era

 I have just finished emptying the plastic box I used to carry all my supplies for craft sales.  I will no longer be spending months of my time crafting for a solo charity fundraiser or taking part in fund raisers for charity. This is not to say that I am giving up all my charity work, just the shows. The shows take up 100’s of hours of preparation and a few hundred dollars or more in supplies, all to spend a whole day selling the items to make somewhere between a few dollars  to a few thousand for the charity. If asked and I have the time I might make a few items.  All the charity work was supposed to lead to a part time crafting career, but I found people only bought from me at charity events and would even call me to see if I would be willing to sell a high ticket item after the event was over and give all the money to charity.  They would even ask when my next show would be so they could get what they needed.  When I offered to sell it to them they would always say that they would wait for the charity event. This diminishes my work as an artist, to tell me that my work is only good enough for charity events and not to buy at other times.   

So I will be doing art for me. Doing what I love. I do have a very wonderful children’s clothing bank that takes what ever I make and finds a new home for my creations. This gives me greater joy than charity sales events.  I am making 1 child at a time happy and warmer.  

I will still teach knitting, spinning and weaving, because this also brings me joy. I will still be designing new patterns, as I like sharing.   I like to see people learn new things. Again this will be on a limited basis.  

The past 32 years has been hard on my body and soul.  I still have some issues that I am working through. I am tired. I have more issues with my body as I get older that need to be taken care of, I am moving slower than I was 3 decades ago and I don’t like that.  So this is the beginning of the me era until my family needs me.  

Ta Dah

 Charity blanket number 6 of the year.  

And the bowl of ends.  

Now off to do more knitting, spinning, weaving, sewing and deep cleaning.  

Done

 The never ending blanket was finished tonight, although I promised a picture it was too late and dark. I did spend 2 full hours weaving in the ends. I filled my tiny scrap fiber bowl up. I will take pictures tomorrow.  After washing I might be able to skip blocking because it looks good and all the edges are straight. 

I found the the blocks for the next blanket are so hap hazard that I will instead use one block for the beginning square of several different blankets. This is the “1” blanket someone left in my knitting basket at guild.  By the way this is a big no no.    I am using very small knitting needles for the next batch a US size 4 or 5. Much to small for a solid blanket. If you are a newer knitter please don’t consider any blanket with knitting needles smaller than an 8.  The yarn is so thin that I am using weaving warp yarn for the next series of blankets.  Thank goodness the squares are cotton.  

It’s time to call it a night.  

The Last Row

 I am finally on the last row of the never ending blanket.  The edging is 3 rows of Crocheted through the back loop.  After that I have a Googleplex of ends to weave in.   After washing and blocking it will go to a charity project.  Here is a small section of the blanket. 

110 Degrees Today

 Today it reached 110f at our house with 1% humidity.  It was way to hot to knit on the front porch or knit outside for that matter.  So instead I went to day 2 of the multi purpose room.  I am getting rid of stuff right and left.  I did not realize that I had 3 similar boxes for hand sewing, 1 for quilting, 1 for stuffed toys and one for repairs.  That was too organized for my own good.  I suspect the hand quilting box was started in 1985.  The stuffed animal box around the time Teri was little and 1983 for the repair box, because it was a prize for something.  

Well needless to say I am going through everything.  This all started because some of my 20+ year old plastic boxes began to break.  I thought that they were good for at least my life time because plastic takes 1,000 years to break down. So I am reorganizing everything.  Some going to Goodwill, a lot to trash and recycling and some to Bookman’s.  With what’s left behind being set up to be useful for me.  I did also find a lot of 12 inch rulers, at least a dozen, I am not sure what’s up with that.  Although I believe a crafter can not have too many rulers.  I will show pictures when I am done.  

I also plyed 2 skeins of super wash wool for summer hat knitting.  . I am trying to keep busy and get organized.  Wish me luck. 

51

 As of today I have completed 51 knitting projects this year. I think I am well ahead of my project 8.3 projects completed per month I projected in January. I am disappointed that I have not used more of my stash yarn up. Well there is always June.  This hat marks my 51st knitting project of the year.  This is also my 28th hat for the year. I should reach my yearly goal of 5 dozen hats knit for the clothing bank in no time.  I have been know to knit more hats in any given year.