Sad

My first ever spinning wheel broke this morning while spinning. See the parts on the right. I hope that John can fix it. If not, i can’t even think about spinning art yarn without my Louet S15.

Alpha Testing

The alpha testing continues on John’s new 3D printed knitting accessory. I am really loving the new design. It is so portable.  It traveled with me to Northern California and back. I also love giving positive feedback for changes and seeing the changes made.  I also learned that .05 millimeters can make a huge difference in a 3D design.  Not so much in knitting.

The engineering design work is so different than designing with fiber.  It seems to require a lot more pre planning and tweaking than with fiber.  Don’t tell anyone that you heard it from me, but I am learning a lot about the process.  Some of this might be incorporated in my fiber design work in the near future.

Of course when the design is finished it will be sold exclusively at Grandmas Spinning Wheel here in Tucson.  I will post when that happens.  With pictures of course.

Less UFO’s

Today was spent finishing 3 small knitting projects and weaving in ,the ends.  It seemed to be a good day to tie up loose ends. I am really not sure how it became bed time. Since I have another busy day tomorrow this will be a short post.

A Great Thanksgiving Week

I had the pleasure of spending part of Thanksgiving week with my lovely daughter and her husband and his family. I had a wonderful time. Thank you Teri,Tej and family. I also got a great picture of Teri too.

Today I spent the day catching up. My to do list is not done, but there is always tomorrow.

Still Zenning

I spent almost 2 hours in heavy deep cleaning....the kind of cleaning you need to change clothes afterward. Then I moved on to zenning all kinds of projects. I dumped so many projects that the dog pillow box is full again, I just made 4 pillows 2 weeks ago. Now I just need to find homes for more dog pillows. The recycle bin is full to the top with days to go before it will be picked up..sigh, I hate not be able to get everything out, but I may run out of room soon.

I threw a party for Eric today at his day program. We went through almost an entire 1/2 sheet cake from Nadine's. Instead of gifts for the young man who has everything he needs we are asking for donations to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona or a food bank closer to your home,in Eric's name. Just let me know if you made a donation, I don't need to know how much, so that I can let Eric know and thank you.

11,482

As of 9:00p.m. tonight I have taken 11,482 steps.  That is 4.79 miles for me.  I did not go hiking or shopping. All I was doing was trying to zen the house.  My closet looks a lot better.  I found that I had room to move 36 quarts of yarn into more accessible drawers.  Yes, I knit and wove through 36 quarts of yarn since the last reorganization of the yarn. That made over70 hats and a a little more than a dozen scarves for kids in need.

Now if I could only have the G.E. 1960’s self cleaning house of the future. I could use more yarn up faster.  Just imagine if the laundry washed, dried and folded itself. If the dishes washed themselves and magically made their way to the cabinets. Self mopping floors and self vacuuming carpets.  On second thought just give me Rosie from the Jettison’s. Then I could spend my days playing with yarn.

I just have a few more chores to do before bed so I will cut this short.

The Last One

Today was the last fundraiser that I will ever do.  I am tired of the event organizers haveing lame excuses for not promoting the event.  I am tired of putting in my time energy and money for such paultry returns for the school or nonprofit. Today’s  fundraiser closed an hour early and I only managed to make $68.00 for the middle school band. I also came home tired and sore beyond belief.

So after the holidays I will figure out what to do with everything.   This will probably end up in very unique and interesting gifts for friends and family.  

Perplexing

I finally made it out to get a couple of pairs of pants today. Did I mention that they were a smaller size too? I find women’s clothing sizes so perplexing at times. Can someone please explain to me why the same pair of pants, with the exact same waist with one in standard size and one in petite size.  Why is the petite one labeled plus size and the standard one labeled regular sized?   The only difference is the petite one rides at my waist and the regular sized one is half way up my rib cage, not to mention requires high heels at all times.

Are shorter people automatically supposed to be thinner?  When everyone knows that the taller you are the more muscle mass you have. This also means that  by virtue of being taller they burn more calories.

It’s no wonder that most women I know hate clothes shopping.  

Parenting and Other Things

Sometimes I find parenting very hard, but most of the time there is just a routine boringness to it. Also what has become common for our house would seem downright strange in 98% of all households. For instance before bed we empty Eric's suction machine, get Eric ready for bed, I can't believe that he is going to be 29 this month.  Take out the trash and recycle and put the last load of laundry in the dryer. Sometimes even run the dishwasher.

Then there are the blender events like the very occasional seizure, me I am hoping beyond hope that he is just over tired and not pre-viral. Waiting in traffic for the 30 minute mile because some silly snowbird rammed a very expensive sports car at a red light and refused to move his car out of traffic hoping someone in law enforcement would not say he was at fault for hitting the car ahead of him at a red light.

Since Eric is sleeping I think I should order the rest of his supplies and head to bed. Parenting Eric can be very tiring especially when he does not sleep through the night like most of this week.

I have personal blender moments too. I have trouble passing for my age on most days. The answer is no, people don't fake their age to get the senior discounts.  Today I almost did not get to vote because of it. I was asked several times for the information on my driver's license while the poll workers were holding it..Looking at me like I was lying...but my face looked like the picture and I answered everything twice correctly. The polling supervisor said to give me the ballot anyway. Afterward I let the Mayor's office and the Democratic party workers who were trying to keep track of any type of voter suppression know about it.

Another scarf made it off the loom and another hat was finished today.

Holiday Presents

Since all my holiday shopping is done, I am busy making hand woven scarfs for those who otherwise would not have a holiday present. I am managing to weave 3 to 4 a week. Here is part of the latest. A gray warp with purple and red weft.

This is a great stash buster, because each scarf uses at least 2 skeins of stash yarn. Especially good for using up some of the non super wash yarn. The finial processing of the scarfs involves hot soapy water and roughing the scarf up. This results to a 10 to 15% total shrinkage of the scarf so it will not felt later.

My Fall Obsession

Pomegranates are in season. Nothing beats a freshly cracked open pomegranate for a snack. I got these large ones at Costco today. Thanks to my friend Shanna I can now open and empty one this size in about 10 minutes. Now to finish my snack so I can weave a little on my freshly warped loom.  before bed time.

Feeling Sad

After the events of this weekend I am feeling really sad. I know that as a country we can do better than this.  Unless you are of Native American ancestry or part of the First People of Canada ancestry you have no right to complain that some one is an immigrant or that their parents immigrated to this country legally or illegally. You must learn your history or be prepared to repeat it.

We are a country of laws that include the right to worship in the manner of of our parents and grandparents.  It is beyond obscene that someone should be murdered as they pray.  It seems to be happening to much in to many churches, synagogues and mosques across this land.

At this point in time I will kindly ask that if you do not love this country that so many have given the ultimate sacrifice, so that we may enjoy the freedom to worship, meet, shop, and live where we choose. By all means please leave this country.  To quote an often used phrase of the 1960’s “America love it or leave it. “ my friends and family wish to live in peace and welcome anyone who shares our values.  Peace and prosperity are wonderful things.

Errands

After a very frustrating morning dealing with the company that was supposed to get parts to repair Eric’s bath chair, I gave up and ordered a new one through Amazon.  I can’t believe that this branch of Corman Inc told me that they were not sure how to go about getting competitive bids from different sources. Uh, you had FOUR whole months to figure this out.  The real kicker here is that all the Leckey bath chairs and parts come from one company and they have distributors in different countries that use the same price sheet. By the way if you do need a bath chair or a bath chair with a trolley I would personally recommend using Leckey. The first one Eric had lasted about a decade.  I am sure we could have just replaced the cover and been fine, but it was easier to order the whole chair.

I finally had some time to catch up on errands today. Between using coupons and rebates I managed to save well over $100.00. This does not even include the Ganga price on John’s cereal even without using a coupon.  It was a just restock the shelves shopping therapy after dealing with the durable medical equipment company. Triscuts, Chex, goat cheese and John’s popsicle were the highlight of the trip.

I tried a new method for washing wool that one of my students recently recommended.  It was so easy and worked so well that I will do a photo tutorial on it.

Wow Just Wow

I was never fond of this Lion Brand Wool Ombré, it never knit up as well as I liked. I decided to try weaving it into a scarf. All I can say is wow. I think this is just meant for weaving scarfs. It’s just perfect. Not muddy like in hand knit hats and scarfs. Just clear, clean and crisp. Well you know where the rest of this ombré yarn in my stash is going.

More Zenning

today I recycled four years worth of old Arthritis Today Magazines.  It is much easier to google what I want then trying to remember which year and issue the information I need is in.  This cleared off eight inches of bookcase space.  All totaled eight bags of recycling, eight inches of magazines and one bag of trash left the house today.

After being up most of the night with Eric and a broken kangaroo Joey pump, I had no energy for anything but getting Eric's pump replaced after the cleaning spree.  On the other hand Eric was feeling better and wanted some quality mommy time.  So needless to say I am really exhausted at this point in time.  I hope that everyone sleeps tonight.

This out of sync post is why I should not blog when exhausted.

Impressive

Eric made an impressive 5 loads of laundry today. There was one swimming day load, two eyrpy loads and two regular loads. This of course does not include the laundry from other family members or all the fiber stuff that needs to be washed.  So the weekend forecast is laundry as far as the eye can see. I would like to thank the good folks at Proctor and Gamble for making the Tide laundry detergents that work so well on what ever Eric throws my way.

If I have time I will warp the loom and weave a scarf and repeat.  As long as I am home, I might as well use up as much of my yarn stash as possible.  I wonder how many projects I can finish this weekend? I will let everyone know later.  I will also do some knitting.

Well it’s nap time.

Finally Finished

Teri’s Blanket is finally finished. It was started as her dad drove her to grad school in the fall of 2009. It was supposed to be finished by December of 2009. Oops fast forward until today. It is finally finished. The only thing that I would have changed would be to use larger knitting needles. U.S. size 7 knitting needles were a bit small for a queen size blanket. The bowl is all the ends that I cut off tonight.

I also knit 12,755 rows so the row counter for the million row challenge on Raverly took a big jump tonight.

Knitting Math

If a project is 15 squares wide and 17 squares long with 5 rounds of boarders, with 2 or more ends to weave in per block. There are also 12 ends to weave in on the boarder.  How many ends are there to weave in?

My current answer has to be 1 million.

If you come up with a different answer let me know. I have been weaving in ends for about 2 weeks now. I have spent over 10 hours this week alone weaving in ends. I see no end in sight. 

My deadline is Thanksgiving. I am sorry the Thanksgiving holiday may have to be delayed.

New Design Posted Today.

Check out my new pattern on Ravelry and Love Knitting.  Its called Felted Hot Pad. It’s a very practical home accessory for the kitchen. It is a fast and easy gift to make. Did I mention that is uses U.S. size 17 knitting needles, that is 12 mm to the rest of the world.  I designed it when I was very tired after Eric was sick again this week.  It is a beginner knitting pattern.  A more experienced knitter could possibly knit 2 in one day.  If you have not done so check out my other patterns. All patterns will be listed under Sheri Karobonik Designs.

The Hot Pad on the left is after felting.

How to Spend a Day Off

Today I took a day off and spent it weaving in the ends of Teri’s blanket. I think that I am halfway through weaving in the ends.  Tomorrow I will put the back side up and figure out how to fold the blanket to get the most productive use of my time.

A Rough Week or 2

I feel that I have lost the battle with my body.  Eric has been sick twice in the past 2 weeks.  There have been too many long days and nights that I would have handled with ease a few decades ago.  I am really trying to take care of myself.  I have been tempted to get some soda, but instead on the long nights I try to have a very small snack every few hours. This seems to be working.

This does not mean that my body does not ache all over.  I can tell you with precise detail which are my weakest tendons and joints. I am still trying to keep up my various therapy for the joints.  This just leaves me exhausted.

I am almost finished with a new knitting pattern. The pattern is written and the sample is knit but not yet felted. I have knit it 6 times to make sure it is correct technically.  I was just too tired to finish up the felting and taking the pictures.  This is a beginning pattern and will make a great holiday gift. I will let you know when it is released and where to get it.

Shh Don’t Tell Eric

It is more rare than a blue moon. I can’t even remember the last time that it happened. The odds are very much against this ever happening in any given year. What is this you are wondering. I will tell you only if you promise not to tell Eric. You must really promise and pinkie swear that you will not tell him.

OK, now that we have gotten that out of the way. I will tell you. It is a completely empty laundry room. Not one piece of dirty laundry in any basket. The picture below is the current state of my laundry room. I am not sure that this is cause for a world wide celebration, but around here that makes me very happy. I would also like to add thank goodness that the laundry line is in the garage or my freshly washed load of dress clothes would be soaking wet. It started raining not more than an hour after I hung all the dress clothes to dry.

Now I am off to sit with Eric to watch children’s programs and weave in more ends on Teri’s blanket. 

Victoria S95

I finally got box two today.   It has the backpack bag for the wheel and the art flyer.

Eric is feeling better but is still not sleeping through the night.  I am getting very tired.  For dinner tonight I wanted to skip dinner and just sleep.   And life goes on.  

My Victoria S95

My Victoria S95 got its first spin tonight. I had enough parts to make it work, but as of this writing I am still missing box 2 out of 3 boxes. I figured that after a 4 month wait that I might get all the pieces of the wheel together. However the Louet N.A. Dealership is not know for their promptness or customer service. It is a good thing for them that Louet in Holland makes one of the best wheels in the world. I do have an S15, which was discontinued a long time ago but is still a dream to work with even though I am it’s third owner. It was my first spinning wheel.

But, I digressed. The Victoria S95 is a dream to spin on. It is small enough to take anywhere to spin with. It is so quite that John did not hear me spinning less than 6 feet away. There was almost no learning curve with this wheel, 10 minutes tops. There was a very smooth peddling and spinning motion. The picture below is my first hours spinning. The only thing left yo figure out is the color that I am going to use to moderate the colors in the roving for plying. I will have to check my stash for solids other than white.

Not related to Spinning, Eric is feeling better.  One more day home than he is good to go back to program on Thursday.  I plan on catching up on sleep tonight.  I am also on the last round of the broader on Teri’s Blanket. Then I will have to weave in all the ends.  

Life in the Blender Again

I am sitting with Eric while we do a trial run on pedilyte.  The kangaroo Joey is set to 5 ml per hour. For those you who do not live in the ml universe, that is 1 teaspoon per hour.  Yes, Eric is sick again. I swear that if I had a nickel for every time some said that their kids had allergies and Eric got sick, I could make a hefty donation to fight hunger here in Tucson.  With any luck I might just make it to bed by midnight.  I also feel that it falls on deaf ears when I ask people to stay home when they or their kids are sick.

In other news, Teri’s Blanket is on the last round of the boarder. Then I get to weave in two ends per block.  Then I will wash it.  I don’t think that I will block it since it is 100% organic cotton.  The final picture and row count should be some time this week.  It will have over 12,000 rows for the one million row challenge on Ravelry.

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.