10,000 and More

I would like to start off by saying that I got my 10,000 steps in today. Just in case you were interested, that is 5 miles of walking today. Which at my pace takes 1 hour and 40 minutes.

The more was, that I am now caught up on I-cord knitting for the moment. Today I knit 4 different I-cords.  Also, 8 out of 24 soap bags are finished. I am almost caught up on laundry, but pretty please don't let Eric know or he will go out of his way to make more.

I will try to get an earlier start on the blog tomorrow as I have come up with a quick and easy beet salad. I am just to tired to type up the recipe tonight.

Amazaing Math

Since knitting revolves around math, I thought I would take a minute to congratulate mathematician Curtis Cooper from The University of Central Missouri for finding the largest prime number currently know. The number — 2 raised to the 57,885,161 power minus 1 , which results in a prime number 17,425,170 digits long. No I don't think I will take this on as a knitting challenge. the 1 million row challenge is enough for me.

Today was a very slow day for me. I caught up with some friends. Yes I skipped doing laundry today and it will come back to me knee high by morning. I worked on the next fund raiser for Eric's day program. All I can say is that I am way behind in making I-cords. For some reason I would rather knit 40 rows of pattern then a 3 stitch I-cord that is 18 to 24" long. For some reason they seem to take me the same time to knit.

My major accomplishment of the day was 32 minutes of Wii. I told you it was a slow day. Since I might be doing morning car pool tommrow I think I will call it a night.

Laundry Rules

After I blogged last night I ran the dishwasher and started today's laundry. All totaled I did 6 loads of laundry.  All but the one currently in the dryer are all properly dispatched.  Did I mention I have at least 2 full loads for tomorrow already? Can someone suggest to Eric a different occupation then making laundry for me to wash? I also spent an hour organizing things. Does anyone else have a messy monster that creeps out and just leaves random bits in odd piles. If you don't would you like to borrow mine for a while?  I could really use a break from him.  I did also manage to sweep and mop, well actually scooba the kitchen floor today. Less than 8 hours later I spilled yucky stuff on the floor and will set scooba on its rounds again tomorrow.

As for knitting I got a total of 16 rows done or or to sound more impressive 640 stitches. I also got 10 minutes of spinning in. During that time my hands turned black from the so called natural black fiber. I can't wait to finish the skein and hit it will clarifying shampoo to strip out the "natural color" and see what color was actually sent to me. My bet is not black alpaca. And we have already determined that it was not from the first couple of shearings, the fiber is just to course. At this point I see a place mat in its future.

After the 3 hour cleaning spree this morning I was to tired to do much else today. No knitting got done tonight. I need to get more work done tomorrow, but it will be in moderation so I am not so tired at the end of the day.

Sick Boy Day?

It was a very long night with Eric last night. The end result was that he stayed home today and we both napped this morning. Not much got done around the house today no laundry got done which I know I will regret tomorrow.  I was to tired to tackle the serger threading so no sewing got done. No cleaning got done. Yes this is beginning to look like a to do list for tomorrow. So my goal will be to get as much done as fast as possible tomorrow.  I will have an empty house for about 1 1/2 hours tomorrow so the plan is to put on some fast paced music and clean, clean, clean. To that end I will put on a load of laundry and call it a night.

In Catch-up Mode

Everyone is on the mend. Eric and I got a full night’s sleep. Eric is at about 65%, we are hoping one more lay low day and out the door on Monday to his program. So needless to say a whole lot of work got done around the house today, including laundry, shopping, cleaning. Little things like emptying the dishwasher and filling the recycling bin also got done. These are the things I tend to ignore when Eric is sick.

 It looks like I will need to spin the 5th skein of yarn for Teri's shawl. Some how when the rows hit in the 350+ stitches per row the skeins just do not go as far. Since I will be spinning the last of my black alpaca, the shawl might be a little smaller than expected. I am at row 120 and hope to get to the 140 to 150 range so it will be a nice big and cozy shawl for Teri. So on tomorrows list of things to do is to card and spin the last skein. Clean and polish the spinning wheel. Do a through vacuum around the wheel, black alpaca just does not blend well with crème carpet.

 I also plan on trying to re-thread the serger. I made a mistake in thread 3 or 4 and it is just not hooking right. Then it will be off to alter 2 sweat shirts for Eric. The serger will then be put away and the sewing machine will come out to finish the sweat shirts and make a few more pillows for Eric's bed. I will of course hold them until Valentine’s Day so please do not let him in on my little secret.

 
Well I have about 15 minutes of cleaning left to do tonight and I hope to get another full night of sleep under my belt.

Life in Retirement

John retired at the beginning of the month. My assumption is that life would get a little slower. After all we started sharing the chores including car pooling for Eric. Wrong. I am now busier than ever. As a team we are getting more done. We now have to keep track of each others calendars. We still have to time everything around Eric's schedule, but we knew that from the start. We still keep up with our friends and have individual friend time. We are also starting to go out with other couples, although this still revolves around Eric's schedule and respite care. There is a nice balance in life.

What I enjoy most about Johns retirement is that we have more time to spend together. To me its like being back at the beginning of our marriage, but with a few years of experience under our belts.  We will not be doing a lot of traveling like a lot of new retires, the boss aka Eric would have none of that.

Life was good before Johns retirement and now I can say with certainty, that it is even better. To steal a little line from the Robert Browing poem "'Grow old along with me!  The best is yet to be." Each day is a new adventure. With a little more sleep for the both of us, which means for me That I am more alert and getting more detailed things done. Look for more patterns soon.

Well I am off to start another busy day.

Silk Moon Cresecent Shawlette in Black Alpaca

I was working on Teri's shawl tonight. The first row I worked on was an increase row..I added 36 stitches in that particular row. Plus and additional 2 stitches on the 3rd row I knit tonight. It is now taking me 2 hour long shows to knit 3 rows. The 4th skein will be added in tomorrows knitting.  We will see how many rows the next skein of baby alpaca will take me. I hope this will finish the shawl. If not I will spin the 5th and final skein and just go with how ever far it takes me. Yes I only had a pound of alpaca to start with and will not order more of this color for this shawl..Then I will declare the shawl done.

Well it sounds like Eric needs my attention so good night all.