Finished Work

Below is a picture of the mittens that I knit for myself.  They are the Paradise Valley Fingerless Mittens by Mountain Colors inc. They add 102  rows to the 1 million row challenge. Sorry about the sideways photos. I am in the middle of a shawl, hat and a few scarfs, pictures will be forth coming when they are finished.

I am also trying to walk between 10,000 and 20,000 steps per day. So if you would like to help me in this endeavor just let me know when you can join me on a walk. As of 6:00 pm MST I have 10,512 steps so far today, this is a good first day.

Changing Directions

I think it is time for me to change directions. After what seems like years of knitting in the range of 100 to 200 items a year for charity, I need to knit some things for me. I have at least 3 sweaters that I need to finish or start. I have shawls, mittens and accessories that I would like to have. I have the yarn and the patterns lined up. I am thinking some where in the 50 project range. I have a blanket for Teri that is 2/3's done that I started in her first year of law school. I want to make John a new quilt. I have fluff that I want to spin. I want to work on weaving. I want to design more patterns. I need to exercise more.

Eric's life has become more unpredictable. He is requiring more care on our part. I feel stressed out that he is not up to going on many outings. That use to be a big part of our lives.  He just does not have the energy.  I feel that I am spending my life in catch up mode. I need to take time for me. It is time for a change.

As Eric's life becomes more unpredictable I am having a harder time being as artistic as I would like. I can't do as many have suggested just to block off regular time each day to create. I never know when I am going to be up until all hours with Eric. I never know how many days it will take Eric or I to recoup, or how many days he will be at his day program. I always wonder if  I can recoup my energy before Eric gets the next cold. Yes, we always know it is just a matter of time before the next cold hits.

This does not mean that I will stop working on charity projects. This just means that it will no longer be my main focus. I want to spend more time creating. So a few times a week I hope just to post pictures of my latest projects. I am hoping that by taking some of the pressure off myself to make the world a better place at all cost, I will instead try to make my little corner of the world a better place.

So the new journey begins.....

Not Sure Which Way To Go

I am not sure which way we are headed with Eric. We did start him back on formula this morning, but it has been very slow going. 12 hours later we are still going at 40 mils per hour. It is not where it should be. That being said he is feeling better than last night.

I on other other hand am dealing with a very stressed out body. I will have to slow down for a few days to give may body time to relax. I did do some knitting today and past the 3/4 mark on the new pattern. I did manage to empty another bag of yarn from my closet. I also went through some old paperwork, straighten my dresser and the black hole of my purse.

I was going to put together the spinning chair today but did not have the energy. I also did not have the energy to spin either. Thankfully I did not have a full load of laundry, so no laundry was done. Hopefully everyone will sleep tonight. I know today will be better.

A Wirlwind of a Week.

It has been a long time since I have written a blog. First off I have been very busy getting caught up around here. Some real progress was made. Projects were actually getting finished in the craft room. You know the kind, with just a few minutes of work and then the project is done. I cleared a bunch of them.

Saturday I got to go see the Pinatas that I had been working on get smashed. It left me with some design changes to mull over for next year. The first will be to add more layers of paper ma'che and maybe even a few pieces of well placed duct tape. The second would be to come up with a different hanging mechanism. Something a little more sturdy. I want to make it a little harder to get to the goodies inside. Eric had a good time at the party, but it left him a little tired.

Sunday was an all around rest day around the house. Everyone took a 3 hour afternoon nap. That did not stop Eric from having a bad night. The wild eyrping started at around 3:30 am Monday morning. By 5;30 am I had hoisted the virtual white flag of surrender. Eric did manage to give me a 20 hour work day. We also discovered how to ramp down a little bit on eyrpy laundry. When Eric was getting ready to eyrp we just powered up his suction machine and got it very close to his mouth. Then when it started, we just suctioned all the eyrp we could. I think it may have been easier on Eric too, as he did not have to work as hard to get everything out.

As bad as the eyrping was the dry heaves were much harder on him. He did not want me to leave his room. Mommy just had to be there for him. So what else was there to do but knit. That lasted a good 12 hours. He is still feeling miserable today, but not as bad as yesterday. Yes, he had to be close by today. Eric was also a little miffed at me for not making him all better. I am hoping to get him back on formula sometime Wednesday. John was so wonderful through this all, he even manage to get me 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep this morning.

As strange as it may seem, during all of this I got my knitting and design mojo back. I am in the middle of one design. I am making the middle size as a sample, this is just by a random act of casting on.  I think I might ask the test knitters to knit up the small and large sized ones. So if you have a pair of US sized 13 knitting needles and a very full scrap basket of odd sized balls of yarn let me know. I also sketched out the next pattern idea in the middle of my hair cut today. I think I should add a small sketch book to my already over heavy purse.

We are hoping for a very good night where everyone gets to sleep. Wish us luck.

A Very Good Day

I started back with a to do list. It really made a difference in getting most everything done.  I really like the new app I am using called Any.DO.  I can type in or use the voice recognition.  I really need more practice with voice recognition, it is a new element is my gadget world. It is a very easy app for non-geek.  I think they had the quirkiness of the artist and the busyness of a mom in mind while they were designing this app. I really like how it reminds me the night before to think about starting my to do list. It also moves unfinished items to the next day without prompting.  I have not had anything this easy to use since the Palm-M500 to do list. I would like to say to the programmers, a job well done.

I would also like to say thank to the wonderful Customer Service Team at I-Robot. Less than 24 hours after the pump died in my Scooba a replacement is being sent out.  Since it was a long way out of warranty their solution was more than generous.  I am always in awe of the wonderful team at I-Robot from the designers, engineers, and customer support.  

As you can tell even with a dental appointment, I had a fantastic day.  I even got a little bit of Yoga in which helped my hip. 

Up and Down

Yesterday it was the shredder that got fussy.  Today it is the Scooba,  John thinks it is the water pump.   It looks like the part can be replace.  

I have not measured, but I think I am over 25% done with the poncho. Eric is not impressed.  I do like the 2 stranded knitting with 1 light and dark together. It is making an interesting fabric. Just to let you know, I am pulling the yarn out of the basket randomly. It is also all scrap yarn. So no pattern will follow.  Just use the Lion Brand pattern from a few days ago. 

I can't believe that both John and Lynn, a local yarn shop owner think I have more yarn at home than she has in her shop. That I should think about renting out her shop when she retires to destash.  That just won't work at all it would give me an excuse to buy more yarn.  What were they thinking. 

Mondays This and That

I seem to be having a hard time getting back in to the grove this year. I have to admit that after the cold from he-double toothpicks that Eric and I share at the end of last year, I was expecting a flare up. I just did not expect it to hit my hip. This has left me very out of sync and very cranky for the last few days. I still can not bend down to pick things off the floor. It has interrupted my sleep and everything else. Don't get me wrong it is getting a lot better, but it is a lot worse than having my hands flare up.

The new knitting project of a scrappy poncho is going well. The link to the basic pattern is in yesterdays blog.  In the last 2 evenings I have knit 11 inches. Since the poncho is 15 inches wide, I am almost a quarter of the way through it. I am double stranding the yarn using 1 strand of light yarn and 1 strand of dark yarn. I am really liking the way the color is flowing. When 1 skein of dark yarn is gone, I am just picking a random skein of dark yarn to go on. I am doing the same with the light yarn. Did I mention that I am going through yarn at a good pace. So far 1 full skein of black and at least 6 partial skeins of light and dark yarn. I really like this, it gives an interesting colorway. Pictures will follow when it is done, unless you want to see the work in progress, just let me know. It will also be nice and warm. I think the lucky child who gets this will like that it is so colorful.

I also went to my first over 50 fair today. The vendors were limited to assisted living, health care, insurance, wills and trusts, hearing aids, large button telephones. The bling was mostly pens. I don't think I like their version of what over 50 is. I saw none of the things that I thought should be there such as leading an active life style, travel, community involvement, or classes to learn new things. I was even told that I am the right age for senior living communities, yeah right. So I am going to ignore their version of life over 50 and go down my own path. I will only go back to one of these fairs if I need more pens.

I need to try to get some sleep now, but I am finding it hard after a long nap after lunch. Maybe a snack will help. Have a good night and enjoy your families.