A Slow Recovery and More

My left hand and I are barely on speaking terms. I am doing my physical therapy as prescribed. Progress is much to slow for me. My hand just seems a lot stiffer than I every remember it being.  It seems that no matter what I want to work on in, 30 minutes my hand is done, with a recovery time of about 2 hours.  Even when I am on a roll.  This means that is going to take forever and a day to finish anything I want to create. It is taking about a week to finish a scarf on U.S. size 17 knitting needles.

Right now I am in the middle of deconstruction 4 sweat shirts that will be paired with denim squares and turned into blankets. Yes I will have a number of upcycled things. If I have any left over denim, I will use some flannel to make a few more blankets. The big question seems to be to add binding for a more city look or skip the binding for a more country, shabby chic look. Any thoughts on this? The other odds and ends will be turned into various things for my November 11, 2016 Taglit fund raiser at the Tucson JCC. Since I can not knit as much as I have in the past, there will be a whole lot of things that I have not made before. So come do some holiday shopping and help Eric and his friends have fun. As usual 100% of the sale price will go to Eric's day program.

Now if Eric will just go to sleep before the day starts in a few hours things will be a lot better later today. It is a little after midnight as I write this.

My First Spin

Today I did my first spin post hand surgery. I will generously call it an art yarn. This is a blend of wool, silk, add ins and buffalo. This is also a thick and thin yarn. I  think this will remain a single ply. I think it will be most suitable for weaving.  It might be a few months before my spinning will get beyond the art yarn stage.   So it is now time to start stash diving to find the arty type of fluff.  

Not a UFO Anymore

It took a long time to finish the 75 rows of this cowl that I knit for my self.  I finished knitting it while Teri was in law school.  I just finished sewing on 3 buttons today.  Yes, sewing on buttons is not a fun activity for me. The most important thing though, is that I have one less UFO* in the house.

*UFO stands for unfinished object.  

Some Progress

This is my first finished knitting project since my hand surgery.  It took 2 weeks. I feel like a beginning knitter. 150 rows on size 19 knitting needles. This will go to the Flowing Wells Clothing Bank. 

The next scarf I will see if my hand is ready for size 17 knitting needle.  The knitting needles are all the U.S. sizes.  

Why Mom's Run Away from Home.

I really think prestigious online  news outlets like The Onion, have really missed the mark on this one.  The real reason that we are seeing an increase of all mommies running away from home.  

First and foremost are the long work hours. After working most of the day and then staying up most of the night we really want some time off. Trying to stay awake the next day to take care of and entertain a sick or cranky child is no piece of cake. Speaking of cake, I will take some vegan or parve cup cakes.  I really think that the cats have made decisive strides here. By finding a warm, quite and out of the way place to curl up and sleep. A nice sunny and quite place sounds good right now. Do you think anyone  will find me curled up behind the couch?

Which brings up the issue of pay. Have you ever tried to buy a new dress with sticky, peanut butter and jelly hugs. Our kids really have to come up with a more universally accepted payroll system.  We want wardrobes comparable to what other women in the work place get to wear on a daily basis. Have you ever noticed that really tired mommies wear pj's well after noon? Now if we can make rules about little sticky hands not being allowed to muck up the new wardrobe. 

This also brings up all the activities that the kids just have to do.  I am not feeling really positive about 7 year olds padding their college applications by making us drive them from one activity to the next.  Do they think we are also chauffeurs? Take soccer for instance.  The sport has become so popular that practices are ending after my bed time.  Can't I just give you a ball to kick around the back yard?  After all just how many of you will actually break even on this sport by getting actual money for college?  You can't expect to make me sit with some of those parents that yell at everyone.  Who knows,  they might think that they are the Knitting Police too.  And the music lesson.  Instead of practicing in the house take your practice outside and let the entire neighborhood enjoy the strides that you are making, so that they can see their tax dollars at work. 

Yes, I know that I am using a lot of run on sentences. For the Spelling and Grammer Police out there you are grounded until further notice.  xoxo Your Mommie on the run.  

Healing

I find it amazing that something as simple as putting away groceries is enough to send shooting pain through my hand.  So a portion of today's shopping is still sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be put away. Tomorrow will be soon enough. 

I am also really grateful for being ambidextrous especially at meal times. I normally eat and do a lot of things with my left hand.  When the pain gets to bad I just change hands to my right hand.  I just have to keep a mindful eye on my left hand and give it the time it needs to heal.  I am having trouble with this because I really hate going in slow speed.  I just need to find more patience right now.  

When Yarn is Knotty

Today I decided to finish winding yarn to set up kits for weaving.  This is what I have to wind on the first skein after 90 minutes.  So I put it aside and started winding a second skein. Yes, there were also to many knots to use the ball winder. Forty five minutes into that skein I am finally out of the knots. I am hoping it gets better from here. 

Tonight I will tag hats so I can get 3 bags of hats to the Flowing Wells Clothing bank next week.  Hopefully I can soon start knitting hats again. I am still working on getting my hand working at optimal effency or at least not hurt so much when I use it.