Stress Management

If you read my blog on a regular basis you might have noticed that I am doing a lot of cleaning and Zenning lately.  My inner circle knows what all the stress is about.  For right now that is what I am comfortable with.  I am stressed to the point that my creativity has dried up, so new patterns will be on hold for a while. I still need to keep busy.

So I have been turning the house upside down. Digging into the back of closets. Trying to be realistic with my cleaning.  I am never going to get back into my pre kids clothing, so to Goodwill the clothing went.  The Tupperware that was being stored in the garage went to a friends daughter. I have been dropping of delivery’s to Goodwill at least once a week.  If a magazine is a few weeks old it will go to Eric’s day program for the young adults.  Today’s results are 3 empty boxes of paper that at one point I had no time to look through.  I filled the recycling bin to the top this week.

I have also been doing a lot of walking.  My daily goal is 8,080 steps a day.  Most days I leave that number in the dust.  It seems to be helpful.  The only hiccup has been my Knitter’s elbow.  Right now it is one week without knitting, my elbow is better but not good enough to start knitting again.
I hope that it is better soon as I have a hard time finding  the right time to warp the loom.

More Deep Cleaning

I got my Zenning done before breakfast. I now have another rag tag group of bags to go to Goodwill. Teri and I will never be able to fit into them again.  Teri, because she has almost 6 inches on me. Me because I will never be my high school size ever again.  The 1970 and 80’s are long gone. If by chance I do get back to that size they are not classics that stand up to the test of time. Although I am sure some  rebellious teenager will buy them just to drive their parents crazy.

The best part of this is that I have freed up enough hangers so I will not have to ask the sales clerks for hangers for quite a while. I wonder if I will be able to part with more before my next Goodwill run?

Weaving

I have started a new weaving project on my small loom.  This is so I have a portable project to take with me.   I am letting my elbow rest so that my knitting elbow will heal faster. I am using left over Anne yarn from a yet to be published pattern for the warp.  I am using a single spun during last years Tour de Fleece for the weft.  Even though the weft is lace weight yarn I do believe that this will weave up fast.

Since it will be over 105f all weekend we will be keeping Eric home.  He gets to supervise all my projects this weekend. This weekend I will have John cut some warping sticks down to size for my larger loom and warp the shawl for my sister in law.  It will be a purple shawl with as many purples as I can add.  The bonus to the higher temperatures is that everything will dry fast.  

Here is the start of the scarf.

Extreme Zenning

For the last two days I have been in the extreme zenning mode. Yesterday it was a closet. I have filled three bags of clothes that will be going to Goodwill. There is actually room in my closet now, not much but a little more. Unless I find the time to ride about 100 miles a week on my now nonexistent bike.  Swim laps for 90 minutes a day, six days a week and rock climbing a few days a week these cloths will never ever fit again. I am sure that some very skinny person will love these retro clothes.  As mom to Eric that level of fitness is never going to happen.  I am lucky on most days to walk 8,000 to 10,000 steps, just a small fraction of the steps my younger self took. As a grownup, I do not have as much time as my teenage self to get all that movement in every day.  

The Zenning continued today with old paper work that no longer needs to occupy space in my closet. Eight bags of shredded papers from the 2010’s  made their way into the recycling bin.  I managed to fill it up half way.  We have a 90 gallon bin.  I need to save the rest of the bin for every day recycling. As a bonus I found enough none expired coupons for a free case of diapers.  This has inspired John to find more old papers for me to shred.  

Even though I took most of the day off from knitting to let my knitting elbow rest, the rest of the world knows this as tennis elbow. Let it be known that I no longer play tennis so , therefore I can not possibly have tennis elbow.  I have decided that I must start finishing projects other than hats, which seem to fly of my knitting needles. I am really great at starting projects. Not so much with finishing.   Speaking of knitting needles, I might give some more away to a young mother who home schools her kids and teaches knitting to the next generation.  More space. I need more empty space in my closet. 

Well it is getting late and I need to try to rest, ahem I mean sleep.  

Projects 129 to 134

This weeks projects include 6 hats for the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank. Two are super wash wool and four are a soft cotton.

Knitting

I had a day of knitting. Two hats were finished and  considerable  Progress was made on two more. Pictures to follow when I have better lighting. It’s a little dark for using natural light.

I did a lot of walking to reduce my stress and ended the day with 14,896 steps which is about 4.68 miles. Noe to call it a day.

Me Time

I am not quite sure why but lately me time involves a 2 to 3 hour nap.  Which in turn messes up my plans for the day.  Although I have to admit that I feel a whole lot better after the nap.  I still did manage to get to 2 grocery stores and get most of the house restocked.  I even managed to find a turkey breast to cook for dinner.  The leftovers will be tomorrow nights dinner.  A turkey salad with pecans, celery and cherries served over a nice salad.

I did not manage to catch up on the laundry. My prediction for this weekend will be knee high.

I even managed to finish knitting a hat and cast on the next.  For the bonus points I emptied a knitting bag.  Tinked two half finished wash cloths. I do not need any more wash cloths, I have a few dozen in a storage tub if anyone needs some.  The yarn went into the hat bag. The extra knitting bag now very empty went into my closet.  The knitting needles will be put away tomorrow.

John and I started binge watching Highlander tonight.  We got through season 1 episodes 1 & 2.  So far it is fabulous.  I am wondering if some of the actors were also in The Game Of Thrones?   The  scenery is wonderful too.  I like all the costumes.

Eric spent most of his day sleeping.  That about sums up today with the exception of steps. I got over 12,000 today.  I am trying to  exercise away the stress.