Yarn Chicken Time

 I am at the end of a very large shawl. It did not start out that way. I started with a 3 stitch wide key. After the key was completed I increased by 6 stitches every other row. So the rows got very long very quickly.  I have been playing yarn chicken for a while, since I am just awful at the Geometry needed to calculate how much yarn I would use per 4 square inches. Then figuring out my yardage divided by the yarn used in 4 inches. Then factoring in the 6 stitch increase every other row.  Then when to stop when I hit a certain gram weight of the yarn. The designers I know that are mathematicians, engineers, physicists and science types have the easiest time with this.

Yes, I know that they have computer programs that figure all that out for you. Personally the artist in me thinks that is cheating.  It take the spontaneity and creativity out of the process of designing. So I put Yarn chicken. This is also why I give the gauge for before and after washing. I really know that is Quirky of me.

Since I am doing a picot edge on the shawl, I want to make sure that I have enough yarn to complete the edging. If I have a little extra I’m fine with that. I mean the rows are so long and the shawl is deep enough that a row or two wouldn’t matter. It’s better than ripping out a few. On this shawl it’s a demon. I already ripped out 20 rows mid shawl to fix a mistake. 

I want to make sure that I have enough yarn to complete the edging. If I have a little extra I’m fine with that. I mean the rows are so long and the shawl is deep enough that a row or two wouldn’t matter.

So tomorrow I pull out the stitch Bible and find my edging pattern and finish the shawl. By the way here is how much yarn I have left. 

2 Down 0 To Go

 I had my second cataract surgery earlier this week. Everything went well. I am healing well too. There are some things that I have noticed. First being that sometimes I can even read with out the readers the eye doctor recommended.  Things are definitely brighter and I can’t go outside without sunglasses. So I keep a pair in my purse and a pair by the back door.  I have also noticed that the colors are more brilliant. Today’s trip through Costco was amazing. I made John go up and down every food aisle even if we did not need anything on the aisle just to look at all the colors. The packaging was an amazing Kaleidoscope of colors. I am not sure if it was dorky or my inner artist coming out from a years long nap. 

The strangest side effect of the surgery involves the scale. As of this morning I have lost a total of 8 pounds. Strange right?  I am not craving sweets or other carbohydrates. I am not eating to keep myself awake. If I am tired I take a nap. I am actually happier than I have been in a long time. It’s almost like I got rid of the cataracts and my body is coming back into balance. I can’t wait to see where I go with this.  

I woke up from a nap and reached for my glasses and they were not there  it took me a few minutes to realize that I did not need them anymore. Well except for my readers.  I now have four pair and I know that a day will come when I can’t faint a single pair. So I have them strategically placed around the house.

I have not wanted to do any fussy knitting like hats, gloves or shawls.  Instead I am working on 2 different Operation Gratitude scarfs. One for the car because I am still not driving.  I can also knit these with my eyes closed if the sun is at a bad angle. I need to give my eyes time to heal and balance out.  The good news is that I figured out what I thought needed a small revision in a pattern and will fix it as soon as I feel like taking pictures and editing a pattern. 

It’s getting late so it’s time to call it a day.  

Oops

 My day did not go as planned. When I went to seam the new gloves, I was missing 1/4 of a glove. So back to the knitting room I went. First things first, I had to find a second pair of US size 6 wooden knitting needles. Thankfully I have at least 2 pairs in each size. I think that everyone should have at least 2 pairs in each size. Your local yarn shop can help you with that. You don’t have to buy them all at once. Save up your coupon money so it does not have to come out of the household budget. I am also grateful that the second pair were not on a project. 

Forty five minutes later it was really finished. So while dinner was cooking I wove in the ends and clipped them together for seaming. I was too tired after dinner to do any sewing. So I choose to relax and watch another the Moon is going to crash into the earth movie. Of course the astronauts saved the earth at the very last minute.  They always do.  

So below is a picture of my oops.  

Getting Ready

 While I have been busy recovering from my first cataract surgery, I can say I think it is going well. My distance vision in my right eye has ne going back to my 30’s.  I have an up coming check up to see if my right eye is healed enough to do my left eye.  Wish me luck.  

Meanwhile I have been doing a lot of napping.  I gave up stress eating.  I gave up eating when I am tired and have opted to take naps instead after all I am retired.  I have been doing some knitting, I have only finished 2 small projects this week.  I have gloves to seam, I have a shawl, 2 scarfs, and a third pair of gloves to finish.  I am also throwing in random acts of cleaning, not too much though because I am still supposed to be resting. They Obviously did not write those instructions with me in mind.  

Sorry for any misspellings, I am doing this with out glasses because my eyes are tired.  So I guess it’s good night. 

The Gathering

 This morning I went to World Market and bought a medium sized glass jar for my stitch markers. I starting the gathering of stitch markers after I came home.  Please be aware that I do have more stitch markers hiding in various knitting bags around the house.  I have stitch markers that range from lace knitting sizes all the way up to size 35 knitting needles.  I do not have any for the size 50 knitting needles, I don’t think that they make them, since very few people knit on size 50 or larger knitting needles. At this point I would say I have well over 300 just in the jar.  

Some of the stitch markers are hand made by me, they are mostly the beaded ones and the ones with charms. Some are from events that I have gone to. Some come with yarn and fiber orders.  I do realize that I could lose a stitch marker a day for a year and still not run out of stitch markers. Please send more. Perhaps we could swap some. 

I have stitch markers from New Zeland, Australia, The United Kingdom and of course the United States.  I even have some that my husband printed on his 3D printer. 

I did make a choice to remove about a dozen stitch markers in a style that I do not like and will pass them along to other knitters.  I also found one that is in need of repair. One that is broken beyond repair that will go into the trash.  

As I consolidate my knitting and notions bags I am sure that a lot more stitch markers will make their way into my jar. I always switch out the stitch markers so that they all get used.  Here is the best picture that I could take today.  Unfortunately I have so many that they could not be photographed individually.  

Stitch Markers

 I know I have a really bad stitch marker addiction. I have stitch markers all over the house and in multiple knitting bags.  So tomorrow I will buy a small cookie jar to stash them in. I will not include the ones I make for gifts and the ones people want duplicates of some that I can not part with.  Yes, I make more stitch markers when the mood hits. 

Day 2 post surgery I was still tired and spent most of the day sleeping.  I added a little bit of cleaning while I was sitting down.  A little bit of knitting, yes I fell asleep in my chair while knitting.  I did not do any damage to the glove I was working on. I still have big rings under my eyes too.  Just think next week I get to do this all over again.  

The Downside

 There is a downside to almost everything.  Take cataract surgery for instance. We all know the upside, better vision, possibly no more glasses, the ability to read printed books easier with cheaters in some cases.  Being able to read smaller print again. The list goes on and on.  

What they don’t tell you is that what you though was light brown hair with a touch of gray is actually very gray hair with almost no brown hair left. That the walls that looked perfectly cleaned are really a few hour scrubbing job to get them to what you saw before the surgery.  Which will have to wait until I recover from surgery. Dust bunnies that were too small to see before are now very much in need a chasing. 

The downside of stress cleaning is misplacing things. Take my clips that I hold seams together with when seaming found in a hat knitting bag. The U.S. size 8 by 16 inch knitting needles that I needed to do the increase for the hat at the top of that same knitting bag actually had a hat that was 2 inches away from the crown decreases. That is just a snap shot of the things going on around me. 

The superwash wool from a major yarn manufacturer that Felted resulting in 3 relatively new gloves being given one final wash before going into dog pillows   I am in the process of knitting the replacement pairs.. I am at 1 pair complete. One pair in progress. One pair that I will stash dive to find some yarn. 

I hope you experience more of the upside of life.