A Funny Thing Happened

 Well you all remember the sweater that was borrowed without permission.  That it came back to me smelling like Fabreze and cigarettes. With stretch marks on the seams. 

The story continues with me washing it in a hot water bath of Dawn with a hot water rinse then hanging to dry.  I treated the sweater like it was raw fiber.  No agitation or wringing. Just squeezing the water out. Then letting it drip dry.  Well the cigarette smell was gone.  Thank goodness.  Now it just smelled like Dawn dish soap.  

The next wash was a cold water wash in Soak Wash with some mild agitation.  Followed by cold water rinses. I did 2 rinses just to make sure.  Followed by hanging in the garage to dry.  

Well today I needed a light sweater. So I went to the garage to check the smell of the wool sweater.  It smell perfectly fine and free of order.  So I put it on.  It had shrunk 2 sizes, which was fine because I have lost so much weight since I bought it  for Teri’s wedding weekend.  The seams sealed themselves back to no visible damage. I was very lucky that the sweater did not felt. I do believe that this was do to carefully handling it during the hot water wash phase. The sleeves hit tight at my wrist like when I first bought the sweater.  When John came home he said the sweater looked great.  It now fit perfectly.  

So I guess good things can come back from a complete disaster.  Although I still say the sweater was stolen and not borrowed.  Borrowed implies that they had asked for my permission to borrow my sweater.  It would not have been given since it was my only everyday and dressy sweater.  I don’t find it necessary to keep a lot of sweaters on hand because I don’t use them much.  

So now I have two everyday/ dressy sweaters.  I really hope that this does not make me a clothes horse.  

A Comparison of Knitting

 The only way I can tell if I am knitting a project right handed or left handed is the little stitch markers with the L or R.  So I guess it does not matter that I have 2 different knitting styles. What matters is that I can increase the amount of time that I get to knit every day.  

I know that the scarf is in garter stitch and the pounder scarf is in stockinette. However in my humble opinion the quality is the same in both scarfs.  The quality is the only thing that matters.  

The New Normal

 Today was my new version of a rest day. It was time to recover and rest from a busy week. I had 3 activities outside of the house since Monday.  This did not use to be considered a busy week for me, however since March 1st this is my new and hopefully temporary normal.  Spaced throughout the day I managed to bring the clothes from the clothes line and get them to the right closets.  Fold 2 loads of laundry, 1 load separated by an hours rest and then the second load.  No I did not get all the clothes put away.  

My major accomplishment was finishing the last of Fibber McGee’s closet. Now when the closet door is opened nothing falls out. No need to get out of the way of falling objects.  Although John did remind me that I still have a slew of UFO’s to finish so that when my sewing room becomes the guest room a closet will be available.  The point is well taken. I can’t start anything new until the closet is empty of knitting projects.  No that does not include the cones of yarn on the shelf.  Just the project bags on hangers in the closet.  Thank goodness. 

I had lots of mandatory rest time. My body was pretty much in charge of that.  So I listened to music and tried to relax and not think about what needed to be done or what I wanted to do with my day.  I personally find this really very hard.  I am used to being in motion until I sit down for a minute or 2 and wake up a few hours later.  This is the same but not the same now.  I can’t clean or move for hours at a time. I am literally living my life by the Zenning 5 minutes at a time book.  This is a book I highly encourage everyone to read.  I have found it extremely useful.  

Recovered Sweater - Speechless

 The sweater that went missing at the December Old Pueblo Knitting Guild meeting was returned to me today. The person who took it, turned it back in as a lost sweater. Yes, it was in one of my baskets with a couple of things on top of it when it was taken.  Everything that was on top of it came home fine in December.  

The sweater reeks of Fabreze, which means that the person who borrowed it without permission smoked in it. They were trying to cover their tracks. Like me the non smoker me,  isn’t going to notice.  The sweater was also damaged. She was a bit heavier than me and the seams took a beating. She just needed a sweater for when she was in town. I am so sorry that was my only winter sweater, because you took it without permission I had to go buy a new one. Not to mention going over my day and tearing everything apart looking for it for days. If your finances were tight you could have gone to Goodwill or any to her resale shop. If your finances were that tight, why did you travel hundreds of miles to winter in Tucson? Also since you can afford cigarettes, you can afford to shop at Goodwill. All it would take to buy a sweater at Goodwill is to just give up buying 4 packages of cigarettes.  Hey, you’re a knitter right? So why did you not take yarn from the guild stash and knit yourself one?

If I knew who you were, I would bill you for the new sweater that I had to buy because you took mine.  I don’t know how you were raised. If you went to church that should have been covered under thou shall not steal. If you went to private or public school anywhere in the world, that would have been covered every year you went to school. That is a detention offense in many schools. 

I am absolutely speechless. I know that I have ranted about this incident. What I really need to know is how do you justify your actions? 

Right now I am washing the sweater in dawn soap hoping the nicotine washes out of the sweater. It did not work , the sweater still reeks of nicotine. I will let it dry and then take it to the dry cleaners to see if they can remove the horrendous odor of nicotine. I should bill you for that too. If that does not work I want you to know that you absolutely ruined one of my favorite winter wardrobe choices.  

I will never understand some people.  

Driving Today

 Don’t get me wrong I love driving.  I started driving at 15 1/2 with a learners permit.  Got my 1st drivers license at 16. I did a lot of driving and carpooling before I even left home.  Except for the odd ball driver on the road, I found driving to be very relaxing.  I loved the journey, no matter how short.  The sense of freedom.  

Something changed at the in mid February when my arm started giving me trouble.  It got worse at the beginning of March when driving became tiring even for short drives.  Not that I have done an exceptional amount of driving since Covid19 hit. My now 4 year old car has not even cracked 12,000 m8les yet.  Think about that for a minute.  The average driver drives 12,000 miles a year in the United States.  I am barely driving 3,000 miles a year.  I hope that this means that my car will last longer.  

Take today for instance.  I drove across town to go to the doctor's office.  The drive left me tired enough that I was actually short of breath when walking and talking   Don’t worry, the doctor said it would happen during the recovery period.  That’s what all the resting is supposed to help.  The drive home was uneventful.  I was exhausted by the time I got home.  I was still too exhausted after dinner to even knit or play computer games.  By the way John made an excellent dinner tonight. After dinner I just put my feet up and idly watched television.  I really do hope that I can sleep tonight.  I really need some rest.  I need some activity in my life, even if it is sitting and reading. 

I am really looking forward to my body healing enough so that I don’t get so tired just driving.  

In 5

 My new working criteria is five minutes of working an hour or so of rest or more. This seems to be what my body likes right now. With this in mind, I am slowly tackling the closet. We nicknamed Fibber McGee and Molly‘s closet. I Have already moved the lot of stuff out of there. Some stuff was thrown out some stuff was charity and you might even find some stuff on eBay.

To give my hands a break, I have some projects that I’m knitting left-handed and some projects that I’m knitting right handed. To keep track of the projects, I am marking the projects with special stitch markers with either an R for right handed knitting or an L for left-handed knitting. I made a dozen today six of each, but I think I should’ve made a few more. Hopefully I can catch up with some UFOs while I’m resting And won’t need as many. Below are the little stitch markers before assembly.  

I over did today.

 I learned today that no matter how good I feel, over doing any activity can lead to jaw pain and a very long unscheduled nap.  It also leads to more consequences like not being able to knit at night. My hands were just too tired tonight to do anything. So tomorrow I plan to slow down again.

I have very big aspirations for tomorrow. Doing one load of laundry and having John help me put back a Closet that I tore apart. Doing some paperwork. Just maybe making some stitch markers or knitting. 

For tonight all I want to do is sleep.  Wish me luck.