The Last Resort

 Today a decision was made out of necessity.  If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you know that I am not a fan of fast fashion.  I was born into a generation of children who learned to take shoes to the shoe maker until they could no longer be repaired.  Clothing was handed down between siblings.  Sometimes even friends and neighbors.  Buttons were routinely mismatched if like me you were at the end of the hand me down chain.  Holes patched if needed.  However clothing was made to last like my Kitchen Aide K5A which I bought in 1978 from Fedco. I spent a whole paycheck on the mixer.  It is still working and on my kitchen counter.  The store I bought it from is long gone.  They no longer offer parts to repair it.  To get a comparable mixer I will have to go to the top of the line with a larger bowl.  The first washing machine we bought lasted 25 years, you are lucky to get 5 years now.  

I am digressing. All but 4 of my summer T-shirts were bought before COVID19.  They are beginning to show their age.  Most I no longer wear, but keep for emergencies.  I have tried all my usual clothing stores and there were no T-shirts to be found.  So we went to a store that is in my humble opinion the essential fast fashion store.  They did have a lot of 100% cotton T-shirts.  I started looking and got a few to try on.  Most fit and looked ok. The difference between fast fashion and mid range fashion is the fit.  John went through the piles of shirts and even picked some that I had purposely left behind.  Some looked really good.  He does have a better eye for what looks good on me even when I don’t.  I even did the unthinkable for be, I bought shirts with patterns instead of just solids.  With solid shirts , I can rotate them through many different seasons. With patterns there is a tendency to go out of fashion. I also shopped in the regular sized clothing section.  Not a single plus size T-shirt in the mix. Yes, I am bragging, but I worked very hard to get here.  

After a quick stop for lunch I promptly fell asleep for over 3 times the amount of time we spent shopping. That would be about 3 hours of sleep. So tomorrow I will pull out all the old shirts and decide which pile they will go to rags or Goodwill.  Then I will carefully go through today’s purchase and decide if there are any that I really don’t need or want. Hang up the keepers and bag the returns.  

Right now clothes shopping is very stressful on my body. This compromise worked out well even if the shirts don’t make it past summer.  It is taking a long time to heal from the March 1 weekend.  I am inching along in my healing.  

TTFN

It’s Nice to Have Friends

 A friend of mine who just happens to own my favorite soap shop in Tucson, gave me this beautiful saguaro cactus soap for my newly remodeled bathroom.  It looks wonderful in the handmade soap dish that I bought there a while ago.  

This is not a paid advertisement.  This is a personal request that you just might consider supporting a small business owned by a woman.  I have been buying my soap at Tracy’s shop for years. Did I mention that Tracy makes the soap herself? In my humble opinion, supporting small businesses in the community has a positive effect on the entire community.  

Tracy does put together awesome gift baskets and bags.  With Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduations coming up this would be your chance to get a great gift and help support the local Tucson economy.  

Artemesia is located at 6538 East Tanque Road, Tucson Arizona, across the street from Trail Dust Town. In the same plaza as my favorite Local Yarn Shop, Grandmas Spinning Wheel, which is also a woman owned shop. 

If you can not make it to the store in person you may use the website Artemesia There is a large selection of soaps, bath salts, lotions and scrubs for both men and women.  If you have dry skin most soaps have moisturizers in them.  

Which Way to Knit

 I went to my knitting group today. I have to admit that the last half hour of knitting, I was getting very tired. I had been working on a right handed knitting project, when for no apparent reason I started knitting left handed. Then back to right handed. Then left.  Then right. Then left. Then something did not look right or was that left.  

I was knitting on 16 inch circular needles with double stranded yarn.  So I tinked a few stitches and thought I had corrected the problem. This happened 4 more times. Then I decided to tink back until everything looked right no matter how many rows had to go.  It turns out that it was exactly 3 rows.  

For those of you that do not knit, tinking which is knit spelled backwards with an “ing” for grammar.  It is not a very difficult task. However when you add one or more extra yarns it becomes a mini nightmare.  I had 180 stitches of nightmare.  

How am I going to solve this problem you might ask.  It is very simple. I have made markers to remind me whether a project is right handed or left-handed.  So I am going around the house to all my works in progress and mark them all. This way I will always stop at no more of one row of tinking. At the very worst I will have to stop assembling dog pillows to make more of these markers.  

Also I think I should stop knitting when I get tired. Just sit back and enjoy the talk.  No tinking involved.  

I would also love to hear how other people have solved this problem.  

Then it might just be nap time.  

Getting More Organized

 The best thing that I have found about getting more organized is that it has been taking me less time to find things.  Right now I am knitting a 2 of 3 Shawl Study.  I remembered that I had an extra 1/2 skein of the gray linen yarn that I can add to the shawl to make it a double. It took less than 5 minutes to find the rest of the ball of yarn and make sure it was the right yarn.  It was. Fantastic   

Following in that direction I sent off a 15 pound box yarn to another knitter.  I know the yarn is going to a good home and will be used and appreciated.  It is the equivalent of sending off a whole tub of yarn.  If you are a knitter with stash beyond your lifetime it is time to occasionally find another knitter who would appreciate the yarn.  I am sure that your spouse, children would love it leaving the house. The other knitter will really like some yarn that would have not been possible any other way.  Also don’t accept payment for it. Just have the other knitter pay it forward by donating a finished scarf or 2 to the charity or their choice.  

TTFN

The Snail is Ahead by a Whole Lap

 I am still in the very long process of healing from the March 1st medical emergency.  It’s has been a slow and bumpy journey. The things I still need to learn is how to sit quietly and rest. By far this is the hardest task I have ever had to accomplish. Also it’s ok if it takes me more than one day to accomplish a chore.  I did not have the energy last month to fold towels so I took my own advice to a new extreme.  In case you have forgotten my favorite laundry quote is “Laundry is like fine wine. No laundry shall be folded before its time.” So I went a month without folding bth towels. Guess what? No one complained about the wrinkles in the towels.  They still work well when hung on the towel rack.  I might just do that again this month. 

I also got new book in the mail that I pre ordered. Advocate by Eddie Ahn.  It is the very first graphic novel that I have ever read.  So far I am 66 pages into the book.  I am impressed by Mr. Ahn’s original art work. His ability to overcome adversity seems to be something I could learn from this book.  I do have an affinity for audio books so I can read while knitting.  I do believe this book needs to be a spiney version.  I am really enjoying it.  The quality of the paper and ink make it very easy to read with my dyslexia. I also tend not to read when exhaustion has set in.  That is why I have not finished the book yet. 

Well it is getting late and I have 1 activity tomorrow.  So I do need my rest.  

The Finished Bathroom

 So sorry it took so long to get the final pictures out. I have been dealing with the aftermath of March 1st.  Yes, it still is hanging around.  I am still tired and tending to over do it. Which results in more naps and down time..

So here is the final finished version of our new bathroom. I just love the new handles too, they don’t catch my clothing.

New Things

 We started getting new things in pretty quickly and the quality was so much better than the big box stores.  The cabinets, mirror frame with mirror and the medicine cabinet were all handcrafted by an artisan in Tucson that our contractor Tony knows.  I like using local when ever I can.  By the way if you live in the Tucson area and want Tony’s number just let me know and I will get it to you.  

The first step in rebuilding was putting in the new vanity.  Some of the other parts are in the wheelchair accessible shower that we put in for Eric.  So this bathroom has had smaller projects to make it more useful for us. Now it’s all about making it pretty for me. 

As you can see we were able to reuse the vanity top which saved us both time and money.  We were able to get the finish on the new vanity to match the tone of the marble.  We also did not charge out the tile because it was still in really good shape and is the expensive anti slip tile.  

More to come tomorrow