Finding Balance

 Today I think I found balance between cleaning, organizing, shopping and resting   Yes, today did include a 2 1/2 hour nap.  Trips to 3 different stores and I got everything I needed for the up coming task’s for the rest of the week. 

I finished my first Tunisian Crocheted Scarf.  I did not use a pattern for the scarf.  I just did 15 stitches across and the basic Tunisian stitch for the entire scarf. I found a bright cheerful verigated yellow and orange color way to offset the dark brown for the edges. It is the perfect size for a younger child. It was too late to take a picture tonight. So you can see it tomorrow. Yes I had one skein of the yarn left and I started a second scarf tonight. I am teaching some friends next week and we will start with a washcloth.  

Now that I have recovered from the latest surgery and the multiple year sinus infection I seem to have a lot more energy.  I also have the need to create.  I am finishing projects as fast as I can.  I am also into organizing things beyond Recognition.  I even have a Dedicated drawer for small spinning items, crochet, and Tunisian crochet hooks, and Miscellaneous knitting items.  Maybe when I’m done I will take a few pictures. Although that is not guaranteed.

Now that my scarf yarn drawer is almost empty, I will have John pull down a box so I can add more yarn for charity projects.  I like to just pull out a dozen or so projects at a time from my stash.  I will also be knitting about 4 pairs of mittens for me.  I lost most of my mittens to the overwhelming scent of the hand lotion fiasco last winter.  The scent of the lotion would  not wash out of the yarn.  I even tried Dawn which I use on raw fleece. After 3 unsuccessful tries, I just threw them out.  

TTFN. My aspirational list for tomorrow as long..

The Boomerang Effect

 I have to admit it has been a very hard year for me.  I need to learn to reset my days activities and plan accordingly. To use my spoons more wisely. Wednesday and Thursday I really over did it.  Today was my wake up call. I have been sore and tired all day.  I have to remember that I am not 30 anymore.  I bounce back much slower.  

That being said, I still have a hard time sitting still.  I like to give the energizer bunny, a run for his money.  I am starting to think this is currently not a good plan. I will have to build back up to that level. It took me months to get out of shape. It will take time  to get back in shape and I am not a very big fan of being patient.  

To that end I picked out a small multi day project to start today.  I made very good progress. Tomorrow I will buy some supplies to finish the job. It should be done by Monday or maybe not. Only time will tell.  

My aspirational list

 This morning I was tired of the endless to do list that I have been making for decades. I also have been failing to complete them most days which I find quite discouraging.  So today it became my aspirational list. These are the things that I aspire to do during the day. If I don’t get everything done oh well, no harm done. I did manage to complete 80% of my aspirational list today which made me feel pretty good. My dad always said it’s not what you say, but how you say it that matters.  Words do make a difference. Now I just have to get rid of all the list that say to do, and convince people to make aspirational lists instead. 

I was very busy for most of the day. I can’t remember a day recently that I did six full loads of laundry since the end of 2019.  Now to be truthful, two of them were hand wash. But that’s still six loads of laundry. Except for the clothes drying on the clothesline everything is put away too. I haven’t done that in a long time.

I even found time to knit and spin today.  I also managed to get in 10 minutes of Zenning by partly cleaning out a drawer and filling a trash can halfway.  Plus get over 6000 steps just by cleaning house today. So all in all it was a busy day and I’m really tired. I haven’t done this much work since at least the beginning of February so I’d say I’m well on the road to recovery.

TTFN

A Very Geeky Day

 Today was one of those incredible geeky days for me.  I figured out that if I went over international yarn standards and deviations in my head it would relax me enough to fall asleep.  Things like how many knots are actually allowed in a standard ball of yarn.  The answer is 3.  If you would like no knots in your yarn I would suggest using an independent yarn dyer because even though you pay more, you generally do not get knots in your skeins of yarn.  The knots in yarn are actually what helps keep mass market yarns on the less expensive side. Say $3 to 10 USD versus $25 dollars or more for a small batch skein.  Yes, you get what you pay for.  Yes, there is a large place in the market for mass market skeins.  Think beginning knitters or crocheters. Young kids art projects.  Charity projects.  Table decorations etc….

The day did get even more geeky, yes that is possible.  At knitting guild I explained that each country had its own yarn standards that are different from the international standards.   I did not go into details, but basically before mass yarn manufacturers. There are currently 5 that dominate the world market. All yarn was manufactured in each individual country. Weights and needle sizes were most likely determined by local weather conditions.  Thus an Aran weight yarn could be different in different countries.  Thicker in colder climates and thinner in warmer climates.  That account for the variation of size on knitting needles with the same numbers but the millimeters are different. The current yarn standards make international shopping much easier with numbers for the weight. Each yarn distributor can then label to their country standard. 

The last geeky event of the day was a knitting in public kind of thing.  I was working on a right handed knitting project. The comment made was I don’t knit like that.  With a little discussion I figured out she was a left handed knitter. So I put the project I was working on down. I picked up a left handed knitting project and started knitting left handed. Yes, that is how she knit. A person across the table looked at me and was probably wondering what kind of person brings both left and right handed knitting projects. Also how does she keep track or could use both hands to do the same thing a different way.  After all aren’t all people either right or left handed?  The simple answer is a definite no.  So of us are lucky enough to be able to use our hands interchangeably.  They call that being ambidextrous.  I am sure it bothers a lot of people, even my own family.  I have been know to switch hands in the middle of something as mundane as a meal.  It came in handy when the kids were younger.  I would feed them with my right hand and myself with my left hand.  It did make meals go faster. Also I made special stitch markers for just that reason. I made L and R stitch markers.  Each project is marked.  You would want to ask my friend Louise why that is necessary.  

I hope your day was less geeky.  

A Very Busy Day

After an early morning doctor’s appointment, where everything was fine and healed nicely. There is also no visible sign of infection or inflammation. My sinuses are finally working again.  I am very happy with that.  

I accomplished knitting and grocery shopping today after my doctor’s appointment.  I finished hat number 7 for the year. Then of course started hat number 8.  I did not want the stitch markers getting lonely.  After lunch it was nap time.  

Also the clouds got in the way of the lunar eclipse tonight.  Not many good pictures.  I did do some spinning while watching the eclipse tonight.  I can spin in semi darkness.  That is my new superpower. 

Things For Sale

 In an effort to de stash some more things around the house I am making a foray into eBay and Etsy.  Today I started with listing 5 things on eBay.  Things like collector issues of knitting magazines like Vouge Knitting  20th anniversary of the European magazine and 1st issues of magazines.  These are things that local resellers will not take.  So here is your chance to help me de clutter my knitting room and keep things out of the landfill.  While getting an out of print issue of a magazine  

I will continue with magazines and books on eBay.  Then my curated knitting kits with my patterns, hand spun yarn and stitch markers on Etsy. I will put the highlights on my blog post and the usual social media sites.  I also have a bespoke shawl that is going to be listed on Etsy.  I made it a little too large for my current size.  

So keep an eye out for what I have listed.  

Spinning.

 I think that I have finally gotten rid of the sinus infection that lasted over a year and caused so much grief in our lives.  It feels wonderful not to be in pain all the time.  I am slowly getting my energy back.

  Today I worked on a spinning project for me.  It will be a shawl. I think I finally got the knack of plying on my e-spinner. I just thought what do I do on my wheels.  It worked.  The 3 skeins on top are from today.  The red is the next spin.  Each bag is its own spin.  I only open one bag at a time.  I am plying it with a llama and silk blend yarn.  This is truly going to be a bespoke project.